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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 1,477 records · Page 82
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Spectral studies related to dissociation of HBr, HCl and BrO

Concern over halogen catalyzed decomposition of O3 in the upper atmosphere has generated need for data on the atomic and molecular species X, HX and XO (where X is Cl and Br). Of special importance are Cl produced from freon decomposition and Cl and Br produced from natural processes and from other industrial and agricultural chemicals. Basic spectral data is provided on HCl, HBr, and BrO necessary to detect specific states and energy levels, to enable detailed modeling of the processes involving molecular dissociation, ionization, etc., and to help evaluate field experiments to check the validity of model calculations for these species in the upper atmosphere. Results contained in four published papers and two major spectral compilations are summarized together with other results obtained.

Ginter, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Worldwide Spacecraft Crew Hatch History

The JSC Flight Safety Office has developed this compilation of historical information on spacecraft crew hatches to assist the Safety Tech Authority in the evaluation and analysis of worldwide spacecraft crew hatch design and performance. The document is prepared by SAIC s Gary Johnson, former NASA JSC S&MA Associate Director for Technical. Mr. Johnson s previous experience brings expert knowledge to assess the relevancy of data presented. He has experience with six (6) of the NASA spacecraft programs that are covered in this document: Apollo; Skylab; Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), Space Shuttle, ISS and the Shuttle/Mir Program. Mr. Johnson is also intimately familiar with the JSC Design and Procedures Standard, JPR 8080.5, having been one of its original developers. The observations and findings are presented first by country and organized within each country section by program in chronological order of emergence. A host of reference sources used to augment the personal observations and comments of the author are named within the text and/or listed in the reference section of this document. Careful attention to the selection and inclusion of photos, drawings and diagrams is used to give visual association and clarity to the topic areas examined.

Johnson, Gary↗
NASA NTRS2010

Optical Characterization of a Multipoint Lean Direct Injector for Gas Turbine Combustors: Velocity and Fuel Drop Size Measurements

Performance of a multipoint, lean direct injection (MP-LDI) strategy for low emission aero-propulsion systems has been tested in a Jet-A fueled, lean flame tube combustion rig. Operating conditions for the series of tests included inlet air temperatures between 672 and 828 K, pressures between 1034 and 1379 kPa and total equivalence ratios between 0.41 and 0.45, resulting in equilibrium flame temperatures approaching 1800 K. Ranges of operation were selected to represent the spectrum of subsonic and supersonic flight conditions projected for the next-generation of commercial aircraft. This document reports laser-based measurements of in situ fuel velocities and fuel drop sizes for the NASA 9-point LDI hardware arranged in a 3 3 square grid configuration. Data obtained represent a region of the flame tube combustor with optical access that extends 38.1-mm downstream of the fuel injection site. All data were obtained within reacting flows, without particle seeding. Two diagnostic methods were employed to evaluate the resulting flow path. Three-component velocity fields have been captured using phase Doppler interferometry (PDI), and two-component velocity distributions using planar particle image velocimetry (PIV). Data from these techniques have also offered insight into fuel drop size and distribution, fuel injector spray angle and pattern, turbulence intensity, degree of vaporization and extent of reaction. This research serves to characterize operation of the baseline NASA 9- point LDI strategy for potential use in future gas-turbine combustor applications. An additional motive is the compilation of a comprehensive database to facilitate understanding of combustor fuel injector aerodynamics and fuel vaporization processes, which in turn may be used to validate computational fluid dynamics codes, such as the National Combustor Code (NCC), among others.

Heath, Christopher M.↗
NASA NTRS2013

International Space Station Accomplishments Update: Scientific Discovery, Advancing Future Exploration, and Benefits Brought Home to Earth

Throughout the history of the International Space Station (ISS), crews on board have conducted a variety of scientific research and educational activities. Well into the second year of full utilization of the ISS laboratory, the trend of scientific accomplishments and educational opportunities continues to grow. More than 1500 investigations have been conducted on the ISS since the first module launched in 1998, with over 700 scientific publications. The ISS provides a unique environment for research, international collaboration and educational activities that benefit humankind. This paper will provide an up to date summary of key investigations, facilities, publications, and benefits from ISS research that have developed over the past year. Discoveries in human physiology and nutrition have enabled astronauts to return from ISS with little bone loss, even as scientists seek to better understand the new puzzle of "ocular syndrome" affecting the vision of up to half of astronauts. The geneLAB campaign will unify life sciences investigations to seek genomic, proteomic, and metabolomics of the effect of microgravity on life as a whole. Combustion scientists identified a new "cold flame" phenomenon that has the potential to improve models of efficient combustion back on Earth. A significant number of instruments in Earth remote sensing and astrophysics are providing new access to data or nearing completion for launch, making ISS a significant platform for understanding of the Earth system and the universe. In addition to multidisciplinary research, the ISS partnership conducts a myriad of student led research investigations and educational activities aimed at increasing student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Over the past year, the ISS partnership compiled new statistics of the educational impact of the ISS on students around the world. More than 43 million students, from kindergarten to graduate school, with more than 28 million teachers located in 49 countries have participated in some aspect of ISS educational activities. These activities include student-developed investigations, education competitions, and classroom versions of ISS investigations, participating in ISS investigator experiments, ISS hardware development, educational demonstrations, and cultural activities. Through the many inquiry-based educational activities, students and teachers are encouraged to participate in the ISS program thus motivating the next generation of students to pursue careers in STEM.

