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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

Teleoperated Modular Robots for Lunar Operations

Solar system exploration is currently carried out by special purpose robots exquisitely designed for the anticipated tasks. However, all contingencies for in situ resource utilization (ISRU), human habitat preparation, and exploration will be difficult to anticipate. Furthermore, developing the necessary special purpose mechanisms for deployment and other capabilities is difficult and error prone. For example, the Galileo high gain antenna never opened, severely restricting the quantity of data returned by the spacecraft. Also, deployment hardware is used only once. To address these problems, we are developing teleoperated modular robots for lunar missions, including operations in transit from Earth. Teleoperation of lunar systems from Earth involves a three second speed-of-light delay, but experiment suggests that interactive operations are feasible.' Modular robots typically consist of many identical modules that pass power and data between them and can be reconfigured for different tasks providing great flexibility, inherent redundancy and graceful degradation as modules fail. Our design features a number of different hub, link, and joint modules to simplify the individual modules, lower structure cost, and provide specialized capabilities. Modular robots are well suited for space applications because of their extreme flexibility, inherent redundancy, high-density packing, and opportunities for mass production. Simple structural modules can be manufactured from lunar regolith in situ using molds or directed solar sintering. Software to direct and control modular robots is difficult to develop. We have used genetic algorithms to evolve both the morphology and control system for walking modular robots3 We are currently using evolvable system technology to evolve controllers for modular robots in the ISS glove box. Development of lunar modular robots will require software and physical simulators, including regolith simulation, to enable design and test of robot software and hardware, particularly automation software. Ready access to these simulators could provide opportunities for contest-driven development ala RoboCup (http://www.robocup.org/). Licensing of module designs could provide opportunities in the toy market and for spin-off applications.

Globus, Al↗
NASA NTRS2005

Phase Modulator with Terahertz Optical Bandwidth Formed by Multi-Layered Dielectric Stack

An optical phase modulator includes a bandpass multilayer stack, formed by a plurality of dielectric layers, preferably of GaAs and AlAs, and having a transmission function related to the refractive index of the layers of the stack, for receiving an optical input signal to be phase modulated. A phase modulator device produces a nonmechanical change in the refractive index of each layer of the stack by, e.g., the injection of free carrier, to provide shifting of the transmission function so as to produce phase modulation of the optical input signal and to thereby produce a phase modulated output signal.

Andrew S Keys↗
NASA NTRS2005

Lightning Mapping and the Nowcasting of Severe Storms

This paper describes a successful research and operational collaboration between NASA scientists and NWS forecasters to improve severe stor m warnings using real-time data from a regional VHF total lightning mapping array (LMA). Key objectives of our research using LMA data ar e: a) Identification of intensifying and weakening storms using the time rate-of-change of total flash rate; b) Improved severe storm poten tial situational awareness; c) Evaluation of the potential of total f lash rate trend to improve severe storm probability of detection (POD ) and lead time; and d) Validation of mesoscale model forecasts of th understorm initiation. The LMA data are distributed for ingest and di splay in the WFO AWIPS decision support system, and archived at each WFO for case studies, event playbacks, and assessments using the NWS Warning Event Simulator. The Huntsville WFO has upgraded severe thund erstorm warnings to verified tornado warnings and avoided a false ala rm on a severe storm through the added information on storm growth, intensification, and decay that can be deduced from the magnitude and temporal trend of total flash rates. We present detailed case studies of the observed relationships between lightning activity and tornadi c storm development as determined by radar reflectivity and velocity fields, and thunderstorms forecast by the Weather Research and Foreca st (WRF) model. From these collaborative studies, forecasters can eva luate the added value of total lightning data within the forecast and warning decision-making process (http://weather.msfc.nasa.gov/sport) .

Goodman, S.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Chemical evolution of RNA under hydrothermal conditions and the role of thermal copolymers of amino acids for the prebiotic degradation and formation of RNA

