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NASA NTRS2019

NASA Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Efforts

NASA's broad investments in Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) are reviewed in this paper. NASA investments are guided by an assessment of potential market impacts, technical key performance parameters, and technology readiness attained through a combination of studies, enabling fundamental research, and flight research. NASA has determined that the impact of EAP varies by market and NASA is considering three markets: national/international, on-demand mobility, and short haul regional air transport. Flight research is underway to demonstrate integrated solutions and inform standards and certification processes. This paper focuses on the vehicle related activities, however there are related NASA activities in air space management and vehicle autonomy activities as well as a breakthrough technology project called the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project. A key finding is that sufficient technical advances in key areas have been made which indicate EAP is a viable technology for aircraft. Significant progress has been made to reduce EAP adoption barriers and further work is needed to transition the technology to a commercial product and improve the technology so it is applicable to large transonic aircraft. This paper will review the activities of the Hybrid Gas Electric Subproject of the Advanced Air Transport Technology Project, the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Project, and the X-57 Flight Demonstration Project, and discuss the potential EAP benefits for commercial and military applications.

Jansen, Ralph H.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Definition of a Technology Validation Mission for P-band Reflectometry using Signals of Opportunity

Root-Zone Soil Moisture (RZSM) (moisture profile in the top meter of soil) and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) (total snow pack water content) are identified as priority target variables in the ESAS 2017 decadal survey [1] with critical roles in hydrology and water management. RZSM estimates are vital for understanding multiple Earth system processes and forecasting (for example, droughts [2]). Simultaneous knowledge of surface and RZSM could enable a breakthrough in estimating key unobserved hydrologic fluxes and reduce uncertainty in net ecosystem exchange (NEE), carbon balance [3] discharge estimates, and crop yield forecasts [4] .With the high albedo and insulating properties of snow, monitoring, SWE accumulation would provide a key constraint on the potential runoff during spring ablation while monitoring SWE disappearance rates would provide a key constraint on SWE partition into runoff vs. infiltration/recharge. [5] demonstrated that knowledge of early-spring SWE generally contributes most to streamflow forecast skill in the Western U.S. SWE is also a source of water storage that provides the water resources during spring snowmelt. Despite such potentially transformative contributions, accurate RZSM and SWE measurements are unattainable with current technology. While active/passive L-band methods (e.g. SMAP, SMOS) can reliably retrieve surface soil moisture in the top 5 cm of soil [6], [7]. RZSM estimates are only available through model assimilation of brightness temperatures with a radiative transfer and land surface models [8]. SWE estimation uses multi-frequency passive microwave techniques (e.g. [9]-[11]), which have significant problems with deeper snow and in forested and mountainous environments [12]. Signals of opportunity (SoOp) in P-band (200-400 MHz) is a new remote sensing technique with the capability of estimating both essential hydrologic variables, RZSM and SWE, circumventing many of the aforementioned limitations under all weather conditions day and night. SoOp is the re-utilization of existing powerful satellite transmissions within bands allocated for communications or navigation. P-band SoOp sensitivity to soil moisture has been demonstrated in an airborne experiment over Oklahoma in 2016 [13]. Recent theory [14] and experiments [15] have also confirmed that the reflection coefficient phase is proportional to SWE.

Garrison, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Power System for Miniature Interstellar Flyby Probe

In the last few years, the concept that an ultra-lightweight probe could be sent to one of the nearby stars pushed by a laser beam reflecting from a lightweight sail has moved from science fiction into conceptual design. The Breakthrough Starshot project envisions a two- to three-gram "starchip" micro probe, flying past a planet of Proxima Centauri after a 20 year voyage. With the probe moving at 60,000 km/sec, the flyby encounter at the target planet lasts at most a few hours. With current technology, no power system exists that can produce the required power with a mass of less than one gram.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Dynamic Modeling of Gaseous Multicomponent Trace Contaminant Adsorption

Activated carbon is a porous material in the Trace Contaminant Control (TCC) system that physically adsorbs volatile organic compounds (VOCs) generated within spacecraft and spacesuit environments. Several isotherm models exist to predict adsorption equilibria for processes involving multicomponent systems. This paper investigates the use of Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory (IAST) for predicting multicomponent trace contaminant adsorption behavior using single-component isotherms based on potential theory. Developing simulations for experimental breakthrough curves will gauge the validity on the sizing and design of TCC architecture. Model results on predicting bed performance and roll-up effects are compared with available multicomponent test data.

Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory (IAST)↗
NASA NTRS2019

Setting the Stage for the Planet Formation Imager

An international group of scientists has begun planning for the Planet Formation Imager (PFI www.planetformationimager.org), a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet formation in nearby star forming regions and taking planetary system “snapshots” of young systems to understand exoplanet architectures. PFI will be sensitive to warm dust emission using mid-infrared capabilities made possible by precise fringe tracking in the near-infrared. An L/M band beam combiner will be especially sensitive to thermal emission from young exoplanets (and their circumplanetary disks) with a high spectral resolution mode to probe the kinematics of CO and H2O gas. In this brief White Paper, we summarize the main science goals of PFI, define a baseline PFI architecture that can achieve those goals, and identify key technical challenges that must be overcome before the dreams of PFI can be realized within the typical cost envelope of a major observatory. We also suggest activities over the next decade at the flagship US facilities (CHARA, NPOI, MROI) that will help make the Planet Formation Imager facility a reality. The key takeaway is that infrared interferometry will require new experimental telescope designs that can scale to 8 m-class with the potential to reduce per area costs by ×10, a breakthrough that would also drive major advances across astronomy.

Gioia Rau↗
NASA NTRS2019

The Future of Exoplanet Direct Detection

Diffraction fundamentally limits our ability to image and characterize exoplanets. Currant and planned coronagraphic searches for exoplanets are making incredible strides but are fundamentally limited by the inner working angle of a few λ/D. Some crucial topics, such as demographics of exoplanets within the first 50 Myr and the infrared characterization of terrestrial planets, are beyond the reach of the single aperture angular resolution for the foreseeable future. Interferometry offers some advantages in exoplanet detection and characterization and we explore in this white paper some of the potential scientific breakthroughs possible. We demonstrate here that investments in "exoplanet interferometry" could open up new possibilities for speckle suppression through spatial coherence, a giant boost in astrometric precision for determining exoplanet orbits, ability to take a census of young giant exoplanets (clusters <50 Myr age), and an unrivaled potential for infrared nulling from space to detect terrestrial planets and search for atmospheric biomarkers. All signs point to an exciting future for exoplanets and interferometers, albeit a promise that will take decades to fulfill.

John Monnier↗
NASA NTRS2020

High Temperature Electronics for Venus Surface Applications: A Summary of Recent Technical Advances

This white paper has a technical focus meant to provide background to those unfamiliar with the challenges of high temperature electronics, and an understanding of why new surface mission concepts are now viable for Venus and other applications. It describes that, for the first time, high temperature electronics have been developed to enable a paradigm change in extended duration Venus surface exploration. This white paper concentrates on the advances made in Silicon Carbide (SiC) integrated circuit (IC) electronics that have matured to a state where a simple long-life scientific probe is feasible for Venus surface operations. These electronics have been demonstrated for more than a year at 500˚C, 60 days in high-fidelity simulated Venus surface conditions chamber, and have been integrated and demonstrated with prototype long-lived scientific observation sensor technology. Continued maturation of these needed high temperature electronics and sensors is ongoing in the Long-Lived In-Situ Solar System Explorer (LLISSE) project to provide an operational system including sensor control and operation, signal processing, power management, and communications in the early part of the 2020’s. A key focus of this work includes increasing the complexity and decreasing the power consumption of the ICs which will pave the way to enhanced capabilities, such as long-duration Venus seismic measurements. Other IC development efforts include high temperature memory, terrestrial based characterization of volcanic magma, and development of a simple microprocessor. This electronics has also shown to have exceptionally high radiation tolerance, and thus have relevance for a broad range of solar system exploration. Although presently at the level of complexity of 1970-1980 silicon-based electronics, such electronics can enable breakthroughs in Venus planetary exploration akin to 1970s-launched planetary exploration successes (such as Viking and Voyager).

