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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 127 records · Page 7

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NASA NTRS1994

Engineering Analysis Subsystem Environment for Spacecraft Engineering Subsystem Mission Operations

The Engineering Analysis Subsystem Environment (EASE) prototype is a collection of computer programs on networked workstations providing a multimission, multisubsystem environment that enables the operation of several spacecraft simultaneously with fewer analysts. Through the use of automated tools, graphical data visualization and information management, EASE has achieved an increase in mission operations productivity. Recently, a database, a trending tool, and a power sequence expansion tool have been added to EASE. This paper discusses these enhancements and provides an update of the operation experience with the realtime Galileo telemetry data.

EASE↗

NASA NTRS1971

Energetic radiations from solar flares

An experiment designed to measure energetic X-rays, electrons, protons and alpha particles from solar flares aboard OGO 5 is reported. A brief statement of the objectives of the experiment is followed by a description of the instrumentation including detector characteristics and associated electronics. The data handling system is then described and the operational history of the experiment is discussed. This is followed by a description of the format of the magnetic data tapes and a summary of the major computer processing programs. The measurements made with this experiment within the first year of its operation have led to several basic results regarding the role of non-thermal electrons in the physics of solar flares. These results are described in the papers listed in the bibliography given at the end of this report.

Anderson, K. A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

EOS Operations Systems: EDOS Implemented Changes to Reduce Operations Costs

The authors describe in this paper the progress achieved to-date with the reengineering of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Operations System (EDOS), the experience gained in the process and the ensuing reduction of ground systems operations costs. The reengineering effort included a major methodology change, applying to an existing schedule driven system, a data-driven system approach.

Cordier, Guy R.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Analysis of Loss-of-Offsite-Power Events: Update

Loss-of-offsite power (LOOP) can have a negative impact on a nuclear power plant’s ability to achieve and maintain safe shutdown conditions. LOOP event frequencies and times required for subsequent restoration of offsite power are important inputs to plant probabilistic risk assessments. This report presents a statistical and engineering analysis of LOOP frequencies and durations at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study were based on the operating experience during calendar years 1987–2020, while the most recent 15-year data (i.e., from 2006–2020) were used for most analyses in this report. LOOP events during critical operation that did not result in a reactor trip are not included. Frequencies and durations were determined for four LOOP event categories: plant-centered, switchyard-centered, grid-related, and weather related. Highly significant decreasing trends in the LOOP occurrence rates were identified for All-LOOPs during critical operation (p-value = 0.001) and switchyard-centered LOOPs during critical operation (p-value = 0.002) for the most recent 10-year period (2011–2020). Adverse trends in LOOP durations continue for switchyard-centered LOOPs (p-value = 0.005), All-LOOPs (p-value = 0.019), as well as All-LOOPs during shutdown operation (p-value = 0.003). Statistical tests show the LOOP counts are not uniformly distributed across the 12 months, and variation among the months exists for plant-centered LOOPs (p-value = 0.028), grid-related LOOPs (p-value = 0.021), All-LOOPs (p-value = 0.003), and All-LOOPs during critical operation (p-value = 0.008). The engineering analysis of LOOP data showed for the period of 2006–2020, the equipment failure events were dominated by failures of circuits and relay; human errors have been less frequent and occurred primarily in maintenance; and weather events were dominated by tornadoes and lightning.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Analysis of Loss-of-Offsite-Power Events: 2021 Update

Loss-of-offsite power (LOOP) can have a negative impact on a nuclear power plant’s ability to achieve and maintain safe shutdown conditions. LOOP event frequencies and times required for subsequent restoration of offsite power are important inputs to plant probabilistic risk assessments. This report presents a statistical and engineering analysis of LOOP frequencies and durations at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study were based on the operating experience during calendar years 1987–2021, while the most recent 15-year data (i.e., from 2007–2021) were used for most analyses in this report. LOOP events during critical operation that did not result in a reactor trip are not included. Frequencies and durations were determined for four LOOP event categories: plant-centered, switchyard-centered, grid-related, and weather-related. These categories (and the All-LOOPs group which contains all LOOPs without regarding of the four categories) could be further grouped by whether a LOOP event occurred during critical operation, during shutdown operation, or during all operations. The following decreasing trends in the LOOP occurrence rates were identified for the most recent 10-year period (2012–2021): All-LOOPs during critical operation, switchyard-centered LOOPs during critical operation, and grid-related LOOPs during critical operation. Adverse trends in LOOP durations continue for switchyard-centered LOOPs during all operations, All-LOOPs during all operations, and All-LOOPs during shutdown operation for the 1997–2021 period. Statistical tests show the LOOP counts for the period of 2007–2021 are not uniformly distributed across the 12 months, and variation among the months exists for grid-related LOOPs during all operations, All-LOOPs during all operations, and All-LOOPs during critical operation. The engineering analysis of LOOP data showed for the period of 2007–2021, the equipment failure events were dominated by failures of relay and other; human errors have been less frequent and occurred primarily in maintenance and switching; and weather were dominated by tornadoes then by lightning and hurricane. Weather was the cause for 45% of LOOPs for the last fifteen years (2007– 2021) but only for 20% of LOOPs for the previous 20 years (1987–2006) .

