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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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The 3-dimensional model for a segmented reflector telescope is developed using finite element techniques. The structure is decomposed into six subsystems. System control design using neural networks is performed. Performance evaluation is demonstrated via simulation using PRO-MATLAB and SIMULINK.
The X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) must meet the demanding requirements of landing autonomously on a narrow landing strip following a flight that reaches an altitude of up to 200,000 feet and a speed in excess of Mach 9 with significant in-flight energy bleed-off maneuvers. To execute this flight regimen a highly reliable avionics system has been designed that includes three LN-100G Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (INS/GPS) units as the primary navigation system for the X-33. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) tested an INS/GPS system in real-time simulations to determine the ability of this navigation suite to meet the in flight and autonomous landing requirements of the X-33 RLV. A total of sixty-one open loop tests were performed to characterize the navigation accuracy of the LN-100G. Twenty-seven closed-loop tests were also performed to evaluate the performance of the X-33 Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) algorithms with the real navigation hardware. These closed-loop tests were also designed to expose any integration or operational issues with the real-time X-33 vehicle simulation. Dynamic road tests of the INS/GPS were conducted by Litton to assess the performance of differential and nondifferential INS/GPS hybrid navigation solutions. The results of the simulations and road testing demonstrate that this novel solution is capable of meeting the demanding requirements of take-off, in-flight navigation, and autonomous landing of the X-33 RLV. This paper describes the test environment developed to stimulate the LN-100G and discusses the results of this test effort. This paper also presents recommendations for a navigation system suitable to an operational RLV system.
Many scientific applications in aerodynamics and solid mechanics are written in Fortran. Refitting these legacy Fortran codes with distributed objects can increase the code reusability. The remote variable scheme provided in NPSS/CCDK helps programmers easily migrate the Fortran codes towards a client-server platform. This scheme gives the client the capability of accessing the variables at the server site. In this paper, we review and enhance the remote variable scheme by using the operator overloading features in C++. The enhancement enables NPSS programmers to use remote variables in much the same way as traditional variables. The remote variable scheme adopts the lazy update approach and the prefetch method. The design strategies and implementation techniques are described in details. Preliminary performance evaluation shows that communication overhead can be greatly reduced.
An expanding interest in mission design strategies that exploit libration point regions demands the continued development of enhanced, efficient, control algorithms for station-keeping and formation maintenance. This paper discusses the development of a non-linear, formation maintenance, control algorithm for trajectories in the vicinity of a libration point. However, the formulation holds for any trajectory governed by the equations of motion for the restricted three body problem. The control law guarantees exponential convergence, based on a Lyaponov analysis. FreeFlyer and MATLAB provide the simulation environment for controller performance evaluation. The simulation, modeled after the MAXIM Pathfinder mission, maintains the relative position of a "follower" spacecraft with respect to a "leader" spacecraft, stationed near the L2 libration point in the Sun-Earth system. Evaluation metrics are fuel usage and tracking accuracy.
This viewgraph presentation gives an overview of the parallel domain decomposition preconditioning for computational fluid dynamics. Details are given on some difficult fluid flow problems, stabilized spatial discretizations, and Newton's method for solving the discretized flow equations. Schur complement domain decomposition is described through basic formulation, simplifying strategies (including iterative subdomain and Schur complement solves, matrix element dropping, localized Schur complement computation, and supersparse computations), and performance evaluation.
