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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 1,405 records · Page 78
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

STK/Lifetime as a Replacement for Heritage Orbital Lifetime Software

The Flight Dynamics Analysis Branch (FDAB) of NASNGSFC is tasked with determining the orbital lifetime of several developmental and operational satellites, which include the Hubble Space Telescope. A DOS based program developed by the FDAB many years ago, called PC Lifetime, is used to determine a satellite s lifetime and could soon be in need of a replacement. STK s Lifetime Object Tool is a possible candidate. Due to the reduced support of the PC Lifetime program, and the growing incompatibility of older programs with new operating systems, a comparative analysis was done to determine if STWLifetime could meet the stringent requirements that were laid before it. The use of highly accurate numerical propagators such as STK s High Precision Orbit Propagator ( OP) and the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS) provided a basis on which to compare STWLifetime s results. Several test cases were run, but the main four test cases would determine whether or not STWLifetime could be PC- Lifetime s replacement. These four cases include a geotransfer orbit, two circular LEOS, and a Poiar LEO. Following rigorous testmg procedures, a conclusion will be determined. STK has proved to be a versatile program on many satellite missions and the FDAB has high hopes that it can pass FDAB s requirements for orbital lifetime prediction.

Dove, Edwin↗
NASA NTRS1945

A Method of Analysis of V-G Records from Transport Operations

A method has been developed for interpreting V-G records taken during the course of commercial transport operation. This method involves the utilization of fairly simple statistical procedures to obtain "flight envelopes," which predict that, on the average, in a stated number of flight hours, one value of airspeed will exceed the envelope, and one positive and one negative acceleration increment will exceed the envelope with equal probability of being experienced at any airspeed. Comparison with the actual data obtained from various airplanes and from various airlines indicates that these envelopes predict the occurrences of large values of acceleration and airspeed with a high degree of accuracy.

Peiser, A. M.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Remote image analysis for Mars Exploration Rover mobility and manipulation operations

NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are two sixwheeled, 175-kg robotic vehicles which have operated on Mars for over a year as of March 2005. The rovers are controlled by teams who must understand the rover's surroundings and develop command sequences on a daily basis. The tight tactical planning timeline and everchanging environment call for tools that allow quick assessment of potential manipulator targets and traverse goals, since command sequences must be developed in a matter of hours after receipt of new data from the rovers. Reachability maps give a visual indication of which targets are reachable by each rover's manipulator, while slope and solar energy maps show the rover operator which terrain areas are safe and unsafe from different standpoints.

image understanding↗
NASA NTRS2014

High Fidelity CFD Analysis and Validation of Rotorcraft Gearbox Aerodynamics Under Operational and Oil-Out Conditions

This document represents the evolving formal documentation of the NPHASE-PSU computer code. Version 3.15 is being delivered along with the software to NASA in 2013.Significant upgrades to the NPHASE-PSU have been made since the first delivery of draft documentation to DARPA and USNRC in 2006. These include a much lighter, faster and memory efficient face based front end, support for arbitrary polyhedra in front end, flow-solver and back-end, a generalized homogeneous multiphase capability, and several two-fluid modelling and algorithmic elements. Specific capability installed for the NASA Gearbox Windage Aerodynamics NRA are included in this version: Hybrid Immersed Overset Boundary Method (HOIBM) [Noack et. al (2009)] Periodic boundary conditions for multiple frames of reference, Fully generalized immersed boundary method, Fully generalized conjugate heat transfer, Droplet deposition, bouncing, splashing models, and, Film transport and breakup.

Gears↗
NASA NTRS2017

Analysis of GMO Plum Plant Culture in System Operations Failure

GMO plum trees are being evaluated at the Kennedy Space Center as a possible candidate for future space crops. Previously conducted horticultural testing compared the performance of several plum genotypes in controlled environment chambers, resulting in a down-selection to the NASA-11 genotype. Precursory studies determined the water use requirements to sustain the plants as well as the feasibility of grafting non-GMO plum scions onto GMO plum rootstocks of NASA-5, NASA-10, and NASA-11 genotypes. This study follows the growth and horticultural progress of plum trees and in-vitro cultures from August 2017 to November 2017, and provides supplemental support for future GMO plum studies. The presence of Hurricane Irma in early September 2017 resulted in the plants undergoing material deterioration from major changes to their overall horticultural progress.

life support↗
DOE OSTI2026

Archi: Agentic Operations at the CMS Experiment

We present Archi, an open-source, end-to-end framework for scientific collaborations that combines the systematic ingestion and organization of heterogeneous data sources with the deployment of configurable, private, and extensible agents that retrieve and reason over them. An instance of Archi has been deployed for the Computing Operations team of the CMS experiment at CERN's LHC since February 2026 as a support agent for technical operators, offering retrieval and analysis capabilities by combining documentation, historical data, and live monitoring systems. We evaluate the system on operator feedback and a question set collected from production usage, graded by human and automated panels. The system proves effective at operational tasks, resolving real-world queries posed by CMS operators. We also observe that locally-hosted, open-weight models perform competitively, enabling fully private management of sensitive data.