Thumm, Tracy↗
NASA NTRS1982

Advanced stratified charge rotary aircraft engine design study

A technology base of new developments which offered potential benefits to a general aviation engine was compiled and ranked. Using design approaches selected from the ranked list, conceptual design studies were performed of an advanced and a highly advanced engine sized to provide 186/250 shaft Kw/HP under cruise conditions at 7620/25,000 m/ft altitude. These are turbocharged, direct-injected stratified charge engines intended for commercial introduction in the early 1990's. The engine descriptive data includes tables, curves, and drawings depicting configuration, performance, weights and sizes, heat rejection, ignition and fuel injection system descriptions, maintenance requirements, and scaling data for varying power. An engine-airframe integration study of the resulting engines in advanced airframes was performed on a comparative basis with current production type engines. The results show airplane performance, costs, noise & installation factors. The rotary-engined airplanes display substantial improvements over the baseline, including 30 to 35% lower fuel usage.

Badgley, P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

An automated mapping satellite system

Topographic maps are compiled by manually operated stereoplotters that recreate the geometry of two wide-angle overlapping stereo frame photographs. Continuous imaging systems such as strip cameras, electro-optical scanners, or linear arrays of detectors (push brooms) can also create stereo coverage from which topography can be compiled; however, the instability of an aircraft in the atmosphere makes this approach impractical. The benign environment of space permits a satellite to orbit the Earth with very high stability as long as no local perturbing forces are involved. Solid-state linear-array sensors have no moving parts and create no perturbing force on the satellite. Digital data from highly stabilized stereo linear arrays are amenable to simplified processing to produce both planimetric imagery and elevation data. A proposed satellite, called MAPSAT, could accomplish automated mapping in near real time. Image maps as large as 1:50,000 scale with contours as close as 20-m interval may be produced from MAPSAT data.

Colvocoreses, A. P.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Flood basalt eruptions, comet showers, and mass extinction events

A chronology of initiation dates of the major continental flood basalt episodes has been established from compilation of published K-Ar and Ar-Ar ages of basaltic flows and related basic intrusions. The dating is therefore independent of the biostratigraphic and paleomagnetic time scales, and the estimated errors of the inititation dates are approximately + or - 4 pct. There are 11 distinct episodes of continental flood basalts known during the past 250 Myr. The data show that flood basalt episodes are generally relatively brief geologic events, with intermittent eruptions during peak output periods lasting ony 2 to 3 Myr or less. Statistical analyses suggest that these episodes may have occurred quasi-periodically with a mean cycle time of 32 + or - 1 Myr. The initiation dates of the flood basalts are close to the estimated dates of marine mass extinctions and impact-crater clusters. Although a purely internal forcing might be argued for the flood basalt volcanism, quasi-periodic comet impacts may be the trigger for both the flood basalts and the extinctions. Impact cratering models suggest that large-body impactors lead to deep initial cratering, and therefore may cause mantle disturbances and initiate mantle plume activity. The flood basalt episodes commonly mark the initiation or jump of a mantle hotspot, and are often followed by continental rifting and separation. Evidence from dynamical studies of impacts, occurrences of craters and hotspots, and the geochemistry of boundary layers is synthesized to provide a possible model of impact-generated volcanism. Flood basalt eruptions may themselves have severe effects on climate, and possibly on life. Impacts might, as a result, have led to mass extinctions through direct atmospheric disturbances, and/or indirectly through prolonged flood basalt volcanism.