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Monitoring Methods for Early Detection of Inadvertent Fission Product Release at the Advanced Test Reactor

Isotope effluent data obtained during three instances of experiment failures at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) are analyzed to provide an overview of the methods used to detect initial signs of unintended fission product release. The data is contextualized with the operational experience, including means of identification and subsequent mitigation strategies, gained during these events. General trends as well as variations in isotopic behavior between the three failures are explored. Background on the Real Time Monitor, a High Purity Germanium detector, and other fission product monitoring systems utilized at the Advanced Test Reactor is also provided. The presented analysis was used to establish administrative action levels which are currently utilized by ATR for early detection of experiment fission product release. Early identification provides time to make programmatic decisions before approaching safety and environmental limits.

21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLAN↗

DOE OSTI2024

Operation and performance of the MEG II detector

Abstract The MEG II experiment, located at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland, is the successor to the MEG experiment, which completed data taking in 2013. MEG II started fully operational data taking in 2021, with the goal of improving the sensitivity of the$$\upmu ^+ \rightarrow {\textrm{e}}^+ \upgamma $$ μ + → e + γ decay down to$$\sim 6 \times 10^{-14}$$ ∼ 6 × 10 - 14 almost an order of magnitude better than the current limit. In this paper, we describe the operation and performance of the experiment and give a new estimate of its sensitivity versus data acquisition time.

Physics↗

NASA NTRS2018

International Space Station Medical Projects - Full Services to Mars

The International Space Station Medical Projects (ISSMP) Element provides planning, integration, and implementation services for HRP research studies for both spaceflight and flight analog research. Through the implementation of these two efforts, ISSMP offers an innovative way of guiding research decisions to meet the unique challenges of understanding the human risks to space exploration. Flight services provided by ISSMP include leading informed consent briefings, developing and validating in-flight crew procedures, providing ISS crew and ground-controller training, real-time experiment monitoring, on-orbit experiment and hardware operations and facilitating data transfer to investigators. For analog studies at the NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), the ISSMP team provides subject recruitment and screening, science requirements integration, data collection schedules, data sharing agreements, mission scenarios and facilities to support investigators. The ISSMP also serves as the HRP interface to external analog providers including the :envihab bed rest facility (Cologne, Germany), NEK isolation chamber (Moscow, Russia) and the Antarctica research stations. Investigators working in either spaceflight or analog environments requires a coordinated effort between NASA and the investigators. The interdisciplinary nature of both flight and analog research requires investigators to be aware of concurrent research studies and take into account potential confounding factors that may impact their research objectives. Investigators must define clear research requirements, participate in Investigator Working Group meetings, obtain human use approvals, and provide study-specific training, sample and data collection and procedures all while adhering to schedule deadlines. These science requirements define the technical, functional and performance operations to meet the research objectives. The ISSMP maintains an expert team of professionals with the knowledge and experience to guide investigators science through all aspects of mission planning, crew operations, and research integration. During this session, the ISSMP team will discuss best-practices approaches for successfully preparing and conducting studies in both the flight and analog environments. Critical tips and tricks will be shown to greatly improve your chances of successfully completing your research aboard the International Space Station and in Spaceflight Analogs.

Pietrzyk, R. A.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Experiments for SINBAD: Evaluation of Oak Ridge Health Physics Research Reactor Operation Data for CAAS Benchmark Creation [Slides]

This report was a real information preservation and dissemination work with a lot of legacy content that was found and used. There was an abundance of uncertainty, discrepancy, and contradictory information. Yet, a detailed, functional SCALE model was built, and the benchmark created is useful for shielding and CAAs validation work. Sulfur fluence C/E ratios are large (2 to 5), so different benchmark metrics were studied. Neutron fluence, element 57 dose, and other dosimetry responses at 3 meters C/E ratios are below 1.5 for bare and steel configurations. Additional promising metrics as dose per unit fluence and steel shield attenuation were computed.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

NASA NTRS2012

The Impact of Satellite Atmospheric Motion Vectors in the GMAO GEOS-5 Global Data Assimilation System