Lugato, Pietro [MIT; CERN]↗
NASA NTRS1984

The VAX/VMS device driver and user operation program for the Midwestern Astronomical Data Reduction and Analysis Facility PDS microdensitometer

The Midwestern astronomical data reduction and analysis facility (MADRAF) PDS microdensitometer which was the first astronomical PDS which was provided with a Motorola 6800 microprocessor control/interface and will be interfaced to a 32-bit instruction computer operating in a multiuser environment is outlined. Command and response handshaking are handled on an RS 232 serial line while data transfer occurs on a dedicated Direct Memory Access line. This set of conditions necessitated the creation of a specialized device for the system. The general outline of this software is discussed. The availability of an extraordinarily powerful computer opened the possibility of a user operating program of great versatility with diverse data destinations and formats, automatic documentation, and an extensive set of utilities which facilitate operations.

Anderson, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Interpreting the International Space Station Microgravity Environment

The International Space Station (ISS) serves as a platform for microgravity research for the foreseeable future. A microgravity environment is one in which the effects of gravity are drastically reduced which then allows physical experiments to be conducted without the overpowering effects of gravity. A physical environment with very low-levels of acceleration and vibration has been accomplished by both the free fall associated with orbital flight and the design of the International Space Station. The International Space Station design has been driven by a long-standing, high-level requirement for a microgravity mode of operation. The Space Acceleration Measurement System has been in operation for nearly four years on the ISS measuring the microgravity environment in support of principal investigators and to characterize the ISS microgravity environment. The Principal Investigator Microgravity Services project functions as a detective to ascertain the source of disturbances seen in the ISS microgravity environment to allow correlation between that environment and experimental data. Payload developers need to predict the microgravity environment that will be imposed upon an experiment and ensure that the science and engineering requirements will be met. The Principal Investigator Microgravity Services project is developing n interactive tool to predict the microgravity environment at science payloads based on user defined operational scenarios. These operations (predictions and post-analyses) allow a researcher to examine the microgravity acceleration levels expected to exist when their experiment is operated and then receive an analysis of the environment which existed during their experiment operations. Presented in this paper will be descriptions of the environment predictive tool and an investigation into a previously unknown disturbance in the ISS microgravity environment.

DeLombard, Richard↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pu-238 Production Progress at Idaho National Laboratory From December 2022 to December 2023

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has an ongoing effort to produce Pu-238 for NASA deep space missions. Recent work at INL has consisted of irradiation of Pu 238 production targets in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), generating more than an estimated 400 grams of Pu-238 heat source material between March and October 2023. Additionally, INL began qualifying Pu-238 production targets with a higher loading of Np-237 to further increase the production of Pu-238 production in later years. INL has also updated the analysis as a result of operational changes at ATR. One instance was updating the analysis to enable a single Pu-238 production target to be run in ATR’s South Flux Trap (SFT), rather than the previous seven production targets, to make use of a spare target from a discontinued design. Higher lobe powers in ATR were also analyzed due to potential changes in planned lobe powers.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pu-238 Production Progress at INL From December 2022 to December 2023

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has an ongoing effort to produce Pu-238 for NASA deep space missions. Recent work at INL has consisted of irradiation of Pu 238 production targets in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), generating more than an estimated 400 grams of Pu-238 heat source material between March and October 2023. Additionally, INL began qualifying Pu-238 production targets with a higher loading of Np-237 to further increase the production of Pu-238 production in later years. INL has also updated the analysis as a result of operational changes at ATR. One instance was updating the analysis to enable a single Pu-238 production target to be run in ATR’s South Flux Trap (SFT), rather than the previous seven production targets, to make use of a spare target from a discontinued design. Higher lobe powers in ATR were also analyzed due to potential changes in planned lobe powers.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Offshore wind energy forecasting sensitivity to sea surface temperature input in the Mid-Atlantic