Rampino, Michael R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

ASpect: A new spectrum and line analysis package for IRAF

We examined several publicly available spectral analysis software packages looking for one with enough functionality and versatility to meet the analysis needs of astronomers during the next decade. None of those examined can satisfactorily support the wide variety of panchromatic science programs that are now becoming possible. Furthermore, we concluded that none of these packages can be simply modified to include critical functions because of their original (limited) designs. During the next two years we will write a new spectral analysis package, ASpect, that will incorporate the latest analysis techniques for astronomical spectra in all wavelength domains. The ASpect package has several functional requirements. It must operate on spectra from a wide variety of ground-based and space-based instruments spanning wavelengths from radio to gamma rays. It must accommodate non-linear dispersion relations. It must provide a variety of functions, individually or in combination, with which to fit spectral features and the continuum. It is vitally important that known bad data be masked and that, uncertainties be propagated throughout the calculations in order for astronomers to evaluate the reliability of results. Finally, this new package must provide a powerful, intuitive graphical user interface to handle the burden of data input/output (I/O), on-line 'help,' selection of relevant features for analysis, plotting and graphical interaction, and data base management--all in a comprehensible environment. We anticipate that ASpect will take the form of an external package in IRAF (such as the NOAO and STSDAS packages) and will be layered upon the IRAF virtual Operating System to make it available on as many platforms as possible, while making it resistant to changes in operating systems and compilers. Our choice of IRAF is motivated by its portability, its wide use within the astronomical community, and its rich set of existing user applications.

Hulbert, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Stereogrammetric Mapping of Mars: Promise, Progress, and Problems

To assist in landing site selection, we are compiling a suite of stereo images of potential land-ing sites for the 1998 and 2001 Mars landers. From these, we are using automated stereogrammetry software to map the topography of these sites at higher resolution than previously available. One our tasks is to integrate stereo-based topography with MGS MOLA laser-based topography. These two data sets compliment each other and can lead to a higher level of understanding of Mars than would use of either dataset by itself. In this presentation, we report on the success of these efforts, and some of the lessons learned. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Schenk, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Propagation effects handbook for satellite systems design. A summary of propagation impairments on 10 to 100 GHz satellite links with techniques for system design

The NASA Propagation Effects Handbook for Satellite Systems Design provides a systematic compilation of the major propagation effects experienced on space-Earth paths in the 10 to 100 GHz frequency band region. It provides both a detailed description of the propagation phenomenon and a summary of the impact of the effect on the communications system design and performance. Chapter 2 through 5 describe the propagation effects, prediction models, and available experimental data bases. In Chapter 6, design techniques and prediction methods available for evaluating propagation effects on space-Earth communication systems are presented. Chapter 7 addresses the system design process and how the effects of propagation on system design and performance should be considered and how that can be mitigated. Examples of operational and planned Ku, Ka, and EHF satellite communications systems are given.

Ippolito, Louis J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

A layered abduction model of perception: Integrating bottom-up and top-down processing in a multi-sense agent

A layered-abduction model of perception is presented which unifies bottom-up and top-down processing in a single logical and information-processing framework. The process of interpreting the input from each sense is broken down into discrete layers of interpretation, where at each layer a best explanation hypothesis is formed of the data presented by the layer or layers below, with the help of information available laterally and from above. The formation of this hypothesis is treated as a problem of abductive inference, similar to diagnosis and theory formation. Thus this model brings a knowledge-based problem-solving approach to the analysis of perception, treating perception as a kind of compiled cognition. The bottom-up passing of information from layer to layer defines channels of information flow, which separate and converge in a specific way for any specific sense modality. Multi-modal perception occurs where channels converge from more than one sense. This model has not yet been implemented, though it is based on systems which have been successful in medical and mechanical diagnosis and medical test interpretation.

Josephson, John R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Measurement of atmospheric turbulence

The material contained is primarily a compilation of information that has already been published. The attached reference list should be adequate for clarifying points to any detail desired. The purpose is to provide a description of the methodology required for measuring atmospheric turbulence in the form of true gust velocity. The content will include instrumentation requirements and selections used, flight assessments of the measurement system, some data reduction considerations, and finally some typical data obtained.

Murrow, Harold N.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Computer Program for Calculation of Complex Chemical Equilibrium Compositions and Applications II. Users Manual and Program Description: Users Manual and Program Description - 2

This users manual is the second part of a two-part report describing the NASA Lewis CEA (Chemical Equilibrium with Applications) program. The program obtains chemical equilibrium compositions of complex mixtures with applications to several types of problems. The topics presented in this manual are: (1) details for preparing input data sets; (2) a description of output tables for various types of problems; (3) the overall modular organization of the program with information on how to make modifications; (4) a description of the function of each subroutine; (5) error messages and their significance; and (6) a number of examples that illustrate various types of problems handled by CEA and that cover many of the options available in both input and output. Seven appendixes give information on the thermodynamic and thermal transport data used in CEA; some information on common variables used in or generated by the equilibrium module; and output tables for 14 example problems. The CEA program was written in ANSI standard FORTRAN 77. CEA should work on any system with sufficient storage. There are about 6300 lines in the source code, which uses about 225 kilobytes of memory. The compiled program takes about 975 kilobytes.

