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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium (MAGIC): Combining biofuel and high-value bioproducts to meet the RFS

The Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium (MAGIC) was formed to address pressing challenges in the commercialization of microalgae as a source of biofuel. The “Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium (MAGIC): Combining biofuel and high-value bioproducts to meet the RFS” project formally addressed two US Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) goals: (1) Model the sustainable supply of 1 million metric tonnes ash free dry weight (AFDW) cultivated algal biomass and (2) Demonstrate valuable co-products produced along with biofuel intermediates to increase value of algal biomass by 30%. To achieve these goals, the project demonstrated and validated high-value co-products to drive down the cost of biofuel by increasing the value of algae “co-products” towards increasing the selling price of total algae biomass as one of the key drivers of economics and adoption. This was accomplished through five core, interdependent tasks including: (1) strain selection to identify and deliver strains for mass culture, (2) mass culture using a hybrid cultivation system and following key operating parameters for downstream applications to provide algae feedstock, (3) recovery and conversion to evaluate two alternative methods to separate dry algae biomass into oil and residuals for downstream testing, (4) product assessment to determine biofuel, aquafeed or poultry feed product efficacy using algae biomass fractions as well as to provide critical performance data for valuation and (5) commercialization to use technoeconomic and life cycle assessments (TEA/LCA) as iterative design and assessment tools including consideration of target markets, competitors, and distribution channels to guide product assessment, development and valuation. A total of 46 peer-review publications, many open-access, provide detail of much of the work carried out and the results of the tasks. Additional reports and presentations provide other technical and public engagement material. At a high level, using a variety of approaches, more than 1000 marine microalgae strains were evaluated to ultimately identify the seven winners that were down-selected to be grown in mass culture. Strain selection demonstrated that there were no ‘super strains’ and that each candidate had strengths and limitations for specific products, growth conditions or operational considerations. Mass culture growth of these seven strains at >5000 L / 29 m 2 scale found that four them were suitable for product assessment. More than 250 kg of biomass was produced across hundreds of pond runs along with thousands of cultivation entries on the growth and biomass characteristics as well as environmental parameters. In the process, dozens of standard operating procedures were generated as was custom software to process and analyze cultivation data. Recovery and conversion of algae biomass demonstrated that a hexane solvent based extraction protocol was most effective at recovering oil (biocrude) from algae and four strains were processed to produce oil and lipid extracted algae (residuals) for downstream testing. Membrane-based oil separation was less successful, but may still be applicable to other commercial applications in the future. Product testing demonstrated that algae biocrude is of high quality and hydrotreating generated numerous fractions of high quality composition for fuel and lubricate based applications. Aquafeed studies performed at a variety of scales showed that both whole and defatted (lipid extracted algae) microalgae were suitable as a feed ingredient, but that the specifics of the fed animal and biochemical composition of the algae are critical factors when determining formulation. Similarly, poultry studies on whole and defatted microalgae generally showed positive outcomes on animal growth and health, with some microalgae providing enhanced nutritional composition of the animal product. Economic and life cycle assessments covered a wide range of possible commercialization and sustainability scenarios. Replacement value, improved product value added, consumer values marketing added valuation and improved animal health were considered as alternatives for microalgae valuation. Using the open pond system, algae productivity was identified as the key driver of commercialization economics, but combination of co-products (e.g. animal feed) with biofuel production substantially increased the total selling price of algae. Modeled microalgae selling price exceeded $\$$1500/tonne and could generate competitive biofuel selling prices below $\$$5 gallon gas equivalents using realistic algal productivities. Short (process scale) and longer (decadal trends) sustainability assessments show that marine microalgae can enhance the sustainability of energy production and lead to other realized benefits in water, fertilizer and land use for other sectors (e.g. agriculture). This project successfully demonstrated all of the components of an end-to-end process from mass microalgae cultivation and dewatering, to recovery and conversion of algae biomass components, to final product demonstration and process valuation; the combined results provide a framework for future commercialization of algae based biofuels.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1993

Crew chief

This software package does ergonomic human modeling for maintenance tasks. Technician capabilities can be directed to represent actual situations of work environment, strengths and capabilities of the individual, particular limitations (such as constraining characteristics of a particular space suit), tools required, and procedures or tasks to be performed.

