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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 1,243 records · Page 69

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1974

Application of IPAD to missile design

The application of an integrated program for aerospace-vehicle design (IPAD) to the design of a tactical missile is examined. The feasibility of modifying a proposed IPAD system for aircraft design work for use in missile design is evaluated. The tasks, cost, and schedule for the modification are presented. The basic engineering design process is described, explaining how missile design is achieved through iteration of six logical problem solving functions throughout the system studies, preliminary design, and detailed design phases of a new product. Existing computer codes used in various engineering disciplines are evaluated for their applicability to IPAD in missile design.

Santa, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Study to define an approach for developing a computer-based system capable of automatic, unattended assembly/disassembly of spacecraft, phase 1

The initial set of requirements for additional studies necessary to implement a space-borne, computer-based work system capable of achieving assembly, disassembly, repair, or maintenance in space were developed. The specific functions required of a work system to perform repair and maintenance were discussed. Tasks and relevant technologies were identified and delineated. The interaction of spacecraft design and technology options, including a consideration of the strategic issues of repair versus retrieval-replacement or destruction by removal were considered along with the design tradeoffs for accomplishing each of the options. A concept system design and its accompanying experiment or test plan were discussed.

Nevins, J. L.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Process research of non-CZ silicon material

High risk, high payoff research areas associated with the Westinghouse process for producing photovoltaic modules using non- CZ sheet material were investigated. All work was performed using dendritic web silicon. The following tasks are discussed and associated technical results are given: (1) determining the technical feasibility of forming front and back junctions in non-CT silicon using dopant techniques; (2) determining the feasibility of forming a liquid applied diffusion mask to replace the more costly chemical vapor deposited SiO2 diffusion mask; (3) determining the feasibility of applying liquid anti-reflective solutions using meniscus coating equipment; (4) studying the production of uniform, high efficiency solar cells using ion implanation junction formation techniques; and (5) quantifying cost improvements associated with process improvements.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1983

Energy efficient engine, high pressure turbine thermal barrier coating. Support technology report

This report describes the work performed on a thermal barrier coating support technology task of the Energy Efficient Engine Component Development Program. A thermal barrier coating (TBC) system consisting of a Ni-Cr-Al-Y bond cost layer and ZrO2-Y2O3 ceramic layer was selected from eight candidate coating systems on the basis of laboratory tests. The selection was based on coating microstructure, crystallographic phase composition, tensile bond and bend test results, erosion and impact test results, furnace exposure, thermal cycle, and high velocity dynamic oxidation test results. Procedures were developed for applying the selected TBC to CF6-50, high pressure turbine blades and vanes. Coated HPT components were tested in three kinds of tests. Stage 1 blades were tested in a cascade cyclic test rig, Stage 2 blades were component high cycle fatigue tested to qualify thermal barrier coated blades for engine testing, and Stage 2 blades and Stage 1 and 2 vanes were run in factory engine tests. After completion of the 1000 cycle engine test, the TBC on the blades was in excellent condition over all of the platform and airfoil except at the leading edge above midspan on the suction side of the airfoil. The coating damage appeared to be caused by particle impingement; adjacent blades without TBC also showed evidence of particle impingement.

Duderstadt, E. C.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The applications of computers in biological research

Research in many fields could not be done without computers. There is often a great deal of technical data, even in the biological fields, that need to be analyzed. These data, unfortunately, previously absorbed much of every researcher's time. Now, due to the steady increase in computer technology, biological researchers are able to make incredible advances in their work without the added worries of tedious and difficult tasks such as the many mathematical calculations involved in today's research and health care.

Wei, Jennifer↗

NASA NTRS1991

Vibration isolation technology: Sensitivity of selected classes of experiments to residual accelerations

Work was completed on all aspects of the following tasks: order of magnitude estimates; thermo-capillary convection - two-dimensional (fixed planar surface); thermo-capillary convection - three-dimensional and axisymmetric; liquid bridge/floating zone sensitivity; transport in closed containers; interaction: design and development stages; interaction: testing flight hardware; and reporting. Results are included in the Appendices.