High temperature Electronics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge

The goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return to the Moon and put in place a sustainable infrastructure that will enable permanent presence on the Moon. In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is critical in making the permanent presence on the Moon possible. One of the most important of these resources is water. On the Moon, water is trapped in icy regolith at the lunar poles, including inside permanently dark and cold craters. Excavating icy regolith and extracting water from it needs development of technologies that can operate reliably in the extreme lunar environmental conditions. Prize competitions are a well-known way of accelerating the development of new technologies and have been successfully used throughout the history. NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program(CCP) has been developing and executing prize competitions for past 15 years. Several of these competitions resulted in breakthrough technologies for in-space and terrestrial applications. In 2019, NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) tasked CCP to develop a challenge to address the technology gaps in the areas of Lunar Excavation, Manufacturing, and Construction. This paper provides the background, status and ongoing plans by CCP in developing “Break the Ice Lunar Challenge”. The challenge is scheduled to open for registration in late 2020. This challenge will enable the development of excavation technologies that can operate in the extreme conditions on the Moon.

centennial challenges↗
NASA NTRS1997

Infusion of Autonomy Technology into Space Missions: DS1 Lessons Learned

The impact of infusing breakthrough autonomy technology into a flight project was a big surprise. Valuable technical and cultural lessons, many of general applicability when intorducing system-level autonomy, have been learned by infusing the Remote Agent (RA) into NASA's Deep Space 1 (DS1) Spacecraft.

Autonomy↗
NASA NTRS1997

Commercialization of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell System

This paper describes a major breakthrough in energy technology developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that can be used in a wide variety of portable, remote, and transportation applications without polluting the environment. The status, performance, and design considerations of the JPL non-polluting, direct methanol, fuel cell system for consumer equipment and transportation applications are reported herein. This new fuel cell technology utilizes the direct oxidation of a 3 percent aqueous liquid methanol solution as the fuel and air (O&sub2;) as the oxidant. The only products are CO&sub2; and water. Therefore, because recharging can be accomplished by refueling with methanol, vehicles can enjoy unlimited range and extended use compared to battery operated devices requiring recharging time and power accessibility.

fuel↗
NASA NTRS2017

Spacecraft in the Shot: A Platform for Deep-Space Cinematography

Spacecraft In The Shot (SITS) is a breakthrough cross-disciplinary initiative that stands at the intersection of advanced technology and strategic storytelling. It aims to enhance humanity’s connection to robotic space exploration by capturing high-definition footage of heroic spacecraft along their journey through deep space. The SITS Imaging Instrument, a self-contained, highly autonomous instrument package can be included in any typical mission payload. The Instrument stores and deploys SITS imagers, or camera-carrying nanosats. As a mission approaches a key milestone in the trajectory, the SITS Instrument deploys one or more imagers that fly pre-programmed, autonomous trajectories around the host spacecraft. After the footage has been collected and downlinked to the host, the Imagers get decommissioned and left behind as the host spacecraft continues into the depths of space until the next photo opportunity.

Smith, Jonathon↗
NASA NTRS2018

Small Spacecraft for Planetary Atmospheric, Surface, and Interior Structure Using Radio Links

Scientific studies using spacecraft radio links have been conducted on almost every Solar System exploration mission in the past five decades and have led to numerous discoveries. Radio Science experiments have elucidated the thermal history of the Moon from high resolution gravitational field measurements, unveiled the interiors of Titan, Enceladus, Mercury, Phobos, Vesta and Ceres providing key evidence for identifying subsurface oceans on icy moons; sounded Titan, Saturn, and Pluto’s atmospheres, and refined models for the atmospheres, surfaces, and interior structure of Mars and Venus. A Juno experiment is in progress measuring the gravitational field of Jupiter to reveal its interior structures, as did a similar recent Cassini experiment with Saturn. Experiments at Mercury, the Jovian system, and other targets, are in development or planning phases. Over the next 30 years, significant advances in radio and laser link-science technologies, including nearly one order of magnitude improvement achievable in range-rate and range accuracy, could enable many new scientific breakthroughs. Future exploration concepts in many cases focus on applications of small spacecraft and can include spacecraft constellations for studies of atmospheric dynamics, interior structures, and surface properties. A set of science-enabling radio link technologies specific to small spacecraft instrumentation on future solar system missions are under study and development. Examples include field tests of radio scattering to determine soil properties, smallsat constellations for dense geographic and temporal atmospheric probing, small science-quality software-defined transponders, miniature ultra-stable oscillators, and advanced radio-metric calibrations at the Deep Space Network. This paper describes many of these technologies and their scientific applications.