Easterly, Jill↗
DOE OSTI2025

Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration: Phase III (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

The Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP) is one of 7 regional partnerships formed in 2003 under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs) initiative. The overall purpose of the initiative was to help determine and implement the technology, infrastructure, and regulations most appropriate to promote carbon storage in different regions of the country. Covering Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and parts of Texas, Wyoming, and Kansas, the SWP evaluated regional carbon storage and utilization potential and focused on technologies and sites that could complement the region’s strong position in energy production. The project progressed through three phases: • Phase I (2003–2005): Characterized regional geologic formations and CO 2 sources, assessed sequestration potential, and identified pilot test sites. • Phase II (2005–2013): Conducted small-scale field tests to validate sequestration methods, including geologic and terrestrial projects. • Phase III (2008–2022): Demonstrated large-scale CO 2 injection at a commercial oil field to test monitoring, verification, and long-term storage strategies. This report covers Phase III. The final project site, the Farnsworth Unit (FWU) in Texas, provided real-world testing of reservoir characterization, monitoring, and risk evaluation tools and processes that could be used in any commercial scale carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project. Extensive data collection and analysis helped refine best practices for reservoir characterization, injection monitoring, and storage verification. The SWP contributed to national databases, DOE best practice manuals, and regional geological assessments to support future sequestration efforts. Key lessons learned include the importance of robust data management, strategic site selection, regulatory navigation, and effective industry collaboration. The project’s findings will inform ongoing and future carbon storage initiatives. Task 1 (Regional Characterization) • The SWP continued to participate in national outreach efforts and NATCARB. • The SWP evaluated multiple potential sites before selecting the FWU as the primary field test location. Task 2 (Public Outreach and Education) • The SWP contributed to national databases, DOE best practice manuals, and regional geological assessments to support future sequestration efforts. Task 3 (Permitting and Regulatory Compliance) • The SWP ensured compliance with federal and state regulations, including National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements. • The SWP obtained all necessary permits for drilling, injection, and monitoring activities. Task 4 (Site Characterization and Planning) • The SWP developed work plans for four key activities: characterization, simulation, monitoring and verification, and risk evaluation. • The SWP collected and synthesized legacy data from multiple sources to build initial static geological models and dynamic reservoir models demonstrating project feasibility. • The SWP conducted an initial risk evaluation and developed mitigation plans. Task 5 (Field Operations and Data Collection) • The SWP drilled, logged, and cored three characterization wells to gather critical subsurface data. • The SWP conducted multiple geophysical surveys, including 3D seismic, crosswell seismic, and vertical seismic profiling, to improve reservoir characterization. Task 6 (Monitoring and Verification) • The SWP performed extensive geological characterization using data from characterization wells and seismic surveys. • The SWP established a surface monitoring network to track CO 2 flux in soil gas, groundwater chemistry, and near-surface atmospheric CO 2 levels. • The SWP built and refined reservoir models to study the effects of relative permeability on simulation behavior and improve calibration with experimental data. Task 7 (Risk Assessment and Model Refinement) • The SWP conducted multiple studies to evaluate reservoir integrity, predict CO 2 plume behavior and improve predictive modeling capabilities. • The SWP refined geological models and used them to enhance the accuracy of simulation models. • The SWP continued quantitative risk assessment of top-ranked risks and strengthened the link between qualitative and quantitative risk methodologies.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2013

Preparation for the Recovery of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) at Andreeva Bay, North West Russia - 13309