The roles of thermal copolymers of amino acids (TCAA) were studied for the prebiotic degradation of RNA. A weak catalytic ability of TCAA consisted of Glu, L-Ala, L-Val, L-Glu, L-Asp, and optionally L-His was detected for the cleavage of the ribose phosphodiester bond of a tetranucleotide (5'-dCrCdGdG) in aqueous solution at 80 degees C. The rate constants of the disappearance of 5'-dCrCdGdG were determined in aqueous solutions using different pH buffer and TCAA. The degradation rates were enhanced 1.3-3.0 times in the presence of TCAA at pH 7.5 and 8.0 at 80 degrees C, while the hydrolysis of oligoguanylate (oligo(G)) was accelerated about 1.6 times at pH 8.0. A weak inhibitory activity for the cleavage of oligo(G) was detected in the presence of 0.055 M TCAA-Std. On the other hand, our recent study on the influences of TCAA for the template-directed reaction of oligo(G) on a polycytidylic acid template showed that TCAA has an acceleration activity for the degradation of the activated nucleotide monomer and an acceleration activity for the formation of G5' ppG capped oligo(G). This series of studies suggest that efficient and selective catalytic or inhibitory activities for either the degradation or formation of RNA under hydrothermal conditions could have hardly emerged from the simple thermal condensation products of amino acids. A scenario is going to be deduced on the chemical evolution of enzymatic activities and RNA molecules concerning hydrothermal earth conditions. c2005 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Amino Acids/chemistry↗
NASA NTRS2004

Open-systems Architecture of a Standardized Command Interface Chip-set for Switching and Control of a Spacecraft Power Bus

This viewgraph presentation reviews the architecture of the The CIA-AlA chip-set is a set of mixed-signal ASICs that provide a flexible high level interface between the spacecraft's command and data handling (C&DH) electronics and lower level functions in other spacecraft subsystems. Due to the open-systems architecture of the chip-set including an embedded micro-controller a variety of applications are possible. The chip-set was developed for the missions to the outer planets. The chips were developed to provide a single solution for both the switching and regulation of a spacecraft power bus. The Open-Systems Architecture allows for other powerful applications.

power switch slice (PSS)↗
NASA NTRS2009

Predicting the Sunspot Cycle

The 11-year sunspot cycle was discovered by an amateur astronomer in 1844. Visual and photographic observations of sunspots have been made by both amateurs and professionals over the last 400 years. These observations provide key statistical information about the sunspot cycle that do allow for predictions of future activity. However, sunspots and the sunspot cycle are magnetic in nature. For the last 100 years these magnetic measurements have been acquired and used exclusively by professional astronomers to gain new information about the nature of the solar activity cycle. Recently, magnetic dynamo models have evolved to the stage where they can assimilate past data and provide predictions. With the advent of the Internet and open data policies, amateurs now have equal access to the same data used by professionals and equal opportunities to contribute (but, alas, without pay). This talk will describe some of the more useful prediction techniques and reveal what they say about the intensity of the upcoming sunspot cycle.

Hathaway, David H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Pulsed Flows Along a Cusp Structure Observed with SOO/AIA

We present observations of a cusp-shaped structure that formed after a flare and coronal mass ejection on 14 February 2011. Throughout the evolution of the cusp structure, blob features up to a few Mm in size were observed flowing along the legs and stalk of the cusp at projected speeds ranging from 50 to 150 km/sec. Around two dozen blob features, on order of 1 - 3 minutes apart, were tracked in multiple AlA EUV wavelengths. The blobs flowed outward (away from the Sun) along the cusp stalk, and most of the observed speeds were either constant or decelerating. We attempt to reconstruct the 3-D magnetic field of the evolving structure, discuss the possible drivers of the flows (including pulsed reconnect ion and tearing mode instability), and compare the observations to studies of pulsed reconnect ion and blob flows in the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere.

Thompson, Barbara↗
NASA NTRS2011

Flight Reynolds Number Testing of the Orion Launch Abort Vehicle in the NASA Langley National Transonic Facility

A 6%-scale unpowered model of the Orion Launch Abort Vehicle (LAV) ALAS-11-rev3c configuration was tested in the NASA Langley National Transonic Facility to obtain static aerodynamic data at flight Reynolds numbers. Subsonic and transonic data were obtained for Mach numbers between 0.3 and 0.95 for angles of attack from -4 to +22 degrees and angles of sideslip from -10 to +10 degrees. Data were also obtained at various intermediate Reynolds numbers between 2.5 million and 45 million depending on Mach number in order to examine the effects of Reynolds number on the vehicle. Force and moment data were obtained using a 6-component strain gauge balance that operated both at warm temperatures (+120 . F) and cryogenic temperatures (-250 . F). Surface pressure data were obtained with electronically scanned pressure units housed in heated enclosures designed to survive cryogenic temperatures. Data obtained during the 3-week test entry were used to support development of the LAV aerodynamic database and to support computational fluid dynamics code validation. Furthermore, one of the outcomes of the test was the reduction of database uncertainty on axial force coefficient for the static unpowered LAV. This was accomplished as a result of good data repeatability throughout the test and because of decreased uncertainty on scaling wind tunnel data to flight.

