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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Microgravity flight research in a dynamic and changing environment

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division conducts both basic and applied low-g research encompassing biotechnology, fluid physics, combustion, and materials science, in industry, university, and government research settings. The present evaluation of such a diverse research program's management gives attention to the fiscal constraints, polical factors, technological changes, international cooperation requirements, and educational responsibilities that must be addressed.

Schmitz, Robert A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

EUNIS Underflight Calibrations of CDS, EIT, TRACE, EIS, and EUVI

The Extreme-Ultraviolet Normal-Incidence Spectrograph (EUNIS) is a sounding rocket instrument that obtains imaged high-resolution solar spectra. It has now had two successful flights, on 2006 April 12 and 2007 November 16, providing data to support underflight calibrations for a number of orbiting solar experiments on both occasions. A regular part of each campaign is the end-to-end radiometric calibration of the rocket payload carried out at RAL in the UK, using the same facility that provided pre-flight CDS and EIS calibrations. The measurements, traceable to primary radiometric standards, can establish the absolute EUNIS response within a total uncertainty of 10% over its full longwave bandpass of 300-370A. During each EUNIS flight, coordinated observations are made of overlapping solar locations by all participating space experiments, and identified by subsequent image co-registrations, allowing the EUNIS calibrations to be applied to these other instruments as well. The calibration transfer is straightforward for wavelengths within the EUNIS LW bandpass, and is extended to other wavelengths by means of a series of temperature- and density-insensitive line-ratios, with one line of each pair in the calibrated band and the other in the transfer band. In this way, the EUNIS-06 flight is able to update the radiometric calibrations of CDS NISl (and 2nd-order NIS2 near 2x304A), all four channels of EIT, and the three EUV channels of TRACE. The EUNIS-07 flight will further update those missions, as well as both channels of Hinode/EIS and all four channels of STEREO/SECCHI/EUVI. Future EUNIS flights have been proposed that will continue this underflight calibration service. EUNIS is supported by the NASA Heliophysics Division through its Low Cost Access to Space Program in Solar and Heliospheric Physics.

Thomas, Roger J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

EUNIS Underflight Calibrations of CDS, EIT, TRACE, EIS, and EUVI

The Extreme-Ultraviolet Normal-Incidence Spectrograph (EUNIS) is a sounding rocket instrument that obtains imaged high-resolution solar spectra. It has now had two successful flights, on 2006 April 12 and 2007 November 16, providing data to support underflight calibrations for a number of orbiting solar experiments on both occasions. A regular part of each campaign is the end-to-end radiometric calibration of the rocket payload carried out at RAL in the UK, using the same facility that provided pre-flight CDS and EIS calibrations. The measurements, traceable to primary radiometric standards, can establish the absolute EUNIS response within a relative uncertainty of 10% over its full longwave bandpass of 300-370A. During each EUNIS flight, coordinated observations are made of overlapping solar locations by all participating space experiments, and identified by subsequent image co-registrations, allowing the EUNIS calibrations to be applied to these other instruments as well. The calibration transfer is straightforward for wavelengths within the EUNIS LW bandpass, and is extended to other wavelengths by means of a series of 'insensitive' line-ratios, with one line of each pair in the calibrated band and the other in the transfer band. In this way, the EUNIS-06 flight is able to update the radiometric calibrations of CDS NISl (plus 2nd order NIS2 near 2x304A), all four channels of EIT, and the three EUV channels of TRACE. The EUNIS-07 flight will further update those missions, as well as both channels of Hinode/EIT and all four channels of STEREO/SECCHI/EUVI. Future EUNIS flights have been proposed that will continue this underflight calibration service. EUNIS is supported by the NASA Heliophysics Division through its Low Cost Access to Space Program in Solar and Heliospheric Physics.