The impact of satellite-derived atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) on numerical weather forecasts is examined using the GEOS-5 global atmospheric data assimilation system. Cycling data assimilation experiments, including twice-daily 5-day forecasts, are conducted for two 6-week periods during the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season and 2010-2011Northern Hemisphere winter season. Results from a control experiment that includes all AMVs and other data types assimilated operationally in GEOS-5 are compared with those from an experiment in which the GEOS-5 AMVs (only) are replaced by ones produced by the U. S. Navy?s NAVDAS-AR atmospheric data assimilation system. The Navy AMVs are assimilated in their entirety as well as in various subset combinations. The primary objective of these experiments is to determine whether aspects of the NAVDAS-AR data selection and quality control procedure, especially the use of carefully averaged ("super-ob?) wind vectors and large volume of AMVs, explain the typically larger beneficial impact of these data in the Navy system as compared with most other forecast systems. Adjoint-based observation impact calculations are assessed and compared with traditional metrics such as forecast geopotential height anomaly correlations and observation-minus-forecast departures. Results so far indicate that that the greater number of NRL AMVs is primarily responsible for their larger impact, although superobing also appears to be beneficial. Map views show that the impact obtained from assimilation of the NRL AMVs is more uniformly beneficial, perhaps due to the averaging of individual observations in creating the super-obs. While the NRL AMVs have a much larger impact in GEOS-5 than do the control AMVs, their impact is still smaller than in the Navy forecast system, suggesting that the mix of observations may play an important role in modulating the impact of any one data type. At the same time, reducing the number of satellite radiances assimilated in GEOS-5 does not significantly alter the impact of the AMVs

Gelaro, R. D.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Reliability modeling in a predictive maintenance context: A margin-based approach

Current system reliability methods (typically based on fault trees or reliability block diagrams) can effectively propagate reliability data from the asset to the system level in order to identify system critical points. However, employed asset reliability data are an approximated integral representation of the past industrywide operational experience, and they neglect the present asset health status (available, for example, from online monitoring data and diagnostic assessments) and forecasted health projection (when available from prognostic models). Asset health should be informed solely by that specific asset’s current and historical performance data and should not be an approximated integral representation of the past industrywide operational experience (as currently performed by system reliability models through Bayesian updating processes). Sensor data, diagnostic assessments, and prognostic assessments are in fact not considered in plant reliability models used to inform system engineers on the most critical assets. In addition, the propagation of quantitative health data from the asset to the system level is a challenge given the diverse nature and structure of health data elements (e.g., vibration spectra, temperature readings, expected failure time). Ideally, in a predictive maintenance context, system reliability models should support decision making by propagating available health information from the asset to the system level in order to provide a quantitative snapshot of system health and identify the most critical assets. Here, this paper is directly addressing these two goals by proposing a different approach for reliability modeling that relies on asset diagnostic and prognostic assessments, along with monitoring data to measure asset health. The propagation of health data from the asset to the system level is performed through fault tree models not in probability terms, but in terms of margin where margin is the “distance” between the present status and an undesired event (e.g., failure or unacceptable performance). Through a cause-effect lens, while classical reliability models target the effect associated with asset performance, a margin-based approach focuses on the cause of an undesired asset performance (i.e., its health). Hence, thinking of reliability in terms of margins implies decision-making based on causal reasoning. We will show how fault tree models can be solved using a margin language and how this process can effectively assist system engineers to identify the most critical assets.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS2010

The Applied Meteorology Unit: Nineteen Years Successfully Transitioning Research into Operations for America's Space Program

The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) provides technology transition and technique development to improve operational weather support to the Space Shuttle and the entire American space program. The AMU is funded and managed by NASA and operated by a contractor that provides five meteorologists with a diverse mix of advanced degrees, operational experience, and associated skills including data processing, statistics, and the development of graphical user interfaces. The AMU's primary customers are the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base, the National Weather Service Spaceflight Meteorology Group at NASA Johnson Space Center, and the National Weather Service Melbourne FL Forecast Office. The AMU has transitioned research into operations for nineteen years and worked on a wide range of topics, including new forecasting techniques for lightning probability, synoptic peak winds,.convective winds, and summer severe weather; satellite tools to predict anvil cloud trajectories and evaluate camera line of sight for Space Shuttle launch; optimized radar scan strategies; evaluated and implemented local numerical models; evaluated weather sensors; and many more. The AMU has completed 113 projects with 5 more scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010. During this rich history, the AMU and its customers have learned many lessons on how to effectively transition research into operations. Some of these lessons learned include collocating with the operational customer and periodically visiting geographically separated customers, operator submitted projects, consensus tasking process, use of operator primary advocates for each project, customer AMU liaisons with experience in both operations and research, flexibility in adapting the project plan based on lessons learned during the project, and incorporating training and other transition assistance into the project plans. Operator involvement has been critical to the AMU's remarkable success and many awards from NASA, the National Weather Association, and two citations from the Navy's Center of Excellence for Best Manufacturing Practices. This paper will present the AMU's proven methods and explain how they may be applied by other organizations to effectively transition research into operations.

