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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 1,153 records · Page 64

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NASA NTRS2003

Citizen Explorer: An Earth Observer With New Small Satellite Technology - 1

Citizen Explorer-I (CX-I), designed and built by students at Colorado Space Grant Consortium in Boulder to provide global ozone monitoring, employs a unique mission architecture and several innovative technologies during its mission. The mission design allows K-12 schools around the world to be involved as ground stations available to receive science data and telemetry from CX-I. Another important technology allows the spacecraft to be less reliant on ground operators. Spacecraft Command Language (SCL) allows mission designers to set constraints on the satellite operations. The satellite then automatically adheres to the constraints when the satellite is out of contact with Mission Operations. In addition to SCL, a low level of artificial intelligence will be supplied to the spacecraft through the use of the Automated Scheduling and Planning ENvironment (ASPEN). ASPEN is used to maintain a spacecraft schedule in order to achieve the objectives a mission operator would normally have to complete. Within the communications system of CX-I, internet of CX-I, internet protocols are the main method for communicating with the satellite. As internet protocols have not been widely used in satellite communication, CX-I provides an opportunity to study the effectiveness of using internet protocols over radio links. The Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) on CX-I uses a gravity gradient boom as a means of orienting the satellite's science instruments toward nadir. The boom design is unique because it is constructed of tape measure material. These new technologies' effectiveness will be tested for use on future small satellite projects within the space satellite industry.

Allen, Zachary↗

NASA NTRS1985

Space industrialization opportunities

The current status of efforts to develop commercial space projects is surveyed, with a focus on US programs, in reviews and reports presented at the Second Symposium on Space Industrialization held in Huntsville in February 1984. Areas explored include policy, legal, and economic aspects; communications; materials processing; earth-resources observation; and the role of space carriers and a space station. Also included in the volume are 132 brief descriptions of the NASA Microgravity Science and Applications Program Tasks as of December 1984. These tasks cover the fields electronics materials; solidification of metals, alloys, and composites; fields and transport phenomena; biotechnology; glass and ceramics; combustion science; and experimental technology.

Jernigan, C. M.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Carbon Dioxide Observational Platform System (CO-OPS), feasibility study

The Carbon Dioxide Observational Platform System (CO-OPS) is a near-space, geostationary, multi-user, unmanned microwave powered monitoring platform system. This systems engineering feasibility study addressed identified existing requirements such as: carbon dioxide observational data requirements, communications requirements, and eye-in-the-sky requirements of other groups like the Defense Department, the Forestry Service, and the Coast Guard. In addition, potential applications in: earth system science, space system sciences, and test and verification (satellite sensors and data management techniques) were considered. The eleven month effort is summarized. Past work and methods of gathering the required observational data were assessed and rough-order-of magnitude cost estimates have shown the CO-OPS system to be most cost effective (less than $30 million within a 10 year lifetime). It was also concluded that there are no technical, schedule, or obstacles that would prevent achieving the objectives of the total 5-year CO-OPS program.

Bouquet, D. L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Johnson Space Center research and technology

The accomplishments of JSC during FY 1991 are presented. The report serves to communicate within and outside of NASA significant R&T JSC activities and identifies principle researchers and technologists as contacts for further information. The topics are covered in five sections: life sciences, human support technology, solar system sciences, space systems technology, and space transportation technology. Each of these sections is comprised of a summary followed by detailed descriptions of significant tasks. A listing of project descriptions, along with funding code and principle investigators, is provided in the index.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1998