Thomas, Roger J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Strategic Directions in Heliophysics Research Related to Weakly Ionized Plasmas

In 2009, the Heliophysics Division of NASA published its triennial roadmap entitled "Heliophysics; the solar and space physics of a new era." In this document contains a science priority that is recommended that will serve as input into the recently initiated NRC Heliophysics Decadal Survey. The 2009 roadmap includes several science targets recommendations that are directly related to weakly ionized plasmas, including on entitled "Ion-Neutral Coupling in the Atmosphere." This talk will be a brief overview of the roadmap with particular focus on the science targets relevant to weakly ionized plasmas.

Spann, James F.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Co-leveraging Scientific Advances in Space Biology and Astrobiology Towards Achieving NASA’s Life Science Objectives

Executive Summary: Distinct lines of scientific inquiry drives the separation of NASA’s fundamental life science research into Space Biology and Astrobiology. This division developed as a way to place life scientists alongside experts in the physical constraints that define the acclimation, adaptation and evolution of biology systems relevant to their respective subjects. For astrobiology, integration with disciplines such as geology, geochemistry, astronomy, planetary science, etc., enables a comprehensive assessment of the physical environment and its co-evolution with biological processes. Space Biology’s co-location with Physical Sciences places life science researchers adjacent to experts in the physical phenomena associated with microgravity and spaceflight, enabling an understanding of how the spaceflight environment affects biological systems. Despite this separation, aspects of both disciplines have converged on a similar, fundamental objective: to describe and understand the dynamics of complex living communities in the contexts of their physical environments. While the environmental systems and timescales are dramatically different, continuing to motivate the separation into distinct fields, similarities in the underlying objective present opportunities to find efficiencies, reduce overlap, and minimize duplication of effort. Space Biology and Astrobiology share a common need to understand microbial physiology in extreme environments – whether the ‘built’ spaceflight environment or the natural environments in which many astrobiology studies are conducted. In particular, open questions in each discipline require the development of quantitative frameworks, applicable at the ecosystem level, that support predictive capabilities for environments where observations are sparse. Additionally, both disciplines have a need to prepare, detect, and analyze the (potential) biological signal in complex samples-often in a completely autonomous fashion. The next decade will see NASA Space Biology moving to understand and describe the effects of the beyond low-earth orbit (BLEO) spaceflight environment on living systems. This new direction will dramatically reduce the opportunities for ground-based analysis of space-flown samples, driving space biology investigations towards fully autonomous experiments and missions. At the same time, astrobiology life detection missions aimed at detecting biosignatures on Mars and icy moons in the outer solar system could benefit from fully automated sample processing and analysis. There are opportunities to leverage instrument and method development between both disciplines within the context of these BLEO missions.

Astrobiology↗
NASA NTRS2006

Heliophysics Science Enabled By the Return to the Moon

The lunar plasma and radiation environment and those physical processes that drive and control it, are intrinsically part of the science domain of the Heliophysics Division. Since the inception of the space program with Explorer 1 in 1958 and continuing to the present, scientists in the Heliophysics community have concentrated on characterizing and understanding the connected Sun-Earth system including the regions the Moon traverses and the interaction of plasmas and radiation with large and small bodies. This has been accomplished with in situ and remote sensing instrumentation and physics- and numerically-based models that provide understanding of the dominant mechanisms that define the environment in which the Moon is immersed. Therefore, the Heliospheric science community is uniquely and in many cases exclusively qualified to address interesting and compelling science problems that are enabled by the return to the Moon. This talk will provide an overview of representative, high-priority science investigations that are made possible by the return to the lunar surface. The content of this presentation is a result of an ongoing effort to inventory and articulate compelling science topics and how they are enabled by the return to the Moon.

