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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2015

NASA Work Experience

I have had the opportunity to support the analytical laboratories in chemical analysis of unknown samples, using Optical Microscopy (OM), Polarizing Light Microscopy (PLM), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEMEDS), and X-ray Powder Diffraction (XPD). I have assisted in characterizing fibers pulled from a spacecraft, a white fibrous residue discovered in a jet refueler truck, brown residue from a plant habitat slated for delivery to the ISS (International Space Station), corrosion on a pipe from a sprinkler, and air filtration material brought back from the ISS. I also conducted my own fiber study in order to practice techniques and further my understanding of background concepts. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to participate in diverse work assignments, where I was assigned to work with other branches of the engineering department for 1-2 days each. The first was in the Materials Science branch where I participated in the construction of the plant habitat intended for use in research aboard the ISS. The second was in the Testing Design branch where I assisted with tensile and hardness testing of over 40 samples. In addition, I have had the privilege to attend multiple tours of the NASA KSC campus, including to the Astronaut Crew Quarters, the VAB (the main area, the Columbia room, and the catwalk), the Visitor Center housing the shuttle Atlantis, the Saturn-V exhibit, the Prototype laboratory, SWAMP WORKS, the Shuttle Landing Facility, the Crawler, and the Booster Fabrication Facility (BFF). Lastly, much of my coursework prepared me for this experience, including numerous laboratory courses with topics diverse as chemistry, physics, and biology.

Florida Tech↗
NASA NTRS1999

Passengers, Crew, Life Support, and Insurance Considerations

This section describes the key issues, barriers, opportunities, and potential trip packages related to the needs and expectations of initial space adventure travelers. A variety of ideas to overcome barriers is presented that address financial, psychological, and sociological problems expected to be encountered in establishing a general PST and tourism business. Tour package descriptions range from near-term surface training facilities to far-term lunar ones. Recommendations include requirements pertaining to human factors in design and needed technology.

ONeil, Daniel A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Cassini tour navigation strategy

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997 as a joint NASA/ESA mission to explore Saturn. After a 7 year cruise the spacecraft will enter orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004 for a 4 year investigation of the Saturnian system. The Cassini Navigation Team is responsible for designing the reference trajectory and conducting operations to realize this design. This paper describes the strategy for achieving project requirements, the characteristics of the Cassini navigation challenge, and the underlying assumptions.

Saturn↗
NASA NTRS2018

Europa Lander Trajectory Design Using Lissajous Staging Orbits

Lissajous orbits and approximation of their invariant manifolds are used to generate landing trajectories to the surface of Europa. Each lissajous is discretized into individual revolutions that each resemble a periodic orbit. The unstable manifolds of each individual revolution propagated forward in time generate more surface coverage than manifolds of simple libration point orbits such as halo or Lyapunov orbits. The stable manifolds propagated backwards in time from the individual lissajous revolutions provide direct connections to the last phase of a moon tour. The strategy developed produces ballistic landing trajectories with a wide surface coverage, and allows for the decoupling of the landing and moon tour phase by using the lissajous as an intermediate staging orbit. The multiple revolutions of the lissajous, multiple departure times along each revolution, multiple quasi periodic options at each energy, and multiple energies of the lissajous family provide many degrees of freedom in the design process.

McElarth, Timothy P.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Co-Op Tour Summary Report

While on assignment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I participated in the development of the X-33 Avionics Flight Experiment (AFE). This ideal opportunity not only gave me an insider's look at the design and operation of modern aerospace avionics, but also allowed be to interact with others in the industry in an effort to stay on the cutting edge of the new technologies being incorporated into existing avionics architectures.

Avionics flight Experiment aerospace avionics new ↗
NASA NTRS1998

Summary Report of the First International Symposium on Strain Gauge Balances and Workshop on AoA/Model Deformation Measurement Techniques

The first International Symposium on Strain Gauge Balances was sponsored under the auspices of the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), Hampton, Virginia. Held at the LaRC Reid Conference Center, the Symposium provided an open international forum for presentation, discussion, and exchange of technical information among wind tunnel test technique specialists and strain gauge balance designers. The Symposium also served to initiate organized professional activities among the participating and relevant international technical communities. The program included a panel discussion, technical paper sessions, tours of local facilities, and vendor exhibits. Over 130 delegates were in attendance from 15 countries. A steering committee was formed to plan a second international balance symposium tentatively scheduled to be hosted in the United Kingdom in 1998 or 1999. The Balance Symposium was followed bv the half-day, Workshop on Angle of Attack and Model Deformation on the afternoon of October 25. The thrust of the Workshop was to assess the state of the art in angle of attack (AoA) and model deformation measurement techniques and to discuss future developments.