Andreeva Bay is located near Murmansk in the Russian Federation close to the Norwegian border. The ex-naval site was used to de-fuel nuclear-powered submarines and icebreakers during the Cold War. Approximately 22,000 fuel assemblies remain in three Dry Storage Units (DSUs) which means that Andreeva Bay has one of the largest stockpiles of highly enriched spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in the world. The high contamination and deteriorating condition of the SNF canisters has made improvements to the management of the SNF a high priority for the international community for safety, security and environmental reasons. International Donors have, since 2002, provided support to projects at Andreeva concerned with improving the management of the SNF. This long-term programme of work has been coordinated between the International Donors and responsible bodies within the Russian Federation. Options for the safe and secure management of SNF at Andreeva Bay were considered in 2004 and developed by a number of Russian Institutes with international participation. This consisted of site investigations, surveys and studies to understand the technical challenges. A principal agreement was reached that the SNF would be removed from the site altogether and transported to Russia's reprocessing facility at Mayak in the Urals. The analytical studies provided the information necessary to develop the construction plan for the site. Following design and regulatory processes, stakeholders endorsed the technical solution in April 2007. This detailed the processes, facilities and equipment required to safely remove the SNF and identified other site services and support facilities required on the site. Implementation of this strategy is now well underway with the facilities in various states of construction. Physical works have been performed to address the most urgent tasks including weather protection over one of the DSUs, installation of shielding over the cells, provision of radiation protection infrastructure and general preparation of the site for construction of the facilities for the removal of the SNF. This paper describes the development and implementation of the strategy and work to improve the safe and secure management of SNF, preparing it for retrieval and removal from Andreeva Bay. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2011

Evapotranspiration as a Regional Climate Priority: Results from a NASA/USDA Workshop

On April 5 to 7, 2011, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) sponsored a Workshop on Evapotranspiration (ET) in Silver Spring Maryland. The workshop was a response to a recommendation in the 2009-2011 GEO (Group on Earth Observations) Work Plan that a workshop on ET should be held to discuss issues related to ET products and services and the potential for incorporating ET activities into the 2012-2015 GEO Work Plan. The workshop had a regional emphasis, although there were several excellent international and global presentations including one on the GEWEX LANDFLUX project. The different scales of these activities suggests that a framework is needed that can accommodate both regional and global ET activities. Despite limitations with the workshop's scheduling, it attracted 76 experts who contributed informative presentations and insightful discussions. The goals of the workshop involved the exchange of information and ideas and the development of plans for providing more visibility for ET issues. Specific objectives included 1) defining the needs and requirements for evapotranspiration data in weather and climate studies, in natural and agro-ecoystem monitoring, and in water resource management; 2) reviewing the methods used to measure and model evapotranspiration; 3) assessing surface and satellite observation systems required to support ET measurement, modeling and evaluation; 4) assessing the feasibility of developing a proposal for a task on evapotranspiration for the 2012-2015 GEO Work Plan, and 5) exploring the level of support and consensus for developing a strategy for establishing evapotranspiration as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) within the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) framework The workshop featured a combination of oral presentations and breakout group sessions focused on the above objectives. There were also poster presentations providing opportunities for one-on-one discussions of ET modeling and measurement techniques. Presentations by users of ET data set the tone for the workshop. In the USA at the national and regional levels water rights issues represent a major opportunity for ET applications. ET data play a major role in estimating water loss due to irrigation, the largest cause of consumptive water loss in the USA, particularly in the West. Irrigation requirements are relatively specific since the needs are clearly defined by the geometry and number of the irrigation systems and can be monitored with high resolution satellite data. There was a strong consensus that land surface temperature (LST) at high resolution is critical for monitoring irrigation. State governments have made commitments to more efficient water management in the western US, but they need full access to improved and more timely ET data and applications to implement this plan. Water managers also reported that in spite of the recent development of. new techniques, the procedures used in some of the water balance calculations in some states are out of date and do not take advantage of new observational and data assimilation systems. The development of ET forecasts for water management is also seen as a priority. Although ET forecasts are currently being produced on an experimental basis these predictions could be improved by considering ET as a dynamic prediction variable in models and by increasing the time resolution of these ET predictions.