Spann, James F.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Earth observations and global change decision making: A special bibliography, 1991

The first section of the bibliography contains 294 bibliographic citations and abstracts of relevant reports, articles, and documents announced in 'Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR)' and 'International Aerospace Abstracts (IAA)'. These abstracts are categorized by the following major subject divisions: aeronautics, astronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physics, social sciences, space sciences and general. Following the abstract section, seven indexes are provided for further assistance.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2007

The Virtual Solar Observatory and the Heliophysics Meta-Virtual Observatory

The Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) is now able to search for solar data ranging from the radio to gamma rays, obtained from space and groundbased observatories, from 26 sources at 12 data providers, and from 1915 to the present. The solar physics community can use a Web interface or an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows integrating VSO searches into other software, including other Web services. Over the next few years, this integration will be especially obvious as the NASA Heliophysics division sponsors the development of a heliophysics-wide virtual observatory (VO), based on existing VO's in heliospheric, magnetospheric, and ionospheric physics as well as the VSO. We examine some of the challenges and potential of such a "meta-VO."

Gurman, Joseph B.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Microgravity Science and Applications: Program Tasks and Bibliography for Fiscal Year 1996

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) sponsors a program that expands the use of space as a laboratory for the study of important physical, chemical, and biochemical processes. The primary objective of the program is to broaden the value and capabilities of human presence in space by exploiting the unique characteristics of the space environment for research. However, since flight opportunities are rare and flight research development is expensive, a vigorous ground-based research program, from which only the best experiments evolve, is critical to the continuing strength of the program. The microgravity environment affords unique characteristics that allow the investigation of phenomena and processes that are difficult or impossible to study an Earth. The ability to control gravitational effects such as buoyancy driven convection, sedimentation, and hydrostatic pressures make it possible to isolate phenomena and make measurements that have significantly greater accuracy than can be achieved in normal gravity. Space flight gives scientists the opportunity to study the fundamental states of physical matter-solids, liquids and gasses-and the forces that affect those states. Because the orbital environment allows the treatment of gravity as a variable, research in microgravity leads to a greater fundamental understanding of the influence of gravity on the world around us. With appropriate emphasis, the results of space experiments lead to both knowledge and technological advances that have direct applications on Earth. Microgravity research also provides the practical knowledge essential to the development of future space systems. The Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA) is responsible for planning and executing research stimulated by the Agency's broad scientific goals. OLMSA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) is responsible for guiding and focusing a comprehensive program, and currently manages its research and development tasks through five major scientific areas: biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, fundamental physics, and materials science. FY 1996 was an important year for MSAD. NASA continued to build a solid research community for the coming space station era. During FY 1996, the NASA Microgravity Research Program continued investigations selected from the 1994 combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science NRAS. MSAD also released a NASA Research Announcement in microgravity biotechnology, with more than 130 proposals received in response. Selection of research for funding is expected in early 1997. The principal investigators chosen from these NRAs will form the core of the MSAD research program at the beginning of the space station era. The third United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3) and the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) missions yielded a wealth of microgravity data in FY 1996. The USMP-3 mission included a fluids facility and three solidification furnaces, each designed to examine a different type of crystal growth.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1997

National Combustion Code: A Multidisciplinary Combustor Design System

The Internal Fluid Mechanics Division conducts both basic research and technology, and system technology research for aerospace propulsion systems components. The research within the division, which is both computational and experimental, is aimed at improving fundamental understanding of flow physics in inlets, ducts, nozzles, turbomachinery, and combustors. This article and the following three articles highlight some of the work accomplished in 1996. A multidisciplinary combustor design system is critical for optimizing the combustor design process. Such a system should include sophisticated computer-aided design (CAD) tools for geometry creation, advanced mesh generators for creating solid model representations, a common framework for fluid flow and structural analyses, modern postprocessing tools, and parallel processing. The goal of the present effort is to develop some of the enabling technologies and to demonstrate their overall performance in an integrated system called the National Combustion Code.