Alexander, J. Iwan D.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Naming the newly found landforms on Venus

The mapping of Venus is unique in the history of cartigraphy; never has so much territory been discovered and mapped in so short a period of time. Therefore, in the interest of international scientific communication, there is a unique urgency to the development of a system of names for surface features on Venus. The process began with the naming of features seen on radar images taken from Earth and continued through mapping expeditions of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. However, the Magellan Mission resolves features twenty-five times smaller than those mapped previously, and its radar data will cover an area nearly equivalent to that of the continents and the sea-floors of the Earth combined. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was charged with the formal endorsement of names of features on the planets. Proposed names are collected, approved, and applied through the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and its task groups, prior to IAU approval by the IAU General Assembly. Names approved by the WGPSN and its task groups, prior to final approval may be used on published maps and articles, provided that their provisional nature is stipulated. The IAU has established themes for the names to be used on each of the planets; names of historical and mythological women are used on Venus. Names of political entities and those identified with active religions are not acceptable, and a person must have been deceased for three years or more to be considered. Any interested person may propose a name for consideration by the IAU.

Batson, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Data-Acquisition System With Remotely Adjustable Amplifiers

Improved data-acquisition system has both centralized and decentralized characteristics developed. Provides infrastructure for automation and standardization of operation, maintenance, calibration, and adjustment of many transducers. Increases efficiency by reducing need for diminishing work force of highly trained technicians to perform routine tasks. Large industrial and academic laboratory facilities benefit from systems like this one.

Nurge, Mark A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

SimTool - An object based approach to simulation construction

The creation and maintenance of large complex simulations can be a difficult and error prone task. A number of interactive and automated tools have been developed to aid in simulation construction and maintenance. Many of these tools are based upon object oriented analysis and design concepts. One such tool, SimTool, is an object based integrated tool set for the development, maintenance, and operation of large, complex and long lived simulations. This paper discusses SimTool's object based approach to simulation design, construction and execution. It also discusses the services provided to various levels of SimTool users to assist them in a wide range of simulation tasks. Also, with the aid of an implemented and working simulation example, this paper discusses SimTool's key design and operational features. Finally, this paper presents a condensed discussion of SimTool's Entity-Relationship-Attribute (ERA) modeling approach.

Crues, Edwin Z.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) proposed dual-use technology investment program in intelligent robots

This paper presents an overview of the proposed Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) precompetitive, dual-use technology investment project in robotics. New robotic technology in advanced robots, which can recognize and respond to their environments and to spoken human supervision so as to perform a variety of combined mobility and manipulation tasks in various sectors, is an obejective of this work. In the U.S. economy, such robots offer the benefits of improved global competitiveness in a critical industrial sector; improved productivity by the end users of these robots; a growing robotics industry that produces jobs and profits; lower cost health care delivery with quality improvements; and, as these 'intelligent' robots become acceptable throughout society, an increase in the standard of living for everyone. In space, such robots will provide improved safety, reliability, and productivity as Space Station evolves, and will enable human space exploration (by human/robot teams). The proposed effort consists of partnerships between manufacturers, universities, and JSC to develop working production prototypes of these robots by leveraging current development by both sides. Currently targeted applications are in the manufacturing, health care, services, and construction sectors of the U.S. economy and in the inspection, servicing, maintenance, and repair aspects of space exploration. But the focus is on the generic software architecture and standardized interfaces for custom modules tailored for the various applications allowing end users to customize a robot as PC users customize PC's. Production prototypes would be completed in 5 years under this proposal.

Erikson, Jon D.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Troika partnership model for licensing NASA-LaRC technologies

The Technology Applications (TAG) Group at NASA Langley Research Center has currently more than 100 technologies that are ripe for commercialization. These technologies are categorized by various sectors including: Energy and the Environment; Materials and Structures; Manufacturing; Information and Communications; Transportation, and Medical/Sensor/ Instrumentation. A requirement that TAG has placed on all technologies ready for licensing is that there will be some university involvement in the technology transfer or knowledge transfer process. This model involves the troika of government (LaRC), industry and university. A number of variations on the Troika Partnership Model (TPM) were developed as a part of this ASEE Fellowship. Furthermore, five technologies were identified - three of which industrial interests have been matched: LaRC-SI, a thermoplastic that can be used as a coating; Variable Geometry Truss Manipulator Arm that can be used for nuclear waste clean -up and as scaffolding; and ADAPT (Approach to Data Management, Archive Protection, and Transmission) is a technology that could be used for a variety of multi-tasking operations over the Internet. The aim of this work was to initiate a Space Act Agreement (SAA) for at least one of these technologies using one of the options of the TPM. A preliminary partnership agreement using the SAA is currently being negotiated with NASA-LaRC, VPI and Virginia Power for the LaRC-SI thermoplastic that will be used as a coating.