Tripp, John S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Summary Report of the First International Symposium on Strain Gauge Balances and Workshop on AoA/Model Deformation Measurement Techniques

The first International Symposium on Strain Gauge Balances was sponsored under the auspices of the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), Hampton, Virginia during October 22-25, 1996. Held at the LaRC Reid Conference Center, the Symposium provided an open international forum for presentation, discussion, and exchange of technical information among wind tunnel test technique specialists and strain gauge balance designers. The Symposium also served to initiate organized professional activities among the participating and relevant international technical communities. The program included a panel discussion, technical paper sessions, tours of local facilities, and vendor exhibits. Over 130 delegates were in attendance from 15 countries. A steering committee was formed to plan a second international balance symposium tentatively scheduled to be hosted in the United Kingdom in 1998 or 1999. The Balance Symposium was followed by the half-day Workshop on Angle of Attack and Model Deformation on the afternoon of October 25. The thrust of the Workshop was to assess the state of the art in angle of attack (AoA) and model deformation measurement techniques and to discuss future developments.

Tripp, John S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Life test performance of a Philips rhombic-drive refrigerator with bellows seals

In February 1979, tour Stirling cycle cryogenic refrigerators, developed by Philips Laboratories for the John Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, were launched into orbit aboard the P78-1 spacecraft. The refrigerators were designed to cool the detectors of two identical gamma-ray spectrometers to 77 K reliably for one year. Since launch, the refrigerators, still in orbit, have individually accumulated from 5,000 to over 20,000 hours of operation. As part of those efforts, a refrigerator identical to those in orbit was built, with one significant modification: flexible metal bellows between the crankcase and the working volume to prevent possible contaminants from migrating into the cold region. During the life test of the modified refrigerator, the temperature increase during the first three month run was 0.022 k/day, a negligible level. As of October 1982, the unit has accumulated over 12,300 hours of operation.

Lindale, E.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Results of the JIMO Follow-on Destinations Parametric Studies

NASA's proposed Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter (JIMO) mission currently in conceptual development is to be the first one of a series of highly capable Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) science driven missions. To understand the implications of a multi-mission capability requirement on the JIMO vehicle and mission, the NASA Prometheus Program initiated a set of parametric high-level studies to be followed by a series of more in-depth studies. The JIMO potential follow-on destinations identified include a Saturn system tour, a Neptune system tour, a Kuiper Belt Objects rendezvous, an Interstellar Precursor mission, a Multiple Asteroid Sample Return and a Comet Sample Return. This paper shows that the baseline JIMO reactor and design envelop can satisfy five out of six of the follow-on destinations. Flight time to these destinations can significantly be reduced by increasing the launch energy or/and by inserting gravity assists to the heliocentric phase.

nuclear electric propulsion↗
NASA NTRS1991

Automated design of gravity-assist trajectories to Mars and the outer planets

In this paper, a new approach to planetary mission design is described which automates the search for gravity-assist trajectories. This method finds all conic solutions given a range of launch dates, a range of launch energies and a set of target planets. The new design tool is applied to the problems of finding multiple encounter trajectories to the outer planets and Venus gravity-assist trajectories to Mars. The last four-planet grand tour opportunity (until the year 2153) is identified. It requires an earth launch in 1996 and encounters Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Venus gravity-assist trajectories to Mars for the 30 year period 1995-2024 are examined. It is shown that in many cases these trajectories require less launch energy to reach Mars than direct ballistic trajectories.

Longuski, James M.↗
DOE OSTI2021

HydrogenAR: Interactive Data-Driven Presentation of Dispenser Reliability: Preprint

When delivering presentations to a co-located audience, we typically use slides with text and 2D graphics to complement the spoken narrative. Though presentations have largely been explored on 2D media, augmented reality (AR) allows presentation designers to add data and augmentations to existing physical infrastructure on display. This could provide a more engaging experience to the audience and support comprehension. With HydrogenAR, we present a novel application that leverages the benefits of data-driven storytelling with those of AR to explain the unique challenges of hydrogen dis- penser reliability. Utilizing physical props, situated data, and virtual augmentations and animations, HydrogenAR serves as a unique presentation tool, particularly critical for stakeholders, tour groups, and VIPs. HydrogenAR is a product of multiple collaborative de- sign iterations with a local Hydrogen Fuel research team and is evaluated through interviews with team members and a user study with end-users to evaluate the usability and quality of the interactive AR experience. Through this work, we provide design considera- tions for AR data-driven presentations and discuss how AR could be used for innovative content delivery beyond traditional slide-based presentations.

augmented reality↗
NASA NTRS2002

NASA Microgravity Science Competition for High-school-aged Student Teams

NASA participates in a wide variety of educational activities including competitive events. There are competitive events sponsored by NASA and student teams which are mentored by NASA centers. This participation by NASA in public forums serves to bring the excitement of aerospace science to students and educators. A new competition for highschool-aged student teams involving projects in microgravity has completed two pilot years and will have national eligibility for teams during the 2002-2003 school year. A team participating in the Dropping In a Microgravity Environment will research the field of microgravity, develop a hypothesis, and prepare a proposal for an experiment to be conducted in a microgravity drop tower facility. A team of NASA scientists and engineers will select the top proposals and those teams will then design and build their experiment apparatus. When the experiment apparatus are completed, team representatives will visit NASA Glenn in Cleveland, Ohio for operation of their facility and participate in workshops and center tours. Presented in this paper will be a description of DIME, an overview of the planning and execution of such a program, results from the first two pilot years, and a status of the first national competition.