McBride, Bonnie J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Retrospective Data Assimilation for GEOS-4

The NASA/Goddard Earth Observing System 3 (GEOS-3) has recently been replaced operationally by GEOS-4. One of the major components of the new system is the finite-volume general circulation model (GCM) of Lin and Rood. Updating the GEOS-3 retrospective data assimilation system of Zhu et al. to GEOS-4 requires two main steps: (i) developing the adjoint of the finite-volume GCM; and (ii) developing the adjoint of the procedures interfacing the GCM with the Physical-space Statistical Analysis System. These required adjoints are being developed automatically through the use of the Transformation of Algorithms in Fortran compiler of Giering and Kaminski. In this presentation we discuss the current status of development and plans for the near future as well as show preliminary results.

Todling, Ricardo↗
NASA NTRS1992

The HITRAN molecular data base - Editions of 1991 and 1992

We describe in this paper the modifications, improvements, and enhancements to the HITRAN molecular absorption database that have occurred in the two editions of 1991 and 1992. The current database includes line parameters for 31 species and their isotopomers that are significant for terrestrial atmospheric studies. This line-by-line portion of HITRAN presently contains about 709,000 transitions between 0 and 23,000/cm and contains three molecules not present in earlier versions: COF2, SF6, and H2S. The HITRAN compilation has substantially more information on chlorofluorocarbons and other molecular species that exhibit dense spectra which are not amenable to line-by-line representation. The user access of the database has been advanced, and new media forms are now available for use on personal computers.

Rothman, Laurence S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Working Papers: Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel Reports

The papers of the panels appointed by the Astronomy and Astrophysics survey Committee are compiled. These papers were advisory to the survey committee and represent the opinions of the members of each panel in the context of their individual charges. The following subject areas are covered: radio astronomy, infrared astronomy, optical/IR from ground, UV-optical from space, interferometry, high energy from space, particle astrophysics, theory and laboratory astrophysics, solar astronomy, planetary astronomy, computing and data processing, policy opportunities, benefits to the nation from astronomy and astrophysics, status of the profession, and science opportunities.

Bahcall, John N.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Sea Ice Variability in the Sea of Okhotsk from Passive Microwave Satellite Observations

The Sea of Okhotsk, located between 50 and 60 N, is bounded by the Kamchatka Peninsula, Siberia, Sakhalin Island, and the Kuril Island chain and is the largest midlatitude seasonal sea ice zone in the Northern Hemisphere. The winter sea ice cover begins to form in November and expands to cover most of the sea by March. Over the following three months, the ice retreats with only small ice-covered areas remaining by the beginning of June. The sea is ice free or nearly ice free on average for six months of the year, from June through November. The recent compilation of a consistent, long-term record of Northern Hemisphere sea ice extents based on passive microwave satellite observations from the Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer and from four Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Microwave Imagers provides the basis for assessing long-term sea ice extent variability in the Sea of Okhotsk. Analysis of this 20-year data record (1979-1998) shows that based on yearly averages the overall extent of the Sea of Okhotsk ice cover is decreasing at the rate of -8.1+/-2.1x10(exp 3) sq km/yr (-17.2%/decade), in contrast to the rate of decrease of -33.3+/-0.7x10(exp 3) sq km/yr (-2.7%/decade) for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. There is large regional sea ice extent variability of the Arctic ice cover. Two of the nine Arctic regions analyzed, the Bering Sea and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, show increases of 0.8+/-1.4xl0(exp 3) sq km/yr (2.7%/decade) and 1.2+/-0.5xl0(exp 3) sq km/yr (17.1%/decade), respectively. Interestingly, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Gulf of St. Lawrence show about equal percentage changes, but of opposite sign. The Sea of Okhotsk exhibits its greatest percent decrease (-24.3%/decade) during spring (April-June). The year of maximum winter sea ice extent for the Sea of Okhotsk was 1979, whereas the minimum winter sea ice extent occurred in 1984.

Cavalieri, Donald J.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Mapping coastal vegetation, land use and environmental impact from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Vegetation map overlays at a scale of 1:24,000 compiled by multispectral analysis from NASA aircraft imagery for all of Delaware's wetlands are being used as ground truth for ERTS-1 mapping and by state agencies for wetlands management. Six major vegetation species were discriminated and mapped, including percentages of minor species. Analogue enhancements of wetlands vegetation and dredge-fill operations have been produced using General Electric's GEMS data processing and ERTS-1 false color composites. Digital, thematic land use, and vegetation mapping of entire Delaware Bay area is in progress using Bendix Corporation's Earth Resources Data System and ERTS-1 digital tapes. Statistical evaluation of target-group selection reliability has been completed. Three papers have been published on ERTS-1 coastal vegetation and land use. Local and state officials are participating in the ERTS-1 program as co-investigators.

Klemas, V.↗