Lawford, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2007

Implementing an Applied Science Program

The work implied in the NASA Applied Science Program requires a delicate balancing act for the those doing it. At the implementation level there are multiple tensions intrinsic to the program. For example each application of an existing product to a decision support process requires deep knowledge about the data and deep knowledge about the decision making process. It is highly probable no one person has this range of knowledge. Otherwise the decision making process would already be using the data. Therefore, a team is required. But building a team usually requires time, especially across agencies. Yet the program mandates efforts of relatively short duration. Further, those who know the data are scientists, which makes them essential to the program. But scientists are evaluated on their publication record. Anything which diverts a scientist from the research for his next publication is an anathema to him and potential death to their career. Trying to get another agency to use NASA data does not strike most scientists as material inherently suitable for publication. Also, NASA wishes to rapidly implement often substantial changes to another agency's process. For many reasons, such as budget and program constraints, speed is important. But the owner of a decision making process is tightly constrained, usually by law, regulation, organization and custom. Changes when made are slow, cautious, even hesitant, and always done according a process specific to the situation. To manage this work MSFC must balance these and other tensions. Some things we have relatively little control over, such as budget. These we try to handle by structural techniques. For example by insisting all of our people work on multiple projects simultaneously we inherently have diversification of funding for all of our people. In many cases we explicitly use some elements of tension to be productive. For example the need for the scientists to constantly publish is motivation to keep tasks short and to the immediate point. As another example, the DSS agency and it personnel are treated as integral to the effort at every step. Thus, their ways of doing things, their problems and their assets become part of the solution. MSFC also manages the Applied Science work' within a strategic framework.' First, the scientists are necessarily at the core of all of this work as well as all of the work within the larger' organization. We therefore strive to keep a roughly 50-50 balance between the work done on tasks funded directly by the research side of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and funding from the applied side. Done at both the organization level and the level of the individual, this keeps the scientist both happy and productive over the long term. We also try diligently to remove as much burden from the scientist as practical by employing people such as the authors and others to do tasks not requiring; scientific knowledge. We also have designed our effort to take full use of external partners. We actively seek and support, including fund, people from multiple organizations to join us as committed collaborators. In this we use today's money and today's problem to help us diversify and strengthen for tomorrow. MSFC also considers the Applied Science work holistically. Each element is viewed as a step in a larger process. At a management level we can chose to emphasize or encourage certain areas which service long term goals. Thus, if we think work in a particular area should be developed, we can start with the smaller, less costly elements and grow.

Rickman, Doug↗
DOE OSTI2020

Milestone 2.8: Preliminary Radiolytic Gas Generation Measurements from Helium-Backfilled Samples

The Department of Energy (DOE) is currently managing nearly 13 metric tons of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel (ASNF) with the intention of extended (> 50 years) dry storage in helium-backfilled canisters. Due to in-reactor and cooling pond conditions, oxyhydroxide corrosion layers have formed on the surface of the ASNF elements. These corrosion layers are susceptible to radiolysis and the formation of molecular hydrogen gas (H 2 ) due to the fuel’s inherent radiation field. Consequently, a rigorous evaluation of the effect of helium gas on radiolytic H 2 production is necessary to support the Technical Considerations and Challenges for Extended (> 50 yrs) Dry Storage of ASNF program, especially as previous Task 2 - Oxyhydroxide Layer Radiolytic Gas Generation Resolution work demonstrated a significant effect of gas composition on the radiolytic yield (G-value) of H 2 . Here we report preliminary G-values for the radiolytic formation of H 2 from the gamma irradiation of pre-corroded aluminum alloy 1100 coupons flame sealed in helium environments. Irradiations yielded G(H 2 ) values of (5.1 ± 0.5) x 10 –4 and (9.4 ± 0.9) x 10 –4 µmol J –1 for pristine coupons, and (10.1 ± 0.4) x 10 –4 and (15.1 ± 1.2) x 10 –4 µmol J –1 for pre-corroded coupons for 0% and 50% relative humidity, respectively. These helium environment G(H 2 ) values are between 28% and 58% higher than previously reported values for argon environments. This enhancement is attributed to the significant difference in first ionization energy between helium (24.59 eV) and argon (15.76) facilitating additional processes, e.g., Penning ionization. These new preliminary helium environment G(H 2 ) values will be employed by Task 3 - Sealed and Vented System Episodic Breathing and Gas Generation Prediction to model the effect of radiolytic H 2 accumulation in helium environments to evaluate the practicality of the extended storage standard canister design.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Planning and Monitoring for Swarm Search and Service Missions

