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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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A description is given of the Integrated Medical and Behavioral Laboratory Measurement System (IMBLMS) being developed for onboard medical support of the crew and for medical research during space missions. The system is suitable for use during early extended space flights and for accommodating measurement and diagnostic apparatus as well as treatment and surgical facilities developed for later missions.
This brochure highlights the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) -- the United States' premier lab focused on energy systems research, development, and demonstration (RD&D). Topics covered include an overview of Energy Systems Integration, research focus areas, RD&D tools unique to the ESIF, and information on how to partner with NREL at the ESIF.
This is part II of a three-part paper describing the approved flight test of a mercury ion auxiliary propulsion system. The objectives of the flight test are summarized with reference to user application. The approach to accomplishment is presented as it applies to integrating the propulsion system with the host spacecraft, USAF's STP P80-1. A number of known interface design considerations which affect the propulsion system and the spacecraft are discussed. Finally, analogies are drawn comparing the relationship of the organizations involved with this flight test with those anticipated for future operational missions. Attention is given to the viewpoint of the project office
In this paper, an integrated system of harvesting, collecting, and transporting willow biomass crop to a storage site was modeled and evaluated using the IBSAL simulation model. A scenario analysis was used to quantify the impacts of five major input parameters on the performance of the integrated system. These parameters include parcel size, field shape, willow yield, distance to the storage site, and type of the collection equipment. Multiple performance indicators were identified to quantify the impacts on the system such as size of the equipment fleet, effective material and field capacity of the harvester, operating costs, and waiting times. The input data were collected from 36 commercial, short-rotation, shrub willow fields in northern New York State. The simulation results indicated that crop yield and type of collection equipment have the highest impact on operating costs and the equipment fleet size. As the size of equipment fleet increases in the system, variability in the system performance tends to increase. Field shape has the least impact on the overall system performance compared to the other four input parameters. The simulation results suggest that a combination of performance indicators need to be considered to evaluate the overall performance of the dynamic and complex system of harvesting, collection and transportation in commercial willow fields. The developed IBSAL model and scenario analysis approach can assist in planning this system based on the characteristics of field, crop, and logistical equipment to reach a high system performance.
For the past several years, the Exploration Extra-Vehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) has focused on development and testing of the xEMU to support missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and a moon landing in 2024. In that context, this paper examines the development and detailed design of the xEMU Integrated Communication System (ICS). This paper outlines the challenging technical requirements, significant architectural trades, technical solutions required to overcome these challenges, and a status of the detailed design. The preliminary results of Design Verification Testing (DVT) as it relates to the ICS are also provided, along with a forward strategy for final maturation into a flight-ready design.
One of the primary challenges to achieving a clean energy future is closing the gap between ambitions and real-world deployment. To accelerate solutions for a clean energy future, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, developed a visionary research platform called Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES). ARIES takes in the full picture - from community energy needs to technology developers and service providers - rather than evaluating clean energy and technologies in isolation. This innovative approach uncovers opportunities and risks in the spaces where energy technologies and sectors - such as transportation, industry, buildings, and the electric grid - meet.
Large enterprises typically rely on dedicated teams to govern and implement security measures throughout their supply chains, ensuring compliance with enterprise security procedures. There is a significant reliance on Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) platforms, which often require complete, highly structured information from potential vendors. The review and compliance assurance processes are time- and labor intensive, often requiring several rounds of review between the supply chain security risk management teams, business users, and potential vendors, leading to delays in the supply chain processing and consumer experience. Significant challenges in the risk management paradigm include handling unstructured data in various formats and providing real-time feedback to users to reduce the required review time. This paper presents a novel solution to these challenges. A modular multi-step system architecture is proposed using advances in language processing, specifically for unstructured responses and provides real-time feedback (i.e., 3 seconds) so that users can improve their responses before the TPSRM team review. This novel system architecture will increase information accuracy and significantly reduce time and labor during the review process.