Elliott, Harvey↗
NASA NTRS2018

NASA’s and ESA’s Tracking Networks, A Decade of Strategic Partnership for Solar System Exploration

Planetary missions travel vast distances in the Solar System for valuable scientific exploration. Spacecraft return data to Earth via radio links that suffer power losses inversely proportional to the square of the distance, which forms a tremendous engineering challenge compounded by relatively low onboard transmitter power, typically 20 Watts at X-band (~8 GHz). Deep space missions are enabled only because leading space agencies invested in developing very large communications antennas as well as provided a sophisticated suite of tracking, telemetry and command standard services. NASA’s Deep Space Network and ESA’s ESTRACK network are distributed geographically to provide global coverage and utilize stations ranging in size from 34 meters to 70 meters in diameter. Over time, the expanding number of missions, increased requirements for redundancy during critical events as well as the drive for improved navigation accuracy via long-baseline interferometric techniques, increased the networks’ loading and strongly motivated collaboration between the two agencies. Ten years ago, NASA and ESA established a cross-support agreement in addition to multiple on-going mission-specific agreements to meet this need. This strategic partnership was enabled by the development of international inter-operability technical standards and compatible spectrum usage. Over recent years, many critical events were supported via these agreements and some scientific breakthroughs were enabled. A multi-nation tracking contention period envisioned in the near future will also benefit from this partnership. Due to its success over the last decade, the DSN-ESTRACK partnership is serving as a model for other agencies with deep space communication facilities and similar interest. This paper reviews the benefits and lessons learned from collaborative deep space exploration, especially via communications networks, and discusses the potential implementation of similar NASA agreements with other space agencies.

Costrell, Jim↗
NASA NTRS2020

Antimonides T2SL Mid-Wave and Long-Wave Infrared Focal Plane Arrays for Earth Remote Sensing Applications

In this presentation, we will report our recent efforts in achieving high performance in Antimonides type-II superlattice (T2SL) based infrared photodetectors using the barrier infrared detector (BIRD) architecture. The initial BIRD devices (such as the nBn and the XBn) used either InAs absorber grown on InAs substrate, or lattice-matched InAsSb alloy grown on GaSb substrate, with cutoff wavelengths of ~3.2μm and ~4μm, respectively. While these detectors could operate at much higher temperatures than existing MWIR detectors based on InSb, their spectral responses do not cover the full (3 – 5.5μm) MWIR atmospheric transmission window. The T2SL BIRD devices not only covers the full MWIR atmospheric transmission window, but the full LWIR atmospheric transmission window and beyond. The LWIR detectors based on the BIRD architecture has also demonstrated significant operating temperature advantages over those based on traditional p-n junction designs. Two 6U SmalSat missions CIRAS (Cubesat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder) and HyTI (Hyperspectral Thermal Imager) are based on JPL’s T2SL BIRD focal plane arrays (FPAs). Based on III-V compound semiconductors, the BIRD FPAs offer a breakthrough solution for the realization of low cost (high yield), high-performance FPAs with excellent uniformity and pixel-to-pixel operability.