Recent advances in nanocrystalline dye-sensitized solar cells has lead NASA to investigate the potential of these devices for space power generation, Reported here is the first space environment characterization of these type of photovoltaic devices. Cells containing liquid electrolytes were exposed to simulated low-earth orbit conditions and their performance evaluated. All cells were characterized under simulated air mass zero (AMO) illumination. Complete cells were exposed to pressures less than 1 x 10(exp -7) torr for over a month, with no sign of sealant failure or electrolyte leakage. Cells from Solaronix SA were rapid thermal cycled under simulated low-earth orbit conditions. The cells were cycled 100 times from -80 C to 80 C, which is equivalent to 6 days in orbit. The best cell had a 4.6% loss in efficiency as a result of the thermal cycling,
Recent advances in dye-sensitized and organic polymer solar cells have lead NASA to investigate the potential of these devices for space power generation. Dye-sensitized solar cells were exposed to simulated low-earth orbit conditions and their performance evaluated. All cells were characterized under simulated air mass zero (AM0) illumination. Complete cells were exposed to pressures less than 1 x 10(exp -7) torr for over a month, with no sign of sealant failure or electrolyte leakage. Cells from Solaronix SA were rapid thermal cycled under simulated low-earth orbit conditions. The cells were cycled 100 times from -80 C to 80 C, which is equivalent to 6 days in orbit. The best cell had a 4.6 percent loss in efficiency as a result of the thermal cycling. In a separate project, novel -Bridge-Donor-Bridge- Acceptor- (-BDBA-) type conjugated block copolymer systems have been synthesized and characterized by photoluminescence (PL). In comparison to pristine donor or acceptor, the PL emissions of final -B-D-B-A- block copolymer films were quenched over 99 percent. Effective and efficient photo induced electron transfer and charge separation occurs due to the interfaces of micro phase separated donor and acceptor blocks. The system is very promising for a variety high efficiency light harvesting applications. Under an SBIR contract, fullerene-doped polymer-based photovoltaic devices were fabricated and characterized. The best devices showed overall power efficiencies of approx. 0.14 percent under white light. Devices fabricated from 2 percent solids content solutions in chlorobenzene gave the best results. Presently, device lifetimes are too short to be practical for space applications.
Ingersoll-Rand Research, Inc.'s use of COSMIC's computer program MERIDL permits designers to evaluate performance and efficiency characteristics to be expected from the pump's impeller. It also provides information that enables a trained hydraulic engineer to make design improvements. Company was able to avoid the cost of developing new software and to improve some product design features.
A study into the problem of determining electromagnetic solutions at high frequencies for problems involving complex geometries, large sizes and multiple sources (e.g. antennas) has been initiated. Typical applications include the behavior of antennas (and radiators) installed on complex conducting structures (e.g. ships, aircrafts, etc..) with strong interactions between antennas, the radiation patterns, and electromagnetic signals is of great interest for electromagnetic compatibility control. This includes the overall performance evaluation and control of all on-board radiating systems, electromagnetic interference, and personnel radiation hazards. Electromagnetic computational capability exists at NASA LaRC, and many of the codes developed are based on the Moment Method (MM). However, the MM is computationally intensive, and this places a limit on the size of objects and structures that can be modeled. Here, two approaches are proposed: (i) a current-based hybrid scheme that combines the MM with Physical optics, and (ii) an Alternating Direction Implicit-Finite Difference Time Domain (ADI-FDTD) method. The essence of a hybrid technique is to split the overall scattering surface(s) into two regions: (a) a MM zone (MMZ) which can be used over any part of the given geometry, but is most essential over irregular and "non-smooth" geometries, and (b) a PO sub-region (POSR). Currents induced on the scattering and reflecting surfaces can then be computed in two ways depending on whether the region belonged to the MMZ or was part of the POSR. For the MMZ, the current calculations proceed in terms of basis functions with undetermined coefficients (as in the usual MM method), and the answer obtained by solving a system of linear equations. Over the POSR, conduction is obtained as a superposition of two contributions: (i) currents due to the incident magnetic field, and (ii) currents produced by the mutual induction from conduction within the MMZ. This effectively leads to a reduction in the size of linear equations from N to N - Npo with N being the total number of segments for the entire surface and Npo the number of segments over the POSR. The scheme would be appropriate for relatively large, flat surfaces, and at high frequencies. The ADI-FDTD scheme provides for both transient and steady state analyses. The restrictive Courant-Friedrich-Levy (CFL) condition on the time-step is removed, and so large time steps can be chosen even though the spatial grids are small. This report includes the problem definition, a detailed discussion of both the numerical techniques, and numerical implementations for simple surface geometries. Numerical solutions have been derived for a few simple situations.
