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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 1,099 records · Page 61
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Optical Johnson noise thermometry

A concept is being explored that an optical analog of the electrical Johnson noise may be used to measure temperature independently of emissivity. The concept is that a laser beam may be modulated on reflection from a hot surface by interaction of the laser photons with the thermally agitated conduction electrons or the lattice phonons, thereby adding noise to the reflected laser beam. If the reflectance noise can be detected and quantified in a background of other noise in the optical and signal processing systems, the reflectance noise may provide a noncontact measurement of the absolute surface temperature and may be independent of the surface's emissivity.

Shepard, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Results of protective coating studies for the Hubble Space Telescope solar array

An account is given of the methods, results, and interpretive conclusions obtained by a series of comprehensive performance verification/qualification tests conducted on candidate coatings for the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) solar array. These coatings are intended to minimize the effects of orbital atomic oxygen impingement on exposed materials. Attention was given to atomic oxygen exposure, UV exposure, thermal cycling, and electron and proton exposure. The V-10 and CVI-1140-1 candidate coatings were demonstrated to be adequately resistant to a five-year HST mission's environmental exposure.

Linton, Roger C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Atomic oxygen resistant protective coatings for the Hubble Space Telescope solar array in low earth orbit

The Hubble Space Telescope back-up solar array (BSFR-ATOX) was designed with atomic oxygen resistant materials to replace the original high efficiency cell (HEC) array. Pending qualification of the BSFR-ATOX array, protective coatings for application to the existing HEC array were evaluated. Three polysiloxane-type coating materials, SWS V-10, DC-100, and CV-1144 were evaluated with respect to atomic oxygen resistance, outgassing, contamination potential, stability under UV irradiation, electron-proton irradiation, thermal cycling, and long-term storage after application. Atomic oxygen testing included characterization of the atomic oxygen plasma using comparison of Kapton reaction to existing flight data, residual gas analysis, and temperature measurements. Results from these tests show DC-100 as a greater contamination concern if used in the vicinity of sensitive optical surfaces, i.e., solar cell cover glasses. The SWS V-10 and CV-1144 coatings met all acceptance criteria.

Burns, H. D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Design and operation of the U.S. Space Station Freedom Propulsion System

The propulsion functions for the U.S. Space Station Freedom (SSF) are accomplished by two separate systems, the Primary Propulsion System and the Supplemental Reboost System (SRS). The Primary Propulsion System includes self-contained hydrazine modules for station reboost, attitude control and contingency maneuvers. These Propulsion Modules contain reboost and attitude control thrusters, propellant storage, thermal conditioning and electronic controls. The modules are serviced on the ground and launched on the Space Shuttle as replacements for the on-orbit modules which have expended their propellant. The expended modules are returned to the ground for reservicing and subsequent reuse. The Supplemental Reboost System includes a Waste Gas Assembly and Resistojet Modules which are used for reboost maneuvers only. The Waste Gas Assembly contains waste gas storage, compressors and dryers and the Resistojet Modules contain multipropellant resistojet thrusters, electronic pressure regulators and power conditioning equipment.

Morano, Joseph S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The second generation Wide-Field/Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope

The general design and principal features of the second generation Wide-Field/Planetary Camera (WFPC-2) for the Hubble Space Telescope are reviewed. The discussion covers the background of WFPC-2 development, science capabilities, key performance parameters, optical and electronic equipment, mechanisms, thermal control, and contamination control. Attention is also given to on-orbit operations, including commanding and telemetry and on-orbit servicing.

Leschly, Kim↗
NASA NTRS1991

Collisional processes in cometary plasmas

The interaction of the solar wind with comets is initiated at large distances from the nucleus by the ionization of cometary neutrals. The resulting contamination of the solar wind with cometary ions mass-loads the solar wind flow, causing it to slow down. The plasma-comet interaction is largely collisionless at large cometocentric distances. However, collisional processes become important in the inner coma (within the cometopause). Collisional processes include charge-transfer between solar wind protons and neutrals, ion-neutral friction, electron and ion thermal cooling, and ion-neutral chemistry. For example, the magnetometer on the Giotto spacecraft observed a diamagnetic cavity near closest approach. This cavity is a consequence of the balance between an inward-directed magnetic pressure gradient force and an outward ion-netural frictional force. Thermalization of the cometary ion distribution function by Coulomb collisions is another important process in the inner coma of an active comet.