Applications of telemedicine in the United States space program

Since the beginning of human space flight, NASA has been placing humans in extreme and remote environments. There are many challenges in maintaining humans in outer space, including the provision of life-support systems, radiation shielding, and countermeasures for minimizing the effect of microgravity. Because astronauts are selected for their health, among other factors, disease and illness are minimized. However, it is still of great importance to have appropriate medical care systems in place to address illness and injury should they occur. With the exception of the Apollo program, exploration of space has been limited to missions that are within several hundred miles of the surface of the Earth. At the drawn of the 21st century and the new millennium, human exploration will be focused on operation of the International Space Station (ISS) and preparation for human missions to Mars. These missions will present inherent risks to human health, and, therefore, appropriate plans must be established to address these challenges and risks. Crews of long-duration missions must become more independent from ground controllers. New systems, protocols, and procedures are currently being perfected. Application of emerging technologies in information systems and telecommunications will be critical to inflight medical care. Application of these technologies through telemedicine will provide crew members access to information, noninvasive procedures for assessing health status, and guidance through the integration of sensors, holography, decision-support systems, and virtual environments. These technologies will also serve as a basis to enhance training and medical education. The design of medical care for space flight should lead to a redesign of the practice of medicine on Earth.

Review, Tutorial↗

NASA NTRS1983

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1958-1983

This year marks a major milestone for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: its silver anniversary. It seems appropriate, on this occasion, to sum up how NASA has responded to the legislative charter that established the agency. Among the responsibilities the Congress assigned NASA in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 were these: preservation of U.S. leadership in aerospace science and technology; cooperation with other nations in the peaceful application of technology; expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and in space; pursuit of the practical benefits to be gained from aeronautical and space activities. There can be no doubt that NASA's quarter century of effort has preserved the nation's leadership role and strengthened its posture in aerospace science and technology. As for international cooperation. NASA has - since its inception - fostered the concept that the fruits of civil space research are to be shared with all mankind. The agency has provided technical assistance to scores of nations and has actively promoted cooperative ventures; indeed, virtually every major NASA space project today boasts some degree of foreign participation. In the last 25 years, man has teamed more about his planet, the near-Earth environment, and the universe than in all the prior years of history. NASA's space science program has spearheaded this great expansion of human knowledge. And, from the beginning, NASA has vigorously pursued the practical benefits that aerospace research offers. The agency pioneered in weather, communications and Earth resources survey satellites, the prime examples of space technology applied for Earth benefit, and it has built a broad base for expanding into new applications, some of which promise direct benefits of exceptional order. In aeronautical research, NASA has contributed in substantial degree to safer, better performing, more efficient, more environmentally acceptable aircraft.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2004

Reconfigurable Transceiver and Software-Defined Radio Architecture and Technology Evaluated for NASA Space Communications

The NASA Glenn Research Center is investigating the development and suitability of a software-based open-architecture for space-based reconfigurable transceivers (RTs) and software-defined radios (SDRs). The main objectives of this project are to enable advanced operations and reduce mission costs. SDRs are becoming more common because of the capabilities of reconfigurable digital signal processing technologies such as field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors, which place radio functions in firmware and software that were traditionally performed with analog hardware components. Features of interest of this communications architecture include nonproprietary open standards and application programming interfaces to enable software reuse and portability, independent hardware and software development, and hardware and software functional separation. The goals for RT and SDR technologies for NASA space missions include prelaunch and on-orbit frequency and waveform reconfigurability and programmability, high data rate capability, and overall communications and processing flexibility. These operational advances over current state-of-art transceivers will be provided to reduce the power, mass, and cost of RTs and SDRs for space communications. The open architecture for NASA communications will support existing (legacy) communications needs and capabilities while providing a path to more capable, advanced waveform development and mission concepts (e.g., ad hoc constellations with self-healing networks and high-rate science data return). A study was completed to assess the state of the art in RT architectures, implementations, and technologies. In-house researchers conducted literature searches and analysis, interviewed Government and industry contacts, and solicited information and white papers from industry on space-qualifiable RTs and SDRs and their associated technologies for space-based NASA applications. The white papers were evaluated, compiled, and used to assess RT and SDR system architectures and core technology elements to determine an appropriate investment strategy to advance these technologies to meet future mission needs. The use of these radios in the space environment represents a challenge because of the space radiation suitability of the components, which drastically reduces the processing capability. The radios available for space are considered to be RTs (as opposed to SDRs), which are digitally programmable radios with selectable changes from an architecture combining analog and digital components. The limited flexibility of this design contrasts against the desire to have a power-efficient solution and open architecture.