Recent advances in dye-sensitized and organic polymer solar cells have lead NASA to investigate the potential of these devices for space power generation. Dye-sensitaized solar cells were exposed to simulated low-earth orbit conditions and their performance evaluated. All cells were characterized under simulated air mass zero (AM0) illumination. Complete cells were exposed to pressures less than 1 x 10 (exp -7)torr for over a month, with no sign of sealant failure or electrolyte leakage. Cells from Solaronix SA were rapid thermal cycled under simulated low-earth orbit conditions. The cells were cycled 100 times from -80 C to 80 C, which is equivalent to 6 days in orbit. The best cell had a 4.6% loss in efficiency as a result of the thermal cycling. In a separate project, novel -Bridge-Donor-Bridge-Acceptor- (-BDBA-) type conjugated block copolymer systems have been synthesized and characterized by photoluminescence (PL). In comparison to pristine donor or acceptor, the PL emissions of final -B-D-B-A- block copolymer films were quenched over 99%. Effective and efficient photo induced electron transfer and charge separation occurs due to the interfaces of micro phase separated donor and acceptor blocks. The system is very promising for a variety high efficiency light harvesting applications. Under an SBIR contract, fullerene-doped polymer-based photovoltaic devices were fabricated and characterized. The best devices showed overall power efficiencies of approximately 0.14% under white light. Devices fabricated from 2% solids content solutions in chlorobenzene gave the best results. Presently, device lifetimes are too short to be practical for space applications.
Intelligent Launch and Range Operations Virtual Test Bed (ILRO-VTB) is a real-time web-based command and control, communication, and intelligent simulation environment of ground-vehicle, launch and range operation activities. ILRO-VTB consists of a variety of simulation models combined with commercial and indigenous software developments (NASA Ames). It creates a hybrid software/hardware environment suitable for testing various integrated control system components of launch and range. The dynamic interactions of the integrated simulated control systems are not well understood. Insight into such systems can only be achieved through simulation/emulation. For that reason, NASA has established a VTB where we can learn the actual control and dynamics of designs for future space programs, including testing and performance evaluation. The current implementation of the VTB simulates the operations of a sub-orbital vehicle of mission, control, ground-vehicle engineering, launch and range operations. The present development of the test bed simulates the operations of Space Shuttle Vehicle (SSV) at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The test bed supports a wide variety of shuttle missions with ancillary modeling capabilities like weather forecasting, lightning tracker, toxic gas dispersion model, debris dispersion model, telemetry, trajectory modeling, ground operations, payload models and etc. To achieve the simulations, all models are linked using Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The test bed provides opportunities for government, universities, researchers and industries to do a real time of shuttle launch in cyber space.
Thin polymer films are being considered, as candidate materials to augment the permeation resistance of cryogenic hydrogen fuel tanks such as would be required for future reusable launch vehicles. To evaluate performance of candidate films after environmental exposure, an experimental study was performed to measure the thermal/mechanical and permeation performance of six, commercial-grade materials. Dynamic storage modulus, as measured by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis, was found over a range of temperatures. Permeability, as measured by helium gas diffusion, was found at room temperature. Test data was correlated with respect to film type and pre-test exposure to moisture, elevated temperature, and cryogenic temperature. Results indicated that the six films were comparable in performance and their resistance to environmental degradation.
Helicopter slung load operations are common in both military and civil contexts. The slung load adds load rigid body modes, sling stretching, and load aerodynamics to the system dynamics, which can degrade system stability and handling qualities, and reduce the operating envelope of the combined system below that of the helicopter alone. Further, the effects of the load on system dynamics vary significantly among the large range of loads, slings, and flight conditions that a utility helicopter will encounter in its operating life. In this context, military helicopters and loads are often qualified for slung load operations via flight tests which can be time consuming and expensive. One way to reduce the cost and time required to carry out these tests and generate quantitative data more readily is to provide an efficient method for analysis during the flight, so that numerous test points can be evaluated in a single flight test, with evaluations performed in near real time following each test point and prior to clearing the aircraft to the next point. Methodology for this was implemented at Ames and demonstrated in slung load flight tests in 1997 and was improved for additional flight tests in 1999. The parameters of interest for the slung load tests are aircraft handling qualities parameters (bandwidth and phase delay), stability margins (gain and phase margin), and load pendulum roots (damping and natural frequency). A procedure for the identification of these parameters from frequency sweep data was defined using the CIFER software package. CIFER is a comprehensive interactive package of utilities for frequency domain analysis previously developed at Ames for aeronautical flight test applications. It has been widely used in the US on a variety of aircraft, including some primitive flight time analysis applications.