Ghuman, Parminder↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Tangerine Dream: Observations of Titan from the Earth

From its discovery in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, Titan perplexed and confounded Earth-based astronomers for three centuries with its stubborn refusal to yield virtually any clues about its nature. Until the Voyager 1 1980, even fundamentals such as its true diameter, surface pressure, and major atmospheric gas were uncertain [1]. Most of the information we now know about Titan has been wrestled at great expense of time and effort by three spacecraft visitors: Voyager 1, Cassini and Huygens. So why then continue to bother with Earth-based telescopic observations? In this review talk I will describe how significant clues about Titan’s atmospheric composition began to emerge from ground-based observations in the 1940s through 1970s, in the run-up to the revolutionary Voyager 1 flyby. These included the discovery of methane [2], and other significant hydrocarbons including ethane and acetylene in Titan’s stratosphere [3, 4]. Further ground and space-based telescopic work in the 1980s and 1990s revealed the presence of the fourth most abundance gas, carbon monoxide [5], spotted for the first time the bright continent on Titan’s leading hemisphere now known as Xanadu [6], and the comings and goings of bright tropospheric clouds [7]. The Cassini-Huygens mission of 2004-2017 [8, 9] greatly expanded our knowledge of Titan, including the first in situ measurements of the atmosphere and detailed imaging of the surface. However in the two-decades long gap before the next mission, Dragonfly, reaches Titan we are finding new ways to further our knowledge of Titan using the current generation of telescopes and instruments. With high-resolution spectroscopy at infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths we are finding new chemical constituents in the atmosphere, and even measuring wind fields at middle altitudes. I will conclude by discussing how the next generation of Earth and space-based telescopes and instruments promises yet more breakthroughs via astronomy, including with large aperture 30 and 40 meter class telescopes that will become available in the late 2020s, and spectroscopy with airborne

Titan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Aeronautics Sustainable Aviation Overview

We live in challenging but exciting times for aviation as the sector continues to emerge from the unprecedented impact of a global pandemic while addressing its contribution to global warming. This perfect storm provides opportunity and the drivers that can lead to the most substantial changes the aviation sector has seen since the convergence of jet engines and swept wings over 60 years ago. The reality is we are entering the dawn of a new era of sustainable aviation full of opportunities and challenges that must economically address the health and transportation needs of society with unprecedentedly low impact on local, regional, and global environments. Today, commercial aviation physically connects countries across the globe and is an integral, critical part of today’s expanding global economy. Commercial aviation relies almost entirely on subsonic transport aircraft to constantly move people and goods from one place to another across the globe. While an effective means of transportation providing an unmatched combination of payload, speed, and range, future subsonic aircraft must continue to improve to meet efficiency, environmental, and economic goals established around the world to sustain the substantial growth projected in this well-established market. Commercial supersonic transports have come and gone in the global market, but they are on the verge of reemerging. Vertical lift vehicles leveraging breakthroughs in autonomous systems and electrified propulsion are positioned for massive growth in local and regional markets leading to daily flights within metropolitan areas that may exceed that across countries. To succeed, these new aircraft must be sustainable from day 1. NASA Aeronautics has a long history of contributions to aviation, and today it continues to address the challenge of sustainable growth of the traditional air transportation system through the research and development of systems and technologies for future aircraft and airspace operations. Research programs over the last decade have set the stage to demonstrate key technologies offering step-change performance and environmental impact. Through a Sustainable Flight National Partnership, NASA will partner with industry, academia, and other government agencies to demonstrate the most promising technologies during the 2020s to enable revolutionary systems in the early 2030s. In parallel, NASA will explore systems and technologies for further benefits approaching zero environmental impact beyond the 2030s. Similarly, NASA programs are addressing the challenges of emerging markets enabled by vertical take-off/landing and low-boom supersonic cruise. This oral-only presentation will focus on opportunities and challenges in the traditional subsonic transport while touching on emerging vertical lift and supersonic commercial aviation markets. NASA’s recent contributions, ongoing research, and plans for sustainable aviation will be discussed, including airframe, propulsion, and integrated vehicle systems and technologies.

James A. Kenyon↗
NASA NTRS2021

High Throughput Ground-Based Reduced-Gravity Testing

Development of a high-throughput 10-second, variable gravity drop facility would provide NASA with breakthrough capability that will enable important new fundamental research opportunities in both physical sciences and life sciences in addition to providing the ability to support exploration needs for partial gravity testing. This Keystone Capability would establish a new world class capability that would not be easily matched and would dramatically exceed capabilities elsewhere.

David L Urban↗