Declining supplies of domestic oil and gas and the increased cost of energy resulted in a renewed emphasis in utilizing available resources in the most efficient manner possible. This, in turn, brought about a reassessment of a number of methods for converting fossil fuels to end uses at the highest practical efficiency. One of these is the on-site integrated energy system (OS/IES). This system provides electric power from an on-site power plant and recovers heat from the power plant that would normally be rejected to the environment. An OS/IES is potentially useful in any application that requires both electricity and heat. Several OS/IES are analyzed for a residential complex. The paper is divided into two sections; the first compares three energy supply systems, the second compares various designs for fuel cell OS/IES.
Telerobot systems are being developed to support a number of space mission applications. In low earth orbit, telerobots and teleoperated manipulators will be used in shuttle operations and space station construction/maintenance. Free flying telerobotic service vehicles will be used at low and geosynchronous orbital operations. Rovers and autonomous vehicles will be equipped with telerobotic devices in planetary exploration. In all of these systems, human operators will interact with the robot system at varied levels during the scheduled operations. The human operators may be in either orbital or ground-based control systems. To assure integrated system development and maximum utility across these systems, designers must be sensitive to the constraints and capabilities that the human brings to system operation and must be assisted in applying these human factors to system development. The simulation and analysis system is intended to serve the needs of system analysis/designers as an integrated workstation in support of telerobotic design.
We present an adaptive algorithm for constructing surrogate models for integrated systems composed of a set of coupled components. With this goal we introduce ‘coupling’ variables with a priori unknown distributions that allow approximations of each component to be built independently. Once built, the surrogates of the components are combined and used to predict system-level quantities of interest (QoI) at a fraction of the cost of interrogating the full system model. We use a greedy experimental design procedure, based upon a modification of Multi-Index Stochastic Collocation (MISC), to minimize the error of the combined surrogate. This is achieved by refining each component surrogate in accordance with its relative contribution to error in the approximation of the system-level QoI. Our adaptation of MISC is a multi-fidelity procedure that can leverage ensembles of models of varying cost and accuracy, for one or more components, to produce estimates of system-level QoI. Several numerical examples demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach on systems involving feed-forward and feedback coupling. For a fixed computational budget, the proposed algorithm is able to produce approximations that are orders of magnitude more accurate than approximations that treat the integrated system as a black-box.
As digital technologies expand to meet the needs of a more autonomous, interconnected, and advanced power system, new cybersecurity complexities and vulnerabilities arise. The ARIES Cyber Range enables the energy sector to evaluate these evolutions and validate cybersecurity solutions without impacting live systems. Combining power grid-scale hardware with emulation and simulation approaches, the ARIES Cyber Range can faithfully replicate modern energy systems - from grid physics to communication networks, and everything in between - with real-world fidelity. At NLR, researchers and partners are answering complex power system cybersecurity questions, examining emerging threats to the electric sector, and de risking new security technologies, all at a mission-relevant speed that keeps pace with rapidly evolving systems and hazards.
A 3-year strategic planning process was undertaken in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to develop a research and technology development approach that can help guide mercury remediation in East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC). Mercury remediation is a high priority for the US Department of Energy s (DOE s) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management because of large historical losses of mercury to the environment at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12). Because of the extent of mercury losses and the complexities of mercury transport and fate in the stream environment, the success of conventional options for mercury remediation in the downstream sections of EFPC is uncertain. The overall Oak Ridge mercury remediation strategy focuses on mercury treatment actions at Y-12 in the short-term and research and technology development to evaluate longer-term solutions in the downstream environment. The technology development strategy is consistent with a phased, adaptive management paradigm and DOE s Technology Readiness Level guidelines. That is, early evaluation includes literature review, site characterization, and small-scale studies of a broad number of potential technologies. As more information is gathered, technologies that may have the most promise and potential remediation benefit will be chosen for more extensive and larger-scale pilot testing before being considered for remedial implementation. Field and laboratory research in EFPC is providing an improved level of understanding of mercury transport and fate processes in EFPC that will inform the development of site-specific remedial technologies. Technology development has centered on developing strategies that can mitigate the primary factors affecting mercury risks in the stream: (1) the amount of inorganic mercury available to the stream system, (2) the conversion of inorganic mercury to methylmercury, and (3) the bioaccumulation of methylmercury through the food web. Given the downstream complexities and interdependencies between sources and processes in EFPC, no one task or approach is likely to solve the mercury problem in the creek, thus highlighting the importance of using an integrated, systems-based approach to develop remedial solutions.