Chan, David T.↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Continual Intercomparison of Radiation Codes (CIRC) Assessing Anew the Quality of GCM Radiation Algorithms

The simulation of changes in the Earth's climate due to solar and thermal radiative processes with global climate models (GCMs) is highly complex, depending on the parameterization of a multitude of nonlinearly coupled physical processes. In contrast, the germ of global climate change, the radiative forcing from enhanced abundances of greenhouse gases, is relatively well understood. The impressive agreement between detailed radiation calculations and highly resolved spectral radiation measurements in the thermal infrared under cloudless conditions (see, for example, Fig. 1) instills confidence in our knowledge of the sources of gaseous absorption. That the agreement spans a broad range of temperature and humidity regimes using instruments mounted on surface, aircraft, and satellite platforms not only attests to our capability to accurately calculate radiative fluxes under present conditions, but also provides confidence in the spectroscopic basis for computation of fluxes under conditions that might characterize future global climate (e.g., radiative forcing). Alas, the computational costs of highly resolved spectral radiation calculations cannot be afforded presently in GCMs. Such calculations have instead been used as the foundation for approximations implemented in fast but generally less accurate algorithms performing the needed radiative transfer (RT) calculations in GCMs. Credible climate simulations by GCMs cannot be ensured without accurate solar and thermal radiative flux calculations under all types of sky conditions: pristine cloudless, aerosol-laden, and cloudy. The need for accuracy in RT calculations is not only important for greenhouse gas forcing scenarios, but is also profoundly needed for the robust simulation of many other atmospheric phenomena, such as convective processes.

Oreopoulos, Lazaros↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Effects of B/L-Dependent Heating on the Formation and Evolution of a Multi-Threaded Prominence

We have developed a comprehensive, multi-threaded, three-dimensional model of the plasma dynamics and energetics of a prominence and its overlying arcade (Luna et al. 2012). In this model, the basic magnetic structure is that of two interacting sheared arcades, while the cool condensations composing the prominence are formed by the well-studied thermal nonequilibrium mechanism. In a given filament-channel flux tube, the mass is evaporated from the chromosphere by heating localized near the footpoints, and condenses in the form of transient blobs or a persistent thread. Our previous studies of thermal nonequilibrium used steady or impulsive heating functions with no dependence on local physical. However, parametric active-region models with steady heating proportional to B/L, where B is the flux-tube magnetic field strength at each footpoint and L is the flux-tube length, yield the best agreement with observations (e.g., Schrijver et al. 2008). We have determined the effects of this active-region heating function on our model for the formation and evolution of prominence mass. We have also expanded the range of our computational domain to include more ofthe overlying arcade (the so-called "cavity") than in Luna et al. (2012), and have increased the number of selected flux tubes from 125 to 533. We will illustrate the time-dependent plasma behavior produced by the B/L heating function with synthetic images in several ALA passbands, and compare the resulting prominence properties with those predicted by our model with steady heating.

Karpen, Judith T.↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Virtual Solar Observatory: What Are We Up To Now?

In the nearly ten years of a functional Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO), http://virtualsolar.org/ we have made it possible to query and access sixty-seven distinct solar data products and several event lists from nine spacecraft and fifteen observatories or observing networks. We have used existing VSO technology, and developed new software, for a distributed network of sites caching and serving SDO HMI and/ or AlA data. We have also developed an application programming interface (API) that has enabled VSO search and data access capabilities in IDL, Python, and Java. We also have quite a bit of work yet to do, including completion of the implementation of access to SDO EVE data, and access to some nineteen other data sets from space- and ground-based observatories. In addition, we have been developing a new graphic user interface that will enable the saving of user interface and search preferences. We solicit advice from the community input prioritizing our task list, and adding to it

Gurman, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Thermal Structure of Supra-Arcade Plasma in Two Solar Flares

In this work, we use Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA data to determine the thermal structure of supra-arcade plasma in two solar flares. The first flare is a Ml.2 flare that occurred on November 5, 2010 on the east limb. This flare was one of a series of flares from AR 11121, published in Reeves & Golub (2011). The second flare is an XI.7 flare that occurred on January 27, 2012 on the west limb. This flare exhibits visible supra-arcade downflows (SADs), where the November 2010 flare does not. For these two flares we combine XRT and AlA data to calculate DEMs of each pixel in the supra-arcade plasma, giving insight into the temperature and density structures in the fan of plasma above the post-flare arcade. We find in each case that the supra-arcade plasma is around 10 MK, and there is a marked decrease in the emission measure in the SADs. We also compare the DEMs calculated with the combined AIA/XRT dataset to those calculated using AIA alone.