Maclin, Arlene P.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) proposed dual-use technology investment program in intelligent robotics

This paper presents an overview of the proposed Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) precompetitive, dual-use technology investment project in robotics. New robotic technology in advanced robots, which can recognize and respond to their environments and to spoken human supervision so as to perform a variety of combined mobility and manipulation tasks in various sectors, is an objective of this work. In the U.S. economy, such robots offer the benefits of improved global competitiveness in a critical industrial sector; improved productivity by the end users of these robots; a growing robotics industry that produces jobs and profits; lower cost health care delivery with quality improvements; and, as these 'intelligent' robots become acceptable throughout society, an increase in the standard of living for everyone. In space, such robots will provide improved safety, reliability, and productivity as Space Station evolves, and will enable human space exploration (by human/robot teams). The proposed effort consists of partnerships between manufacturers, universities, and JSC to develop working production prototypes of these robots by leveraging current development by both sides. Currently targeted applications are in the manufacturing, health care, services, and construction sectors of the U.S. economy and in the inspection, servicing, maintenance, and repair aspects of space exploration. But the focus is on the generic software architecture and standardized interfaces for custom modules tailored for the various applications allowing end users to customize a robot as PC users customize PC's. Production prototypes would be completed in 5 years under this proposal.

Erickson, Jon D.↗

NASA NTRS1999

CA Testing Workshops: Process, Issues, Results

This presentation will describe the organization and conduct of the workshops, list the topics discussed, and conclude with a more-detailed examination of a related set of issues dear to the presenters heart. Because the current HSCT configuration is expected to have (mostly) turbulent flow over the wings, and because current CFD predictions assume fully-turbulent flow, the wind tunnel testing to date has attempted to duplicate this condition at the lower Reynolds numbers attainable on the ground. This frequently requires some form of artificial boundary layer trip to induce transition near the wing's leading edge. But this innocent-sounding goal leads to a number of complications, and it is not clear that present-day testing technology is adequate to the task. An description of some of the difficulties, and work underway to address them, forms the "Results" section of this talk. Additional results of the testing workshop will be covered in presentations by other team members.

Kennelly, Robert A., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Microwave Remote Sensing and the Cold Land Processes Field Experiment

The Cold Land Processes Field Experiment (CLPX) has been designed to advance our understanding of the terrestrial cryosphere. Developing a more complete understanding of fluxes, storage, and transformations of water and energy in cold land areas is a critical focus of the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy, the NASA Global Water and Energy Cycle (GWEC) Initiative, the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX), and the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP). The movement of water and energy through cold regions in turn plays a large role in ecological activity and biogeochemical cycles. Quantitative understanding of cold land processes over large areas will require synergistic advancements in 1) understanding how cold land processes, most comprehensively understood at local or hillslope scales, extend to larger scales, 2) improved representation of cold land processes in coupled and uncoupled land-surface models, and 3) a breakthrough in large-scale observation of hydrologic properties, including snow characteristics, soil moisture, the extent of frozen soils, and the transition between frozen and thawed soil conditions. The CLPX Plan has been developed through the efforts of over 60 interested scientists that have participated in the NASA Cold Land Processes Working Group (CLPWG). This group is charged with the task of assessing, planning and implementing the required background science, technology, and application infrastructure to support successful land surface hydrology remote sensing space missions. A major product of the experiment will be a comprehensive, legacy data set that will energize many aspects of cold land processes research. The CLPX will focus on developing the quantitative understanding, models, and measurements necessary to extend our local-scale understanding of water fluxes, storage, and transformations to regional and global scales. The experiment will particularly emphasize developing a strong synergism between process-oriented understanding, land surface models and microwave remote sensing. The experimental design is a multi-sensor, multi-scale (1-ha to 160,000 km ^ {2}) approach to providing the comprehensive data set necessary to address several experiment objectives. A description focusing on the microwave remote sensing components (ground, airborne, and spaceborne) of the experiment will be presented.