To transition from control theory to real applications, it is important to study missions such as Swarm Search and Service (SSS) where vehicles are not only required to search an area, but also service all jobs that they find. In SSS missions each type of job requires a group of vehicles to break-off from the swarm for a given amount of time to successfully service it. The required number of vehicles and the service rate are unique to each job type. Once a job has been completed the vehicles are able to return to the swarm for use elsewhere. If not enough vehicles are present in the swarm at the time that the job is identified, that job is dropped without being serviced. Human operators as tasked with effectively planning and managing these complex missions. This work presents a user study that seeks to test the efficacy and ease-of-use of a prediction model known as the Hybrid Model as an aid in planning and monitoring tasks. Results show that the novel computational model aid allows operators to more effectively choose the necessary swarm size to handle expected mission workload, as well as, maintain sufficient situation awareness to evaluate the performance of the swarm during missions.

swarm search and service↗
DOE OSTI2013

Prediction of human observer performance in a 2-alternative forced choice low-contrast detection task using channelized Hotelling observer: Impact of radiation dose and reconstruction algorithms

Purpose: Efficient optimization of CT protocols demands a quantitative approach to predicting human observer performance on specific tasks at various scan and reconstruction settings. The goal of this work was to investigate how well a channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) can predict human observer performance on 2-alternative forced choice (2AFC) lesion-detection tasks at various dose levels and two different reconstruction algorithms: a filtered-backprojection (FBP) and an iterative reconstruction (IR) method. Methods: A 35 Multiplication-Sign 26 cm{sup 2} torso-shaped phantom filled with water was used to simulate an average-sized patient. Three rods with different diameters (small: 3 mm; medium: 5 mm; large: 9 mm) were placed in the center region of the phantom to simulate small, medium, and large lesions. The contrast relative to background was -15 HU at 120 kV. The phantom was scanned 100 times using automatic exposure control each at 60, 120, 240, 360, and 480 quality reference mAs on a 128-slice scanner. After removing the three rods, the water phantom was again scanned 100 times to provide signal-absent background images at the exact same locations. By extracting regions of interest around the three rods and on the signal-absent images, the authors generated 21 2AFC studies. Each 2AFC study had 100 trials, with each trial consisting of a signal-present image and a signal-absent image side-by-side in randomized order. In total, 2100 trials were presented to both the model and human observers. Four medical physicists acted as human observers. For the model observer, the authors used a CHO with Gabor channels, which involves six channel passbands, five orientations, and two phases, leading to a total of 60 channels. The performance predicted by the CHO was compared with that obtained by four medical physicists at each 2AFC study. Results: The human and model observers were highly correlated at each dose level for each lesion size for both FBP and IR. The Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients were 0.986 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.958-0.996] for FBP and 0.985 (95% CI: 0.863-0.998) for IR. Bland-Altman plots showed excellent agreement for all dose levels and lesions sizes with a mean absolute difference of 1.0%{+-} 1.1% for FBP and 2.1%{+-} 3.3% for IR. Conclusions: Human observer performance on a 2AFC lesion detection task in CT with a uniform background can be accurately predicted by a CHO model observer at different radiation dose levels and for both FBP and IR methods.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Radiological Characterization for Decommissioning: International Good Practice and Experience - 18396

The 'Task Group on Radiological Characterization for Decommissioning (TGRCD)' functions under the umbrella of the Nuclear Energy Agency' (NEA) 'Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD),' which is currently reporting to NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC). The TGRCD task group, which is composed of international experts, has been working since 2014 on a commitment to provide a high-level guidance for characterization practitioners working in nuclear decommissioning. The work has focused on facility characterization from a waste and materials perspective. Radiological characterization is a key activity enabling planning and implementation of decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Effective characterization allows the extent, location and nature of contamination to be determined providing crucial information to facilitate facility dismantling, the management of material and arising waste, protection of workers, the public, the environment and associated cost estimation. The report is written for characterization practitioners who carry out the tactical planning, preparation, optimization and implementation of characterization to support the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the management of associated materials and waste. It compiles recent experience of NEA member countries in radiological characterization, including the experience of international experts and practitioners; the learning from international case studies and international conferences; and national approaches to the application of international and national regulations, standards and guidance documents. Using this comprehensive approach and evaluation studies, the report identifies relevant good practices and sets out set out practical guidance covering all stages of the characterization process as related to decommissioning. This paper provides a summary of the work conducted and the main findings from the detailed report. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2006