Stubbs, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Low Temperature Research in Microgravity

The recent flight of the Lambda Point Experiment has demonstrated the potential for performing precise tests of fundamental theories using low temperature techniques in Earth orbit. NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division has established a program of successor expermients to investigate other aspects of condensed matter physics using the same low temperature flight facility. This paper describes the new investigations that have been chosen for flight experiments, and those selected for ground-based studies that could lead to flight experiments later.

low temperature microgravity lambda transitition l↗
NASA NTRS2021

Montana Water Resources II: Enhancing a Moisture Index for Drought and Flood Monitoring in the Missouri River Basin

The Missouri River Basin is a major global breadbasket, containing large amounts of agricultural land. Recent devastating weather events have motivated regional organizations to dedicate efforts to drought and flood monitoring and early warning systems. The DEVELOP team partnered with the following organizations: Montana Climate Office, NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Missouri Basin River Forecast Center, NOAA Regional Climate Services of the Central Region, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, and the US Army Corps of Engineers' Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. The team collaborated with the partners in their efforts to monitor flood and drought by enhancing a composite moisture index (CMI) for the Missouri River Basin. The CMI leverages NASA Earth observations to derive snow cover data from the Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mission and snow water equivalent and snowdepth datasets from the NOAA NWS National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center’s Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS). Building upon this framework, the team added groundwater storage data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On missions, soil moisture data from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), and United States Geological Survey in situ streamflow data to the CMI. To test the tool’s validity, the team compared the CMI results to historically extreme dry and extreme wet years, March 2017 and March 2019, respectively. The CMI accurately reflects both 2017 and 2019 climate conditions in the Missouri River Basin. The refined CMI enhances the understanding of antecedent soil moisture conditions and improves flood and drought forecasting in the Missouri River Basin before the growing season.

Chloe Schneider↗
NASA NTRS1998

Modeling Code Is Helping Cleveland Develop New Products

Master Builders, Inc., is a 350-person company in Cleveland, Ohio, that develops and markets specialty chemicals for the construction industry. Developing new products involves creating many potential samples and running numerous tests to characterize the samples' performance. Company engineers enlisted NASA's help to replace cumbersome physical testing with computer modeling of the samples' behavior. Since the NASA Lewis Research Center's Structures Division develops mathematical models and associated computation tools to analyze the deformation and failure of composite materials, its researchers began a two-phase effort to modify Lewis' Integrated Composite Analyzer (ICAN) software for Master Builders' use. Phase I has been completed, and Master Builders is pleased with the results. The company is now working to begin implementation of Phase II.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2022

The VIPER Mission, a Resource-Mapping Mission on Another Celestial Body

The Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission is a lunar polar volatiles prospecting mission developed through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Planetary Science Division with launch in late 2023. VIPER’s mission goals are to (1) characterize the distribution and physical state of lunar polar water and other volatiles in lunar cold traps and regolith and (2)provide the data necessary for NASA to evaluate potential return of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) from lunar polar regions. VIPER will be optimized for lunar regions that receive prolonged periods of sunlight (short lunar nights). The mission duration will be more than 90 Earth days and result in a traverse distance of up to 20 km. The mission includes a rover-borne payload that can locate surface and near-subsurface volatiles, excavate, and analyze samples of the volatile-bearing regolith, and demonstrate the form, extractability, and usefulness of the materials.

The Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rove↗
NASA NTRS1992

Microgravity fluid physics research in the Space Station Freedom era

Microgravity fluid physics covers an exciting range of established and potential fields of scientific research. Areas in which the Microgravity Science and Applications Division of NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications is currently supporting research include: multiphase flow and phase change heat transfer, behavior of granular media and colloids; and interface dynamics, morphological stability, and contact line phenomena. As they contribute to our knowledge of fluid behavior, advances in these areas will enhance our understanding of materials processing on Earth and in space, and will contribute to technologies as diverse as chemical extraction, the prediction of soil behavior in earthquakes, and the production of oil reservoirs. NASA' s primary platform for research in microgravity fluid physics will soon be the Fluid Physics/Dynamics Facility on Space Station Freedom. This facility shares a rack for control and utilities with the Modular Combustion Facility, and has one rack for experiment-unique instruments. It is planned to change out the content of the experiment-unique rack at intervals on the order of one year. In order to obtain a maximum return on the operation of the facility during these intervals, the research community must carefully plan and coordinate an effort that brings the efforts of many investigators to bear on problems of particular importance. NASA is currently working with the community to identify research areas in which microgravity can make a unique and valuable contribution, and to build a balanced program of research around these areas or thrusts. Selections will soon be made from our first solicitation for research in fluid dynamics and transport phenomena. These solicitations will build the research community that will make Space Station Freedom a catalyst for scientific and technological discovery, and offer U.S. scientists in many disciplines a unique opportunity to participate in space science.