DeLombard, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2003

High-school Student Teams in a National NASA Microgravity Science Competition

The Dropping In a Microgravity Environment or DIME competition for high-school-aged student teams has completed the first year for nationwide eligibility after two regional pilot years. With the expanded geographic participation and increased complexity of experiments, new lessons were learned by the DIME staff. A team participating in DIME will research the field of microgravity, develop a hypothesis, and prepare a proposal for an experiment to be conducted in a NASA microgravity drop tower. A team of NASA scientists and engineers will select the top proposals and then the selected teams will design and build their experiment apparatus. When completed, team representatives will visit NASA Glenn in Cleveland, Ohio to operate their experiment in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower and participate in workshops and center tours. NASA participates in a wide variety of educational activities including competitive events. There are competitive events sponsored by NASA (e.g. NASA Student Involvement Program) and student teams mentored by NASA centers (e.g. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition). This participation by NASA in these public forums serves to bring the excitement of aerospace science to students and educators.Researchers from academic institutions, NASA, and industry utilize the 2.2 Second Drop Tower at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio for microgravity research. The researcher may be able to complete the suite of experiments in the drop tower but many experiments are precursor experiments for spaceflight experiments. The short turnaround time for an experiment's operations (45 minutes) and ready access to experiment carriers makes the facility amenable for use in a student program. The pilot year for DIME was conducted during the 2000-2001 school year with invitations sent out to Ohio- based schools and organizations. A second pilot year was conducted during the 2001-2002 school year for teams in the six-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The third year for DIME was conducted during the 2002-2003 school year for teams from the fifty United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. An annual national DIME program is planned for the foreseeable future. Presented in this paper will be a description of DIME, an overview of the planning and execution of such a program, results from the first three years, and lessons learned from the first national competition.

DeLombard, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1973

The Jupiter orbiter satellite tour mission

Consideration of the problem of exploring the Jupiter-Galilean satellite system by a spacecraft in orbit about the planet. A simple patched conic algorithm is developed which identifies Jupiter orbiter trajectories that utilize gravity assist flybys of the Galilean satellites. A detailed reference mission is designed against specific science criteria for satellite exploration to demonstrate the possible science return of utilizing close satellite encounters. A navigation strategy is developed, including both planet and satellite relative orbit determination and a maneuver analysis; spacecraft delivery statistics are determined in the barycentric Jupiter-Galilean satellite coordinate system and mapped to the satellite target planes to determine feasibility. A simple maneuver sequence is employed which yields acceptable velocity requirements.

Beckman, J. C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Improvements to Thermal Protection System Design of Aerocapture Systems for Uranus Orbiters

The National Academies Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey identified Uranus and Neptune - called Ice Giants - as the priority destinations for science. The survey assessed both a mission to Uranus through the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) concept, and Neptune through the Neptune-Triton Odyssey concept and determined that Uranus is the highest priority for a Flagship class mission. The UOP mission concept planned to deliver an in situ probe and conduct a multi-year orbital tour of the system to meet the science objectives. While the Uranus mission is currently viable with launch windows starting in 2031 using existing launch vehicles, the mission has a cruise phase of at least 12 years and would require more than half of its weight in fuel propellant to achieve the change in velocity necessary for orbital insertion. Aerocapture uses aerodynamic forces generated on a vehicle by the planet's atmosphere to modulate a spacecraft's trajectory, decreasing spacecraft velocity, and allowing mission designers to target the final orbital state. Aerocapture reduces the time-of-flight from Earth to Uranus over a fully propulsive solution, opening up more launch opportunities to arrive in the 2040's to the mission's science objectives. Aerocapture also allows a payload mass increase by mitigating the need for fuel to retropropulsively insert the payload into orbit, thereby increase the science that can be performed. For an aerocapture mission structure using a traditional aeroshell to deliver the UOP scientific payload to Uranus, Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (C-PICA) was determined to be the best-performing forebody thermal protection system (TPS) and other candidate aftbody TPS options were presented as feasible. This paper focuses on A) evaluating C-PICA as a forebody TPS using stressing entry conditions associated with a large range of potential Uranus flagship launch vehicles and interplanetary trajectories, B) widening the aftbody TPS candidates for new mass-efficient and cost-efficient solutions, and C) a summary list of actions remaining to provide a technically feasible and supply-robust set of TPS for an aerocapture vehicle to the Ice Giants is presented.