Madura, John T.↗

NASA NTRS1972

OSO-6 Orbiting Solar Observatory

The description, development history, test history, and orbital performance analysis of the OSO-6 Orbiting Solar Observatory are presented. The OSO-6 Orbiting Solar Observatory was the sixth flight model of a series of scientific spacecraft designed to provide a stable platform for experiments engaged in the collection of solar and celestial radiation data. The design objective was 180 days of orbital operation. The OSO-6 has telemetered an enormous amount of very useful experiment and housekeeping data to GSFC ground stations. Observatory operation during the two-year reporting period was very successful except for some experiment instrument problems.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1974

Assess program: Interactive data management systems for airborne research

Two data systems were developed for use in airborne research. Both have distributed intelligence and are programmed for interactive support among computers and with human operators. The C-141 system (ADAMS) performs flight planning and telescope control functions in addition to its primary role of data acquisition; the CV-990 system (ADDAS) performs data management functions in support of many research experiments operating concurrently. Each system is arranged for maximum reliability in the first priority function, precision data acquisition.

Munoz, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1971

The Role of Remotely Sensed and Relayed Data in the Delaware River Basin

The planned integration of the existing water quality monitoring and data processing systems in the Delaware River Basin with a data relay experiment proposed for the ERTS-1 is discussed. The experiment is designed to use ERTS-1 as a data relay link for a maximum of 20 hydrologic stations in the basin, including stream gaging, reservoir level, ground water level, and water quality monitoring stations. This experiment has the potential for reducing the time lag between data collection and dissemination to less than 12 hours. The experiment will also provide impetus to develop an operational system of real time data processing and dissemination to handle the large quantity of data that will be obtained from the stations in the basin. The results of this experiment will demonstrate the relative merits of satellite relay of data versus conventional means of data telemetry and will provide a basis for the development of operational satellite relay of hydrologic data.

Paulson, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Kilopower Reactor Development and Testing

The Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) was the first nuclear-powered operation of a truly new fission reactor concept in the US in over 40 years. It provided valuable experience and data, demonstrated the passive reactor operation of the Kilopower reactor class, showed that developing a small reactor is not inherently expensive, and demonstrated a space reactor concept that can be used for near-term space science and exploration. KRUSTY/Kilopower is the first step towards truly astounding space fission capabilities

Gibson, Marc↗

NASA NTRS1975

NASA/ESA CV-990 airborne simulation of Spacelab

The paper describes the joint NASA/ESA extensive Spacelab simulation using the NASA CV-990 airborne laboratory. The scientific payload was selected to conduct studies in upper atmospheric physics and infrared astronomy. Two experiment operators from Europe and two from the U.S. were selected to live aboard the aircraft along with a mission manager for a six-day period and operate the experiments in behalf of the principal scientists. The mission was successful and provided extensive data relevant to Spacelab objectives on overall management of a complex international payload; experiment preparation, testing, and integration; training for proxy operation in space; data handling; multiexperimenter use of common experimenter facilities (telescopes); and schedule requirements to prepare for such a Spacelab mission.

Mulholland, D.↗

DOE OSTI2024

The Jefferson Lab Eta Factory Experiment and Applications of PbWO4 Calorimeters in Future Experimental Facilities

The goal of the new JLab Eta Factory (JEF) experiment, conducted with the GlueX detector in Hall D at Jefferson Lab, is to perform measurements of various ¿(') decays with a primary focus on rare neutral modes. The experiment’s physics program ranges from precision tests of low-energy QCD to searches for gauge bosons with masses below 1 GeV that could couple the Standard Model (SM) sector to the dark sector. The experiment will collect a high-statistics data sample of ¿(') mesons produced via a beam of tagged photons. The GlueX detector features a large, nearly uniform acceptance for both neutral and charged particles, enabling efficient identification of complex multi-particle final states. To meet the requirements of the JEF experiment, the inner section of the forward lead-glass calorimeter in the GlueX detector has been upgraded with lead tungstate (PbWO4) scintillating crystals. PbWO4 offers exceptional characteristics, such as a small radiation length and Molire radius, and large light yield, that make it ideal for constructing high- granularity, high-resolution, radiation-hard detectors. These properties enable excellent spatial separation and energy resolution of reconstructed electromagnetic showers, establishing PbWO4 as the material of choice for many high-precision experiments. The JEF experiment began data collection in April 2025 and will operate concurrently with the GlueX experiment, whose primary objective is the search for gluonic excitations in the meson spectrum. I will give an overview of the JEF experiment, the GlueX detector, and the feasibility of further upgrades to support future ¿ physics studies. Special attention will be given to the newly constructed PbWO4 scintillating calorimeter and recent advancements in calorimeter instrumentation.

Somov, Alexander↗