Cravens, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Gas-exposure enhanced Na* emission from Na-rich surfaces

The optical emission attributed to electronically desorbed excited sodium atoms from NaCl and Na-evaporated surfaces is shown to be enhanced by exposure of the surface to gaseous CO2 and N2. This is the first observation of enhancement of electron-simulated desorption of substrate atoms caused by the exposure of surfaces to gaseous molecules which do not contain the desorbed atoms. The large amount of excited-sodium yield at 60 K provides evidence for nonexistence of the secondary-electron excitation of thermally desorbed ground sodium.

Xu, Jun↗
NASA NTRS1995

LDEF polymeric materials: A summary of Langley characterization

The NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) enabled the exposure of a wide variety of materials to the low earth orbit (LEO) environment. This paper provides a summary of research conducted at the Langley Research Center into the response of selected LDEF polymers to this environment. Materials examined include graphite fiber reinforced epoxy, polysulfone, and additional polyimide matrix composites, films of FEP Teflon, Kapton, several experimental high performance polyimides, and films of more traditional polymers such as poly(vinyl toluene) and polystyrene. Exposure duration was either 10 months or 5.8 years. Flight and control specimens were characterized by a number of analytical techniques including ultraviolet-visible and infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, scanning electron and scanning tunneling microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and, in some instances, selected solution property measurements. Characterized effects were found to be primarily surface phenomena. These effects included atomic oxygen-induced erosion of unprotected surfaces and ultraviolet-induced discoloration and changes in selected molecular level parameters. No gross changes in molecular structure or glass transition temperature were noted. The intent of this characterization is to increase our fundamental knowledge of space environmental effects as an aid in developing new and improved polymers for space application. A secondary objective is to develop benchmarks to enhance our methodology for the ground-based simulation of environmental effects so that polymer performance in space can be more reliably predicted.

Young, Philip R.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Low-temperature operation of a Buck DC/DC converter

Low-temperature (77 K) operation of a 42/28 V, 175 W, 50 kHz PWM Buck DC/DC converter designed with commercially available components is reported. Overall, the converter losses decreased at 77 K compared to room temperature operation. A full-load efficiency of 97 percent was recorded at liquid-nitrogen temperature, compared to 95.8 percent at room temperature. Power MOSFET operation improved significantly where as the output rectifier operation deteriorated at low-temperature. The performance of the output filter inductor and capacitor did not change significantly at 77 K compared to room temperature performance. It is possible to achieve high-density and high efficiency power conversion at low-temperatures due to improved electronic, electrical and thermal properties of materials.

Ray, Biswajit↗
NASA NTRS2005

Transition Region Emission and the Energy Input to Thermal Plasma in Solar Flares

Understanding the energetics of solar flares depends on obtaining reliable determinations of the energy input to flare plasma. X-ray observations of the thermal bremsstrahlung from hot flare plasma provide temperatures and emission measures which, along with estimates of the plasma volume, allow the energy content of this hot plasma to be computed. However, if thermal energy losses are significant or if significant energy goes directly into cooler plasma, this is only a lower limit on the total energy injected into thermal plasma during the flare. We use SOHO UVCS observations of O VI flare emission scattered by coronal O VI ions to deduce the flare emission at transition region temperatures between 100,000 K and 1 MK for the 2002 July 23 and other flares. We find that the radiated energy at these temperatures significantly increases the deduced energy input to the thermal plasma, but by an amount that is less than the uncertainty in the computed energies. Comparisons of computed thermal and nonthermal electron energies deduced from RHESSI, GOES, and UVCS are shown.

Holman, Gordon D.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Microsystem Cooler Concept Developed and Being Fabricated

A patented microsystem cooler concept has been developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center. It incorporates diaphragm actuators to produce the Stirling refrigeration cycle within a planar configuration compatible with the thermal management of electronics, sensors, optical and radiofrequency systems, microarrays, and other microsystems. The microsystem cooler is most suited to volume-limited applications that require cooling below the ambient or sink temperature. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is conducting development testing and fabrication of a prototype under a grant from Glenn.

Moran, Matthew E.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Analysis and Design of Phase Change Thermal Control for Light Emitting Diode (LED) Spacesuit Helmet Lights

LED Helmet Extravehicular Activity Helmet Interchangeable Portable (LEHIP) lights for the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) have been built and tested and are currently being used on the International Space Station. A design is presented of the passive thermal control system consisting of a chamber filled with aluminum foam and wax. A thermal math model of LEHIP was built and correlated by test to show that the thermal design maintains electronic components within hot and cold limits for a 7 hour spacewalk in the most extreme EVA average environments, and do not pose a hazard to the crew or to components of the EMU.