Reinhart, Richard C.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Execution of the Spitzer In-orbit Checkout and Science Verification Plan

The Spitzer Space Telescope is an 85-cm telescope with three cryogenically cooled instruments. Following launch, the observatory was initialized and commissioned for science operations during the in-orbit checkout (IOC) and science verification (SV) phases, carried out over a total of 98.3 days. The execution of the IOC/SV mission plan progressively established Spitzer capabilities taking into consideration thermal, cryogenic, optical, pointing, communications, and operational designs and constraints. The plan was carried out with high efficiency, making effective use of cryogen-limited flight time. One key component to the success of the plan was the pre-launch allocation of schedule reserve in the timeline of IOC/SV activities, and how it was used in flight both to cover activity redesign and growth due to continually improving spacecraft and instrument knowledge, and to recover from anomalies. This paper describes the adaptive system design and evolution, implementation, and lessons learned from IOC/SV operations. It is hoped that this information will provide guidance to future missions with similar engineering challenges

operations↗

NASA NTRS2010

Onboard Processing of Multispectral and Hyperspectral Data of Volcanic Activity for Future Earth-Orbiting and Planetary Missions

Autonomous onboard processing of data allows rapid response to detections of dynamic, changing processes. Software that can detect volcanic eruptions from thermal emission has been used to retask the Earth Observing 1 spacecraft to obtain additional data of the eruption. Rapid transmission of these data to the ground, and the automatic processing of the data to generated images, estimates of eruption parameters and maps of thermal structure, has allowed these products to be delivered rapidly to volcanologists to aid them in assessing eruption risk and hazard. Such applications will enhance science return from future Earth-orbiting spacecraft and also from spacecraft exploring the Solar System, or beyond, which hope to image dynamic processes. Especially in the latter case, long communication times between the spacecraft and Earth exclude a rapid response to what may be a transient process - only using onboard autonomy can the spacecraft react quickly to such an event.

Jupiter↗

NASA NTRS2015

How to Enter, Fly In, and Exit the A-Train Constellation

The collaborative science obtained from the satellites in the A-Train is an unparalleled success. The constellation framework that has evolved is well-formulated and documented by its international members. Communication between teams is enhanced by a web-based Constellation Coordination System. Safety and correlated observations are ensured by defining independent control boxes with buffers in between. Each mission stays within its control box by regular drag makeup maneuvers. Annual inclination adjustments are coordinated by all missions to maintain their absolute and relative Mean Local Time of Ascending Node (MLTAN). Since the satellites are in different orbit planes their separation involves a three-dimensional triad made up of the along track separations, reference groundtracks and MLTAN's. For further safety, a Constellation Envelope has been defined to determine safe entry and exit orbits.

MLTAN↗

NASA NTRS2015

Achieving Operational Two-Way Laser Acquisition for OPALS Payload on the International Space Station

The Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) experiment was installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2014. Developed as a technology demonstration, its objective was to experiment with space-to-ground optical communications transmissions from Low Earth Orbit. More than a dozen successful optical links were established between a Wrightwood, California-based ground telescope and the OPALS flight terminal from June 2014 to September 2014. Each transmission required precise bi-directional pointing to be maintained between the space-based transmitter and ground-based receiver. This was accomplished by acquiring and tracking a laser beacon signal transmitted from the ground telescope to the OPALS flight terminal on the ISS. OPALS demonstrated the ability to nominally acquire the beacon within three seconds at 25deg elevation and maintain lock within 140 μrad (3(sigma)) for the full 150-second transmission duration while slewing at rates up to 1deg/sec. Additional acquisition attempts in low elevation and weather-challenged conditions provided valuable insight on the optical link robustness under off-nominal operational conditions.

optical communications↗

NASA NTRS2019

The Benefits of Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) for Future NASA Science Missions

Presentation on the benefits of disruption tolerant networking.