Reeves, Katharine K.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Marshall Team Complete Testing for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer

Dr. Huu Trinh and his team with the Propulsion Systems and Test Departments at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. successfully complete a simulated cold-flow test series on the propulsion system used for the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is leading NASA s work on the development of the LADEE spacecraft, and the Marshall center is the program office for the project. The spacecraft, scheduled for launch this fall, will orbit the Moon and gather information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface of the Moon, and collect samples of lunar dust. A thorough understanding of these characteristics will address long-standing unknowns, and help scientists understand other planetary bodies as well. The test team at the Marshall center conducted the cold flow test to identify how the fluid flows through the propulsion system feed lines, especially during critical operation modes. The test data will be used to assist the LADEE team in identifying any potential flow issues in the propulsion system, and allow them to address and correct them in advance of the launch.

Swofford, Philip↗
NASA NTRS2008

Swarm Verification

Reportedly, supercomputer designer Seymour Cray once said that he would sooner use two strong oxen to plow a field than a thousand chickens. Although this is undoubtedly wise when it comes to plowing a field, it is not so clear for other types of tasks. Model checking problems are of the proverbial "search the needle in a haystack" type. Such problems can often be parallelized easily. Alas, none of the usual divide and conquer methods can be used to parallelize the working of a model checker. Given that it has become easier than ever to gain access to large numbers of computers to perform even routine tasks it is becoming more and more attractive to find alternate ways to use these resources to speed up model checking tasks. This paper describes one such method, called swarm verification.

grid computing↗
DOE OSTI2025

Air‐Stable High‐Voltage Li‐Ion Organic Cathode Enabled by Localized High‐Concentration Electrolyte

While lithium‐ion batteries have revolutionized the field of energy storage, their reliance on critical minerals such as cobalt and nickel raises significant concerns over resource availability and supply chain uncertainty. In this study, we revisit dithiin‐fused dilithium naphthazarin (5,8‐dihydroxy‐1,4‐naphthoquinone) (DNP‐Li) as a high‐voltage Li‐ion organic cathode and evaluate its performance in conjunction with localized high‐concentration electrolyte (LHCE). DNP‐Li exhibits remarkable air and thermal stability, a high operating potential of 3.55 V vs. Li + /Li, and a specific capacity of 232 mAh g −1 , positioning it as one of the most promising candidates among Li‐ion organic cathodes. Furthermore, the electrochemical behavior of DNP‐Li is strongly influenced by the electrolyte composition, giving distinct two‐plateau or four‐plateau voltage profiles accompanied by reversible or irreversible phase transitions in carbonate‐based or LHCE electrolyte formulations, respectively. The reduced solubility of DNP‐Li‐based redox intermediates in LHCE enhances cycling stability, achieving a capacity retention of 85% after 50 cycles at 0.1C and 75% after 160 cycles at 0.5C, demonstrating a significant improvement compared to the carbonate‐based electrolyte. This work highlights the critical role of solute–electrolyte interactions in modulating the electrochemical performance of multielectron small‐molecule organic cathodes, offering new pathways for advancing sustainable and high‐efficiency energy storage technologies.

Lakraychi, Alae Eddine [Department of Electrical a↗
DOE OSTI2021

Roadmap of Solid-State Lithium-Organic Batteries toward 500 Wh kg –1

Over the past few years, solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) have attracted tremendous attention due to their credible promise toward high-energy batteries. In parallel, organic battery electrode materials (OBEMs) are gaining momentum as strong candidates thanks to their lower environmental footprint, flexibility in molecular design and high energy metrics. Integration of the two constitutes a potential synergy to enable energy-dense solid-state batteries (SSBs) with high safety, low cost, and long-term sustainability. Here, we present the technological feasibility of combining OBEMs with SSEs along with the possible cell configurations that may result from this peculiar combination. We provide an overview of organic SSBs and discuss their main challenges. We analyze the performance-limiting factors and the critical cell design parameters governing cell-level specific energy and energy density. Lastly, we propose guidelines to achieve 500 Wh kg –1 cell-level specific energy with solid-state Li–organic batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