Meeting Report: Long Term Monitoring of Global Vegetation using Moderate Resolution Satellites

The international community has long recognized the need to coordinate observations of Earth from space. In 1984, this situation provided the impetus for creating the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), an international coordinating mechanism charged with coordinating international civil spaceborne missions designed to observe and study planet Earth. Within CEOS, its Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) is tasked with coordinating satellite-based global observations of vegetation. Currently, several international organizations are focusing on the requirements for Earth observation from space to address key science questions and societal benefits related to our terrestrial environment. The Global Vegetation Workshop, sponsored by the WGCV and held in Missoula, Montana, 7-10 August, 2006, was organized to establish a framework to understand the inter-relationships among multiple, global vegetation products and identify opportunities for: 1) Increasing knowledge through combined products, 2) Realizing efficiency by avoiding redundancy, and 3) Developing near- and long-term plans to avoid gaps in our understanding of critical global vegetation information. The Global Vegetation Workshop brought together 135 researchers from 25 states and 14 countries to advance these themes and formulate recommendations for CEOS members and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The eighteen oral presentations and most of the 74 posters presented at the meeting can be downloaded from the meeting website (www.ntsg.umt.edu/VEGMTG/). Meeting attendees were given a copy of the July 2006 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing Special Issue on Global Land Product Validation, coordinated by the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV). This issue contains 29 articles focusing on validation products from several of the sensors discussed during the workshop.

Morisette, Jeffrey↗
DOE OSTI2015

Load‐balanced and locality‐aware scheduling for data‐intensive workloads at extreme scales

Summary Data‐driven programming models such as many‐task computing (MTC) have been prevalent for running data‐intensive scientific applications. MTC applies over‐decomposition to enable distributed scheduling. To achieve extreme scalability, MTC proposes a fully distributed task scheduling architecture that employs as many schedulers as the compute nodes to make scheduling decisions. Achieving distributed load balancing and best exploiting data locality are two important goals for the best performance of distributed scheduling of data‐intensive applications. Our previous research proposed a data‐aware work‐stealing technique to optimize both load balancing and data locality by using both dedicated and shared task ready queues in each scheduler. Tasks were organized in queues based on the input data size and location. Distributed key‐value store was applied to manage task metadata. We implemented the technique in MATRIX, a distributed MTC task execution framework. In this work, we devise an analytical suboptimal upper bound of the proposed technique, compare MATRIX with other scheduling systems, and explore the scalability of the technique at extreme scales. Results show that the technique is not only scalable but can achieve performance within 15% of the suboptimal solution. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wang, Ke↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hawai‘i National Marine Renewable Energy Center (HINMREC)

The Hawaii National Marine Renewable Energy Center (HINMREC) was established to facilitate the commercialization of wave energy converter (WEC) devices, and to accelerate development and testing of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technologies. Housed at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) of the University of Hawaii (UH), this program started with execution of the contract between the US Department of Energy (DOE) and UH in March 2009, and activities ran through the end of the project in September 2019. The DOE tasked HINMREC with facilitating and accelerating the build-out of the Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS), the nation’s first grid-connected open water wave energy conversion test facility, located off Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) in Kaneohe, on the island of Oahu. WETS was expanded from an existing test berth at 30m water depth to include test berths at 60m and 80m water depths. In recognition of the high costs associated with at-sea testing and evaluation of WEC devices, it was deemed imperative that HINMREC seek ways to reduce costs to developers by providing key research support to these early-stage technologies. WETS and HINMREC’s support allowed development of wave energy technology by providing a testing infrastructure that allows technology developers to test, demonstrate and evaluate their WEC devices, and generate data in order to advance WEC designs toward commercial readiness. HINMREC’s roles have included support in the establishment of the full site, including of wave resource characterization and site survey, followed by the essential roles of independent WEC device power performance assessment and environmental monitoring in support of deployed pre-commercial WECs. This DOE-funded work transitioned effectively to continue Navy-funded tasks for OTEC development, and activities at WETS, now under Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) funding. A secondary objective in the establishment of HINMREC was to assist the private sector in moving OTEC systems beyond proof-of-concept to pre-commercialization, primarily focused on system and component engineering, and local and global investigations into the potential environmental impacts of OTEC systems. HINMREC was tasked with maintaining high-resolution models of ocean thermal resources and the potential sustainable power output of OTEC systems. Ongoing tests begun previously under Navy funding at the OTEC Heat Exchangers (HXs) Test Facility at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), in Kona on Hawaii Island, have been continued to identify cost-effective aluminum alloys for use in OTEC systems operating in the corrosive marine environment.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
NASA NTRS2004