DTN↗

NASA NTRS2020

LunaNet: a Flexible and Extensible Lunar Exploration Communications and Navigation Infrastructure

NASA has set the ambitious goal of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Diverse commercial and international partners are engaged in this effort to catalyze scientific discovery, lunar resource utilization and economic development on both the Earth and at the Moon. Lunar development will serve as a critical proving ground for deeper exploration into the solar system. Space communications and navigation infrastructure will play an integral part in realizing this goal. This paper provides a high-level description of an extensible and scalable lunar communications and navigation architecture, known as LunaNet. LunaNet is a services network to enable lunar operations. Three LunaNet service types are defined: networking services, position, navigation and timing services, and science utilization services. The LunaNet architecture encompasses a wide variety of topology implementations, including surface and orbiting provider nodes. In this paper several systems engineering considerations within the service architecture are highlighted. Additionally, several alternative LunaNet instantiations are presented. Extensibility of the LunaNet architecture to the solar system internet is discussed.

Israel, David J.↗

NASA NTRS2020

LunaNet: A Flexible and Extensible Lunar Exploration Communication and Navigation Infrastructure

Israel, David J.↗

NASA NTRS2023

Novel Observing Strategies for NASA Future Earth Science Missions

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program is one of several Technology programs managed by the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) in the Earth Science Division (ESD). The AIST Program focuses on advanced information systems and novel computer science technologies that will be needed by NASA Earth Science in the next 5 to 10 years. The three main thrusts of the AIST Program deal with Novel Observing Strategies (NOS), Analytic Collaborative Frameworks (ACF) and Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT). This presentation summarizes the NOS thrust, its objectives and its benefits to NASA's Earth Science; it presents the projects funded by AIST under that thrust and its application to future AIST developments such as ESDT. It also includes one slide about the SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program and its capabilities as they relate to NOS.

Jacqueline Le Moigne↗

NASA NTRS2026

The Trajectory of Recent Solid State Fusion Results

Both NASA and Google have explored and funded Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) aka Solid-State Fusion or Lattice Confinement Fusion (LCF) research. NASA has funded efforts since 1989, and Google Research began in 2014. Google, and researchers initially-funded by Google, published significant scientific papers in Nature, Nature Communications and the Journal of Applied Physics. NASA began a significant set of LENR-triggering programs in 2012 resulting in papers in Physical Review C, the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and the Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. Both NASA and Google engaged researchers across fields of nuclear physics, chemistry, electrochemistry, material science and more. NASA built upon early novel gas pumping experiments then followed the patented work of the US Navy SPAWAR (US8,419,919, “System and Method to Generate Particles”) and experiments with the Naval Surface Warfare Centers. Google supported researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the University of British Columbia (UBC), MIT and others. This resulted in patent applications and two granted patents (US10264661B2, “Target structure for enhanced electron screening” and US10566094B2 “Enhanced electron screening through plasmon oscillations”). These separate efforts, unknown to the researchers at the time, provided the impetus for the DoE ARPA-E LENR program followed by the DARPA DSO “Mechanisms for Amplification of Fusion Reaction Rates in Solids” (MARRS) program. This document briefly describes the overlapping NASA and Google Research efforts in plasma loading and electron screening emphasizing the results of the latest paper in Nature Communications. The papers and patents cited are listed.