Bue, Grant C.↗
NASA NTRS2004

NASA Tech Briefs, June 2004

Topics covered include: COTS MEMS Flow-Measurement Probes; Measurement of an Evaporating Drop on a Reflective Substrate; Airplane Ice Detector Based on a Microwave Transmission Line; Microwave/Sonic Apparatus Measures Flow and Density in Pipe; Reducing Errors by Use of Redundancy in Gravity Measurements; Membrane-Based Water Evaporator for a Space Suit; Compact Microscope Imaging System with Intelligent Controls; Chirped-Superlattice, Blocked-Intersubband QWIP; Charge-Dissipative Electrical Cables; Deep-Sea Video Cameras Without Pressure Housings; RFID and Memory Devices Fabricated Integrally on Substrates; Analyzing Dynamics of Cooperating Spacecraft; Spacecraft Attitude Maneuver Planning Using Genetic Algorithms; Forensic Analysis of Compromised Computers; Document Concurrence System; Managing an Archive of Images; MPT Prediction of Aircraft-Engine Fan Noise; Improving Control of Two Motor Controllers; Electro-deionization Using Micro-separated Bipolar Membranes; Safer Electrolytes for Lithium-Ion Cells; Rotating Reverse-Osmosis for Water Purification; Making Precise Resonators for Mesoscale Vibratory Gyroscopes; Robotic End Effectors for Hard-Rock Climbing; Improved Nutation Damper for a Spin-Stabilized Spacecraft; Exhaust Nozzle for a Multitube Detonative Combustion Engine; Arc-Second Pointer for Balloon-Borne Astronomical Instrument; Compact, Automated Centrifugal Slide-Staining System; Two-Armed, Mobile, Sensate Research Robot; Compensating for Effects of Humidity on Electronic Noses; Brush/Fin Thermal Interfaces; Multispectral Scanner for Monitoring Plants; Coding for Communication Channels with Dead-Time Constraints; System for Better Spacing of Airplanes En Route; Algorithm for Training a Recurrent Multilayer Perceptron; Orbiter Interface Unit and Early Communication System; White-Light Nulling Interferometers for Detecting Planets; and Development of Methodology for Programming Autonomous Agents.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2004

Making Precise Resonators for Mesoscale Vibratory Gyroscopes

An alternative approach to the design and fabrication of vibratory gyroscopes is founded on the use of fabrication techniques that yield best results in the mesoscopic size range, which is characterized by overall device dimensions of the order of a centimeter. This approach stands in contradistinction to prior approaches in (1) the macroscopic size range (the size range of conventional design and fabrication, characterized by overall device dimensions of many centimeters) and (2) the microscopic size range [the size range of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), characterized by overall device dimensions of the order of a millimeter or less]. The mesoscale approach offers some of the advantage of the MEMS approach (sizes and power demands smaller than those of the macroscale approach) and some of the advantage of the macroscale approach (the possibility of achieving relative dimensional precision greater than that of the MEMS approach). Relative dimensional precision is a major issue in the operation of a vibratory gyroscope. The heart of a vibratory gyroscope is a mechanical resonator that is required to have a specified symmetry in a plane orthogonal to the axis about which rotation is to be measured. If the resonator could be perfectly symmetrical, then in the absence of rotation, a free vibration of the resonator could remain fixed along any orientation relative to its housing; that is, the gyroscope could exhibit zero drift. In practice, manufacturing imprecision gives rise to some asymmetry in mass, flexural stiffness or dissipation, resulting in a slight drift or beating motion of an initial vibration pattern that cannot be distinguished from rotation. In the mesoscale approach, one exploits the following concepts: For a given amount of dimensional error generated in manufacturing, the asymmetry and hence the rate-of-rotation drift of the gyroscope can be reduced by increasing the scale. The decrease in asymmetry also reduces coupling of vibrations to the external environment. Mechanical thermal noise and electronic measurement noise and drift can also be reduced by increasing the size of the resonator and its associated sensors.

Yang, Eui-Hyeok↗
NASA NTRS2012

Development and Testing of Molecular Adsorber Coatings

The effect of on-orbit molecular contamination has the potential to degrade the performance of spaceflight hardware and diminish the lifetime of the spacecraft. For example, sensitive surfaces, such as optical surfaces, electronics, detectors, and thermal control surfaces, are vulnerable to the damaging effects of contamination from outgassed materials. The current solution to protect these surfaces is through the use of zeolite coated ceramic adsorber pucks. However, these pucks and its additional complex mounting hardware requirements result in several disadvantages, such as size, weight, and cost related concerns, that impact the spacecraft design and the integration and test schedule. As a result, a new innovative molecular adsorber coating was developed as a sprayable alternative to mitigate the risk of on-orbit molecular contamination. In this study, the formulation for molecular adsorber coatings was optimized using various binders, pigment treatment methods, binder to pigment ratios, thicknesses, and spray application techniques. The formulations that passed coating adhesion and vacuum thermal cycling tests were further tested for its adsorptive capacity. Accelerated molecular capacitance tests were performed in an innovatively designed multi-unit system containing idealized contaminant sources. This novel system significantly increased the productivity of the testing phase for the various formulations that were developed. Work performed during the development and testing phases has demonstrated successful application of molecular adsorber coatings onto metallic substrates, as well as, very promising results for the adhesion performance and the molecular capacitance of the coating. Continued testing will assist in the qualification of molecular adsorber coatings for use on future contamination sensitive spaceflight missions.