Abstract. As offshore wind farm development expands, accurate wind resource forecasting over the ocean is needed. One important yet relatively unexplored aspect of offshore wind resource assessment is the role of sea surface temperature (SST). Models are generally forced with reanalysis data sets, which employ daily SST products. Compared with observations, significant variations in SSTs that occur on finer timescales are often not captured. Consequently, shorter-lived events such as sea breezes and low-level jets (among others), which are influenced by SSTs, may not be correctly represented in model results. The use of hourly SST products may improve the forecasting of these events. In this study, we examine the sensitivity of model output from the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) 4.2.1 to different SST products. We first evaluate three different data sets: the Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution (MUR25) SST analysis, a daily, 0.25∘ × 0.25∘ resolution product; the Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Ice Analysis (OSTIA), a daily, 0.054∘ × 0.054∘ resolution product; and SSTs from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16), an hourly, 0.02∘ × 0.02∘ resolution product. GOES-16 is not processed at the same level as OSTIA and MUR25; therefore, the product requires gap-filling using an interpolation method to create a complete map with no missing data points. OSTIA and GOES-16 SSTs validate markedly better against buoy observations than MUR25, so these two products are selected for use with model simulations, while MUR25 is at this point removed from consideration. We run the model for June and July of 2020 and find that for this time period, in the Mid-Atlantic, although OSTIA SSTs overall validate better against in situ observations taken via a buoy array in the area, the two products result in comparable hub-height (140 m) wind characterization performance on monthly timescales. Additionally, during hours-long flagged events (< 30 h each) that show statistically significant wind speed deviations between the two simulations, both simulations once again demonstrate similar validation performance (differences in bias, earth mover's distance, correlation, and root mean square error on the order of 10−1 or less), with GOES-16 winds validating nominally better than OSTIA winds. With a more refined GOES-16 product, which has been not only gap-filled but also assimilated with in situ SST measurements in the region, it is likely that hub-height winds characterized by GOES-16-informed simulations would definitively validate better than those informed by OSTIA SSTs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2010

Operation of a Third Generation JPL Electronic Nose in the Regenerative ECLSS Module Simulator at MSFC

An electronic nose has been developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to monitor spacecraft cabin air for anomalous events such as leaks and spills of solvents, coolants or other fluids with near-real-time analysis. It is designed to operate in the environment of the US Lab on ISS and was deployed on the International Space Station for a seven-month experiment in 2008-2009. In order improve understanding of ENose response to crew activities, an ENose was installed in the Regenerative ECLSS Module Simulator (REMS) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for several months. The REMS chamber is operated with continuous analysis of the air for presence and concentration of CO, CO2, ethane, ethanol and methane. ENose responses were analyzed and correlated with logged activities and air analyses in the REMS.

Electronic Nose (ENose)↗
DOE OSTI2020

Minnesota Solar Pathways: Illuminating Pathways to 10% Solar (Final Technical Report)

The Minnesota Solar Pathways project, funded in part by the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, was a three-year project designed to explore least-risk, best-value strategies for meeting the State of Minnesota’s solar goals. As part of this aim, the Pathways Team modeled renewable generation costs, examined ways to streamline interconnection, and evaluated technologies that can increase solar hosting capacity on the distribution grid. Midway through the project period, the Pathways Team expanded the scope of study using the same modeling framework from the Minnesota Solar Potential Analysis to estimate and compare generation costs for high renewables penetration scenarios across the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region. The analysis concludes that it can be cheaper to overbuild solar + wind and curtail surplus than to store all generation. In addition, the analysis of individual MISO subregions compared with the whole region highlights the opportunities of enabling market potential compared with impact of ongoing transmission constraints. Beyond the analysis of future scenarios, the partnerships initiated and supported through this project underscored the ongoing need for work with stakeholders to address key issues, particularly around siting, and leverage symbiotic strategies to meet state goals.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2015

Trending in Probability of Collision Measurements

A simple model is proposed to predict the behavior of Probabilities of Collision (P(sub c)) for conjunction events. The model attempts to predict the location and magnitude of the peak P(sub c) value for an event by assuming the progression of P(sub c) values can be modeled to first order by a downward-opening parabola. To incorporate prior information from a large database of past conjunctions, the Bayes paradigm is utilized; and the operating characteristics of the model are established through a large simulation study. Though the model is simple, it performs well in predicting the temporal location of the peak (P(sub c)) and thus shows promise as a decision aid in operational conjunction assessment risk analysis.

Conjunction↗
NASA NTRS1992

The importance of operations, risk, and cost assessment to space transfer systems design

This paper examines several methodologies which contribute to comprehensive subsystem cost estimation. The example of a space-based lunar space transfer vehicle (STV) design is used to illustrate how including both primary and secondary factors into cost affects the decision of whether to use aerobraking or propulsion for earth orbit capture upon lunar return. The expected dominant cost factor in this decision is earth-to-orbit launch cost driven by STV mass. However, to quantify other significant cost factors, this cost comparison included a risk analysis to identify development and testing costs, a Taguchi design of experiments to determine a minimum mass aerobrake design, and a detailed operations analysis. As a result, the predicted cost advantage of aerobraking, while still positive, was subsequently reduced by about 30 percent compared to the simpler mass-based cost estimates.

Ball, J. M.↗