An Overview of My 2004 Summer Internship

This summer I have been working with the Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) group and NASA Glenn Research Center. As this is my second summer with the group, I was able to begin working as soon as I arrived. My first task was to develop a system to acquire an impedance analyzer. The basic setup of the system is as follows: a piezo- electric patch is attached to a sample, and a lead is attached to that patch. Another lead is attached directly to the sample, and the leads are connected to the impedance analyzer. The system then puts a voltage through the material over a range of frequencies, and the corresponding impedances are measured for each frequency. After data is collected, it can be compared to another data set, and through a series of calculations a damage parameter is produced. For the time being, we are using a correlation calculation to find the damage parameter. The hope for this project is that a baseline measurement can be taken, and then sometime later another measurement could be taken, and the damage parameter would determine how much damage had been done to the sample. To test this hypothesis, we took baseline data from a sample, and then sent it out to have a notch cut into it. When it was returned, we again took measurements on the sample, and the damage parameter was significantly lower. Another project that I have been working on pertains to the group's newly acquired acoustography system. This system creates a full field ultrasonic signal on one side of a sample, and an acousto-optic sensor is placed on the other side of the sample.

Hertert, Lucien↗
NASA NTRS1991

Plan recognition and generalization in command languages with application to telerobotics

A method for pragmatic inference as a necessary accompaniment to command languages is proposed. The approach taken focuses on the modeling and recognition of the human operator's intent, which relates sequences of domain actions ('plans') to changes in some model of the task environment. The salient feature of this module is that it captures some of the physical and linguistic contextual aspects of an instruction. This provides a basis for generalization and reinterpretation of the instruction in different task environments. The theoretical development is founded on previous work in computational linguistics and some recent models in the theory of action and intention. To illustrate these ideas, an experimental command language to a telerobot is implemented. The program consists of three different components: a robot graphic simulation, the command language itself, and the domain-independent pragmatic inference module. Examples of task instruction processes are provided to demonstrate the benefits of this approach.

Yared, Wael I.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Training, Quality Assurance Factors, and Tools Investigation: a Work Report and Suggestions on Software Quality Assurance

Previously, several research tasks have been conducted, some observations were obtained, and several possible suggestions have been contemplated involving software quality assurance engineering at NASA Johnson. These research tasks are briefly described. Also, a brief discussion is given on the role of software quality assurance in software engineering along with some observations and suggestions. A brief discussion on a training program for software quality assurance engineers is provided. A list of assurance factors as well as quality factors are also included. Finally, a process model which can be used for searching and collecting software quality assurance tools is presented.

Lee, Pen-Nan↗
NASA NTRS1988

A space station onboard scheduling assistant

One of the goals for the Space Station is to achieve greater autonomy, and have less reliance on ground commanding than previous space missions. This means that the crew will have to take an active role in scheduling and rescheduling their activities onboard, perhaps working from preliminary schedules generated on the ground. Scheduling is a time intensive task, whether performed manually or automatically, so the best approach to solving onboard scheduling problems may involve crew members working with an interactive software scheduling package. A project is described which investigates a system that uses knowledge based techniques for the rescheduling of experiments within the Materials Technology Laboratory of the Space Station. Particular attention is paid to: (1) methods for rapid response rescheduling to accommodate unplanned changes in resource availability, (2) the nature of the interface to the crew, (3) the representation of the many types of data within the knowledge base, and (4) the possibility of applying rule-based and constraint-based reasoning methods to onboard activity scheduling.

Brindle, A. F.↗