Abraham, Nithin↗
NASA NTRS2011

Interfacing with an EVA Suit

A NASA spacesuit under the EVA Technology Domain consists of a suit system; a PLSS; and a Power, Avionics, and Software (PAS) system. Ross described the basic functions, components, and interfaces of the PLSS, which consists of oxygen, ventilation, and thermal control subsystems; electronics; and interfaces. Design challenges were reviewed from a packaging perspective. Ross also discussed the development of the PLSS over the last two decades.

Ross, Amy↗
NASA NTRS2015

Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) White-Painted Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Radome Survivability Test

NASA's SMAP Mission launched in January 2015 into a 685 km near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. The SMAP instrument architecture incorporates an L-band radar and radiometer which share a common feedhorn and mesh reflector. The instrument rotates about the nadir axis at approximately 15 rpm, thereby providing a conically scanning wide swath antenna beam that is capable of achieving global coverage within three days. The radiometer and its associated electronics have tight thermal stability requirements in order to meet the required surface emittance measurement precision from space. Maintaining the thermal stabilities is quite challenging because the radiometer is located on a spinning platform that can either be in full sunlight or eclipse, and thus exposed to a highly transient environment. Stability requirements were met by integrating a light-weight Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) radome into the design to prevent solar illumination of the feed horn interior. The radome was painted white since the thermo-optical properties of bare sunlit EPS degrade rapidly over the three-year mission. Milling of the EPS and solvent within the white paint created cavities on the EPS surface which may introduce localized hot spots possibly violating the EPS glass transition temperature of 96degC and leading to structural integrity concerns. A three-day thermal test was conducted in a vacuum chamber to verify survivability of the radome during a simulated non-spin fault condition at end of mission. A portable solar simulator illuminated the test article and the beam irradiance was kept nearly constant during the entire 50 hour test, except during the first hour which simulated the expected 79degC on-orbit surface temperature of the radome. The test article survived based on the established pass criteria for three separate metrics: dimensional, optical property, and color. If any hot spots exist locally, they did not cause any observable permanent deformation when compared to pre- and post-test images. The test results increase confidence that there is a high probability that the radome will survive the worst-case scenario of a no-spin fault condition at the end of mission.

Mikhaylov, Rebecca↗
NASA NTRS2021

L’Ralph Integration and Testing

This paper describes the plans, flows, key facilities, components and equipment necessary to fully integrate, functionally test, qualify and calibrate the L’Ralph instrument on the Lucy observatory. Lucy is currently in the final design and fabrication phase (phase C) of mission development. It is scheduled to launch out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, in October 2021. Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter, that are thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. Lucy will fly by and carry out remote sensing on six different Trojan asteroids. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. L’Ralph is one of the instruments on Lucy and it is provided by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). L’Ralph is a combined multi-band visible imager (the Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera, MVIC, 0.4-0.85 microns) and wedge-filter infrared spectrometer (Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array, LEISA, 1-3.6 microns). LEISA will allow the team to look for the absorption lines that serve as the fingerprints for different silicates, ices and organics that likely will be on the surface of the Trojan asteroids. MVIC will take color images of the Trojan asteroid targets, and help determine how active they are. This paper will focus on the Integration and Test (I&T) activities for L’Ralph while it is at the NASA GSFC. L’Ralph has two assemblies, the telescope detector assembly (TDA) and main electronics box (MEB). The TDA is a single telescope feeding two focal planes, MVIC and LEISA. L’Ralph integration consists of assembly and alignment of the telescope, electronics box integration, thermal systems integration and the final assembly and testing. This I&T phase will be followed by the L’Ralph calibration and characterization, environmental tests which include electromagnetic interference (EMI)/electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), vibration with sine sweep, acoustics, shock, thermal balance, thermal vacuum, mass properties and center of gravity determination. This paper will briefly discuss L’Ralph shipment and delivery to the spacecraft vendor for observatory level I&T as well as some launch preparation activities.

Spaceflight Instruments↗