A 3-year strategic planning process was undertaken in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to develop a research and technology development approach that can help guide mercury remediation in East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC). Mercury remediation is a high priority for the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management because of large historical losses of mercury to the environment at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12). Because of the extent of mercury losses and the complexities of mercury transport and fate in the stream environment, the success of conventional options for mercury remediation in the downstream sections of EFPC is uncertain. The overall Oak Ridge mercury remediation strategy focuses on mercury treatment actions at Y-12 in the short-term and research and technology development to evaluate longer-term solutions in the downstream environment. The technology development strategy is consistent with a phased, adaptive management paradigm and DOE's Technology Readiness Level guidelines. That is, early evaluation includes literature review, site characterization, and small-scale studies of a broad number of potential technologies. As more information is gathered, technologies that may have the most promise and potential remediation benefit will be chosen for more extensive and larger-scale pilot testing before being considered for remedial implementation. Field and laboratory research in EFPC is providing an improved level of understanding of mercury transport and fate processes in EFPC that will inform the development of site-specific remedial technologies. Technology development has centered on developing strategies that can mitigate the primary factors affecting mercury risks in the stream: (1) the amount of inorganic mercury available to the 1 This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).stream system, (2) the conversion of inorganic mercury to methylmercury, and (3) the bioaccumulation of methylmercury through the food web. Given the downstream complexities and interdependencies between sources and processes in EFPC, no one task or approach is likely to solve the mercury problem in the creek, thus highlighting the importance of using an integrated, systems-based approach to develop remedial solutions. (authors)
This report considers the use of single-degree-of-freedom integrating gyros as torque sources for precise control of satellite attitude. Some general design criteria are derived and applied to the specific example of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory. The results of the analytical design are compared with the results of an analog computer study and also with experimental results from a low-friction platform. The steady-state and transient behavior of the system, as determined by the analysis, by the analog study, and by the experimental platform agreed quite well. The results of this study show that systems using integrating gyros for precise satellite attitude control can be designed to have a reasonably rapid and well-damped transient response, as well as very small steady-state errors. Furthermore, it is shown that the gyros act as rate sensors, as well as torque sources, so that no rate stabilization networks are required, and when no error sensor is available, the vehicle is still rate stabilized. Hence, it is shown that a major advantage of a gyro control system is that when the target is occulted, an alternate reference is not required.
Design integration of reactor, shielding and power conversion systems for manned earth orbital station
The Firefighters Integrated Response Equipment System (Project FIRES) is a joint National Fire Prevention and Control Administration (NFPCA)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program for the development of an 'ultimate' firefighter's protective ensemble. The overall aim of Project FIRES is to improve firefighter protection against hazards, such as heat, flame, smoke, toxic fumes, moisture, impact penetration, and electricity and, at the same time, improve firefighter performance by increasing maneuverability, lowering weight, and improving human engineering design of his protective ensemble.
Integrated Procurement Management System, Version II (IPMS II) is online/ batch system for collecting developing, managing and disseminating procurementrelated data at NASA Johnson Space Center. Portions of IPMS II adaptable to other procurement situations.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has accepted the Loran-C navigation system as a supplemental navigation aid for enroute use. Extension of Loran-C utilization to instrument approaches requires establishment of a process by which the current level of performance of the system is always known by the pilot. This system 'integrity' translates into confidence that, if the system is made available to the pilot, the guidance will be correct. Early in the consideration of Loran-C for instrument approaches, the Loran-C Planning Work-Group (LPW) was formed with membership from the FAA, the US Coast Guard, various state governments, aviation users, equipment manufacturers and technical experts. The group was hosted and co-chaired by the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO). This forum was ideal for identification of system integrity issues and for finding the correct process for their resolution. Additionally, the Wild Goose Association (WGA), which is the international Loran-C technical and user forum, regularly brings together members of the FAA, Coast Guard, and the scientific community. Papers and discussions from WGA meetings have been helpful. Given here is a collection of the issues in which Ohio University became involved. Issues definition and resolution are included along with the recommendations in those areas where resolution is not yet complete.