Kim, Edward J.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Optimal Synthesis of Compliant Mechanisms using Subdivision and Commercial FEA (DETC2004-57497)

The field of distributed-compliance mechanisms has seen significant work in developing suitable topology optimization tools for their design. These optimal design tools have grown out of the techniques of structural optimization. This paper will build on the previous work in topology optimization and compliant mechanism design by proposing an alternative design space parameterization through control points and adding another step to the process, that of subdivision. The control points allow a specific design to be represented as a solid model during the optimization process. The process of subdivision creates an additional number of control points that help smooth the surface (for example a C(sup 2) continuous surface depending on the method of subdivision chosen) creating a manufacturable design free of some traditional numerical instabilities. Note that these additional control points do not add to the number of design parameters. This alternative parameterization and description as a solid model effectively and completely separates the design variables from the analysis variables during the optimization procedure. The motivation behind this work is to create an automated design tool from task definition to functional prototype created on a CNC or rapid-prototype machine. This paper will describe the proposed compliant mechanism design process and will demonstrate the procedure on several examples common in the literature.

Hull, Patrick V.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Risk Management Implementation Tool

Continuous Risk Management (CM) is a software engineering practice with processes, methods, and tools for managing risk in a project. It provides a controlled environment for practical decision making, in order to assess continually what could go wrong, determine which risk are important to deal with, implement strategies to deal with those risk and assure the measure effectiveness of the implemented strategies. Continuous Risk Management provides many training workshops and courses to teach the staff how to implement risk management to their various experiments and projects. The steps of the CRM process are identification, analysis, planning, tracking, and control. These steps and the various methods and tools that go along with them, identification, and dealing with risk is clear-cut. The office that I worked in was the Risk Management Office (RMO). The RMO at NASA works hard to uphold NASA s mission of exploration and advancement of scientific knowledge and technology by defining and reducing program risk. The RMO is one of the divisions that fall under the Safety and Assurance Directorate (SAAD). I worked under Cynthia Calhoun, Flight Software Systems Engineer. My task was to develop a help screen for the Continuous Risk Management Implementation Tool (RMIT). The Risk Management Implementation Tool will be used by many NASA managers to identify, analyze, track, control, and communicate risks in their programs and projects. The RMIT will provide a means for NASA to continuously assess risks. The goals and purposes for this tool is to provide a simple means to manage risks, be used by program and project managers throughout NASA for managing risk, and to take an aggressive approach to advertise and advocate the use of RMIT at each NASA center.

Wright, Shayla L.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Recommendations for UAS Crew Ratings. Pilot Ratings and Authorization Requirements for UAS

This position paper is intended to recommend the minimum certificate and rating requirements for a pilot to operate an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the National Airspace System. The paper will recommend the minimum requirements based on the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) required of a UAS pilot and show how those compare to the KSAs required by regulation for manned-aircraft pilots. The paper will provide substantiation based on studies conducted using analyses, simulation and flight experience. The paper is not yet complete; only initial working material is included. The material provided describes the body of work completed thus far and the plan for remaining tasks to complete the recommendation. The HSI Pilot KSA document provides an analysis of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for UAS operation in the NAS. It is the source document used for the position paper.

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NASA NTRS2008

Staying Motivated During Tough Times

This paper describes the problem of team motivation on a project. Our team was working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The task consisted of figuring out how to safely control and land an airliner using just the thrust from the engines. This is called Throttles-Only Control (TOC). We weren't allowed to modify the airliner in any way, given the time and cost involved, and we had to use a stock airliner with line pilots. The idea was to give the pilots an emergency checklist which would provide them with the most useful information in the shortest time to learn how to fly TOC. The DHS Program office that was supporting us had its funding redirected, due to new priorities. The process of staying motivated for finishing as much of the project as possible is described.

Cole, Jennifer H.↗