The generalization of a class of low-dissipative high order filter finite difference schemes for long time wave propagation of shock/turbulence/combustion compressible viscous gas dynamic flows to compressible MHD equations for structured curvilinear grids has been developed. The new scheme consists of a divergence free preserving high order spatial base scheme with a filter approach which can be divergence-free preserving depending on the type of filter operator being used, the method of applying the filter step, and the type of flow problem to be considered. Several variants of the filter approach that cater to different flow types are proposed. These filters provide a natural and efficient way for the minimization of the divergence of the magnetic field (Delta * B) numerical error in the sense that no standard divergence cleaning is required. Performance evaluation of these variants, and the key role that the proper treatment of their corresponding numerical boundary conditions can play will be illustrated. Many levels of grid refinement and detailed comparison with several commonly used compressible MHD shock-capturing schemes will be sought. For certain MHD 2-D test problems, divergence free preservation of the magnetic fields of these filter schemes has been achieved.
Each year, health care costs for managing chronically ill patients increase as the life expectancy of Americans continues to grow. To handle this situation, many hospitals, doctors practices, and home care providers are turning to disease management, a system of coordinated health care interventions and communications, to improve outpatient care. By participating in daily monitoring programs, patients with congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions requiring significant self-care are facing fewer emergency situations and hospitalizations. Cybernet Medical, a division of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Cybernet Systems Corporation, is using the latest communications technology to augment the ways health care professionals monitor and assess patients with chronic diseases, while at the same time simplifying the patients interaction with technology. Cybernet s newest commercial product for this purpose evolved from research funded by NASA, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency. The research focused on the physiological assessment of astronauts and soldiers, human performance evaluation, and human-computer interaction. Cybernet Medical's MedStar Disease Management Data Collection System is an affordable, widely deployable solution for improving in-home-patient chronic disease management. The system's battery-powered and portable interface device collects physiological data from off-the-shelf instruments.
This paper proposes a task graph (TG) model to represent a single discrete step of multi-block overset grid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. The TG model is then used to not only balance the computational workload across the overset grids but also to reduce inter-grid communication costs. We have developed a set of task assignment heuristics based on the constraints inherent in this class of CFD problems. Two basic assignments, the smallest task first (STF) and the largest task first (LTF), are first presented. They are then systematically costs. To predict the performance of the proposed task assignment heuristics, extensive performance evaluations are conducted on a synthetic TG with tasks defined in terms of the number of grid points in predetermined overlapping grids. A TG derived from a realistic problem with eight million grid points is also used as a test case.
One goal in the development of a Synthetic Vision System (SVS) is to create a system that can be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for use at various flight criticality levels. As part of NASA s Aviation Safety Program, Ohio University and NASA Langley have been involved in the research and development of real-time terrain database integrity monitors for SVS. Integrity monitors based on a consistency check with onboard sensors may be required if the inherent terrain database integrity is not sufficient for a particular operation. Sensors such as the radar altimeter and weather radar, which are available on most commercial aircraft, are currently being investigated for use in a real-time terrain database integrity monitor. This paper introduces the concept of using a Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) sensor as part of a real-time terrain database integrity monitor. A LiDAR system consists of a scanning laser ranger, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Information from these three sensors can be combined to generate synthesized terrain models (profiles), which can then be compared to the stored SVS terrain model. This paper discusses an initial performance evaluation of the LiDAR-based terrain database integrity monitor using LiDAR data collected over Reno, Nevada. The paper will address the consistency checking mechanism and test statistic, sensitivity to position errors, and a comparison of the LiDAR-based integrity monitor to a radar altimeter-based integrity monitor.
This CCSDS paper presents a reference architecture and service framework for spacecraft monitoring and control. It has been prepared by the Spacecraft Monitoring and Control working group of the CCSDS Mission Operations and Information Management Systems (MOIMS) area. In this context, Spacecraft Monitoring and Control (SM&C) refers to end-to-end services between on- board or remote applications and ground-based functions responsible for mission operations. The scope of SM&C includes: 1) Operational Concept: definition of an operational concept that covers a set of standard operations activities related to the monitoring and control of both ground and space segments. 2) Core Set of Services: definition of an extensible set of services to support the operational concept together with its information model and behaviours. This includes (non exhaustively) ground systems such as Automatic Command and Control, Data Archiving and Retrieval, Flight Dynamics, Mission Planning and Performance Evaluation. 3) Application-layer information: definition of the standard information set to be exchanged for SM&C purposes.