electron screening↗

NASA NTRS2002

Science opportunity analyzer - a multi-mission tool for planning

For many years the diverse scientific community that supports JPL's wide variety ofinterplanetary space missions has needed a tool in order to plan and develop their experiments. The tool needs to be easily adapted to various mission types and portable to the user community. The Science Opportunity Analyzer, SOA, now in its third year of development, is intended to meet this need. SOA is a java-based application that is designed to enable scientists to identify and analyze opportunities for science observations from spacecraft. It differs from other planning tools in that it does not require an in-depth knowledge of the spacecraft command system or operation modes to begin high level planning. Users can, however, develop increasingly detailed levels of design. SOA consists of six major functions: Opportunity Search, Visualization, Observation Design, Constraint Checking, Data Output and Communications. Opportunity Search is a GUI driven interface to existing search engines that can be used to identify times when a spacecraft is in a specific geometrical relationship with other bodies in the solar system. This function can be used for advanced mission planning as well as for making last minute adjustments to mission sequences in response to trajectory modifications. Visualization is a key aspect of SOA. The user can view observation opportunities in either a 3D representation or as a 2D map projection. The user is given extensive flexibility to customize what is displayed in the view. Observation Design allows the user to orient the spacecraft and visualize the projection of the instrument field of view for that orientation using the same views as Opportunity Search. Constraint Checking is provided to validate various geometrical and physical aspects of an observation design. The user has the ability to easily create custom rules or to use official project-generated flight rules. This capability may also allow scientists to easily impact the cost to science if flight rule changes occur. Data Output generates information based on the spacecraft's trajectory, opportunity search results or based on a created observation. The data can be viewed either in tabular format or as a graph. Finally, SOA is unique in that it is designed to be able to communicate with a variety of existing planning and sequencing tools. From the very beginning SOA was designed with the user in mind. Extensive surveys of the potential user community were conducted in order to develop the software requirements. Throughout the development period, close ties have been maintained with the science community to insure that the tool maintains its user focus. Although development is still in its early stages, SOA is already developing a user community on the Cassini project, which is depending on this tool for their science planning. There are other tools at JPL that do various pieces of what SOA can do; however, there is no other tool which combines all these functions and presents them to the user in such a convenient, cohesive, and easy to use fashion.

SOA science planning mission operations sequence s↗

NASA NTRS2019

Operations of the Optical Communications Demonstration for the Orion EM-2 Mission

The GSFC implementation of an Optical Communication System to demonstrate an operational optical communication link for Orion EM-2. It will serve as a base for providing an operational optical communications capability for future Orion missions. GSFC plans to maintain a development path for the optical communication flight terminal to allow commercialization and implementation on future Orion missions. The Orion optical module part of the optical communications flight terminal and its control electronics have a common architecture with the ILLUMA-T optical terminal provided by GSFC for use on the ISS. The plan is to flow data from Orion through the Optical Communication Fight Terminal to the Optical Communication Ground Terminal and reverse. NASA's Orion spacecraft is an exploratory vehicle designed for longer-duration flights beyond the Moon. Following Orion's Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), during which the spacecraft will travel beyond the Moon, enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon and return to Earth unmanned, Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) will see a crewed spacecraft complete a slightly different flight path. First crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, currently targeting a June 30, 2022 launch. The mission involves: One revolution in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) parking orbit to verify basic Orion systems functionality and deploy solar arrays. A single 42-hour Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) intermediate checkout orbit allows characterization of the Orion vehicle system performance prior to committing to a cis-lunar flight. Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) burn using Orion Service Module (SM) main engine, which sends Orion on a lunar flyby and free return. Skip reentry at lunar return velocities to splashdown off the coast of San Diego. Total mission duration is approximately 10 days. EM-2 is the first crewed mission of the Orion Spacecraft that crew brings more video up/downloads, file transfers, and real-time chats with family back home and high-rate communications enables live HD streaming for Crew conferences, Public Affairs Office (PAO) events, and significant mission events. Also still collecting vehicle data on numerous Orion subsystems via Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) allows large data volume returns sooner for DFI and future science payloads, as opposed to waiting for end-of-mission. O2O is a demonstration of operational utility system tested as a Developmental Test Objective (DTO) and not required to meet mission requirements/success/ Flight Test Objectives (FTO). EM-2 architecture is as close to future mission operational architecture as possible.Orion subsystems (video, DFI, etc.) expected to generate ~250 GB of data in the first 24 hours of flight. Total data generated over the mission estimated to be more than 400 GBUsing S-Band alone, Orion limited to ~ 6GB of data downlink per day. Because of this limitation, Orion is planning to limit live video downlinks on EM-1 in order to downlink high priority fileswith 1 hour/day of Optical Communication, Orion could downlink ~6x more data per day (~ 36GB/day).The optical communication system is capable of multiple data rates up to at least 80 Mbps downlink for the transfer of Orion data to Earth while Orion is operating in the lunar vicinity.

Optical Communication↗