Carpenter, Bradley M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Transient Ejector Analysis (TEA) code user's guide

A FORTRAN computer program for the semi analytic prediction of unsteady thrust augmenting ejector performance has been developed, based on a theoretical analysis for ejectors. That analysis blends classic self-similar turbulent jet descriptions with control-volume mixing region elements. Division of the ejector into an inlet, diffuser, and mixing region allowed flexibility in the modeling of the physics for each region. In particular, the inlet and diffuser analyses are simplified by a quasi-steady-analysis, justified by the assumption that pressure is the forcing function in those regions. Only the mixing region is assumed to be dominated by viscous effects. The present work provides an overview of the code structure, a description of the required input and output data file formats, and the results for a test case. Since there are limitations to the code for applications outside the bounds of the test case, the user should consider TEA as a research code (not as a production code), designed specifically as an implementation of the proposed ejector theory. Program error flags are discussed, and some diagnostic routines are presented.

Drummond, Colin K.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Evaluation of Flight Attendant Technical Knowledge

Accident and incident reports have indicated that flight attendants have numerous opportunities to provide the flight-deck crew with operational information that may prevent or lessen the severity of a potential problem. Additionally, as carrier fleets transition from three person to two person flight-deck crews, the reliance upon the cabin crew for the transfer of this information may increase further. Recent research indicates that flight attendants do not feel confident in their ability to describe mechanical parts or malfunctions of the aircraft, and the lack of flight attendant technical training has been referenced in a number of recent reports. Chute and Wiener describe five factors which may produce communication barriers between cockpit and cabin crews: the historical background of aviation, the physical separation of the two crews, psychosocial issues, regulatory factors, and organizational factors. By examining these areas of division we can identify possible bridges and address the implications of deficient cockpit/cabin communication on flight safety. Flight attendant operational knowledge may provide some mitigation of these barriers. The present study explored both flight attendant technical knowledge and flight attendant and pilot expectations of flight attendant technical knowledge. To assess the technical knowledge of cabin crewmembers, 177 current flight attendants from two U.S. carriers voluntarily completed a 13-item technical quiz. To investigate expectations of flight attendant technical knowledge, 181 pilots and a second sample of 96 flight attendants, from the same two airlines, completed surveys designed to capture each group's expectations of operational knowledge required of flight attendants. Analyses revealed several discrepancies between the present level of flight attendant operational knowledge and pilots' and flight attendants' expected and desired levels of technical knowledge. Implications for training will be discussed.

Dunbar, Melisa G.↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Future of Ground Magnetometer Arrays in Support of Space Weather Monitoring and Research

A community workshop was held in Greenbelt, Maryland, on 5-6 May 2016 to discussrecommendations for the future of ground magnetometer array research in space physics. The community reviewed findings contained in the 2016 Geospace Portfolio Review of the Geospace Section of the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Science of the National Science Foundation and discussed the present state of ground magnetometer arrays and possible pathways for a more optimal, robust, and effective organization and scientific use of these ground arrays. This paper summarizes the report of that workshop to the National Science Foundation (Engebretson & Zesta, 2017) as well as conclusions from two follow-up meetings. It describes the current state of U.S.-funded ground magnetometer arrays and summarizes community recommendations for changes in both organizational and funding structures. It also outlines a variety of new and/or augmented regional and global data products and visualizations that can be facilitated by increased collaboration among arrays. Such products will enhance the value of ground-based magnetometer data to the community's effort for understanding of Earth's space environment and space weather effects.

earths space environment↗