C-PICA↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Improvements to Thermal Protection System Design of Aerocapture Systems for Uranus Orbiters

The National Academies Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey identified Uranus and Neptune - called Ice Giants - as the priority destinations for science. The survey assessed both a mission to Uranus through the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) concept, and Neptune through the Neptune-Triton Odyssey concept and determined that Uranus is the highest priority for a Flagship class mission. The UOP mission concept planned to deliver an in situ probe and conduct a multi-year orbital tour of the system to meet the science objectives. While the Uranus mission is currently viable with launch windows starting in 2031 using existing launch vehicles, the mission has a cruise phase of at least 12 years and would require more than half of its weight in fuel propellant to achieve the change in velocity necessary for orbital insertion. Aerocapture uses aerodynamic forces generated on a vehicle by the planet's atmosphere to modulate a spacecraft's trajectory, decreasing spacecraft velocity, and allowing mission designers to target the final orbital state. Aerocapture reduces the time-of-flight from Earth to Uranus over a fully propulsive solution, opening up more launch opportunities to arrive in the 2040's to the mission's science objectives. Aerocapture also allows a payload mass increase by mitigating the need for fuel to retropropulsively insert the payload into orbit, thereby increase the science that can be performed. For an aerocapture mission structure using a traditional aeroshell to deliver the UOP scientific payload to Uranus, Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (C-PICA) was determined to be the best-performing forebody thermal protection system (TPS) and other candidate aftbody TPS options were presented as feasible. This paper focuses on A) evaluating C-PICA as a forebody TPS using stressing entry conditions associated with a large range of potential Uranus flagship launch vehicles and interplanetary trajectories, B) widening the aftbody TPS candidates for new mass-efficient and cost-efficient solutions, and C) a summary list of actions remaining to provide a technically feasible and supply-robust set of TPS for an aerocapture vehicle to the Ice Giants is presented.

C-PICA↗
NASA NTRS2006

Cassini-Huygens Maneuver Experience: Second Year of Saturn Tour

This paper documents the maneuver experience during the second year of the Cassini-Huygens mission at Saturn. Since Saturn arrival in July 2004, the Cassini orbiter has made many flybys of Titan and Saturn's icy satellites. From August 2005 to June 2006, there were 39 planned maneuvers designed to target Cassini to aimpoints near Titan, Hyperion, Dione, and Rhea. Highlights of this paper include maneuver designs and strategies, maneuver performance, maneuver cancellation rationales, and a new maneuver execution-error model based on maneuvers executed to date.

navigation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Thermal Protection System Design of Aerocapture Systems for Uranus Orbiters

The National Academies Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey recently identified Uranus and Neptune - called Ice Giants - as the priority destinations for science[1]. The survey assessed both a mission to Uranus through the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) concept, and Neptune through the Neptune-Triton Odyssey concept and determined that Uranus is the highest priority for a Flagship class mission. The UOP mission will deliver an in situ probe and conduct a multi-year orbital tour of the system to meet the science objectives. While the Uranus mission is currently viable with launch windows starting in 2031 using existing launch vehicles, the mission has a long cruise time to destination (between 12 and 15 years) and would require more than half of its weight in fuel propellant to achieve the change in velocity necessary for orbital insertion. Aerocapture is a method of orbital control that uses aerodynamic forces generated on a vehicle by the planet’s atmosphere to modulate a spacecraft’s trajectory, allowing mission designers to target the final orbital state. For the Uranus mission, using aerocapture for orbital insertion can decrease not only the cruise time to the destination by 2 - 3 years, but the propellant required to achieve orbital insertion (by more than 40%) which would, in turn, increase the available science payload and reduce the timeline for retrieving data vital to the mission’s science objectives[2]. Achieving orbital insertion via aerocapture requires novel algorithms for Guidance, Navigation and Control[3], and mass-efficient Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) performing in a new atmosphere. This paper will focus on the selection and tailoring of the Thermal Protection Systems for the forebody and aftbody heatshields of an aerocapture mission to Uranus. While preliminary results indicate that multiple systems in NASA’s repertoire are capable of performing in the predicted aerothermal environment there are unique aspects like the inert environment that affect ablation efficiency, and the heatload for aerocapture trajectories to the outer planets are among the highest of any mission to-date[4]. These two factors may impose operational requirements to heatshield separation in order to minimize thermal soak to the payload, and may demand TPS thickness and configurations that have not yet been demonstrated. This paper will discuss the updated maturity, manufacturing, and performance capabilities of candidate thermal protection systems, with specific areas of need highlighted to make thermal protection systems viable for use in the recommended Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission.

Uranus↗