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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

Propulsion and Power Technologies for the NASA Exploration Vision: A Research Perspective

Future propulsion and power technologies for deep space missions are profiled in this viewgraph presentation. The presentation includes diagrams illustrating possible future travel times to other planets in the solar system. The propulsion technologies researched at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) include: 1) Chemical Propulsion; 2) Nuclear Propulsion; 3) Electric and Plasma Propulsion; 4) Energetics. The presentation contains additional information about these technologies, as well as space reactors, reactor simulation, and the Propulsion Research Laboratory (PRL) at MSFC.

Litchford, Ron J.↗

NASA’s Vision for Spaceflight Computing

Future NASA mission applications demand onboard computing performance, power efficiency, and flexibility not available from current products. To address these needs, NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) project is developing a radiation hardened, general purpose multi-core processor. Key HPSC objectives include natural space radiation hardness, fault tolerance, computation performance and extensibility, and power scalability. This presentation will first highlight how advances in spaceflight computing are key to NASA’s envisioned future for advanced avionics. Descriptions will then be provided for NASA mission applications and use cases that demand advanced spaceflight computing. The presentation will then provide an overview of NASA’s HPSC project and how it will address the computational demands of future missions.

Wesley Powell↗

Enhanced/Synthetic Vision Systems - Human factors research and implications for future systems

This paper reviews recent human factors research studies conducted in the Aerospace Human Factors Research Division at NASA Ames Research Center related to the development and usage of Enhanced or Synthetic Vision Systems. Research discussed includes studies of field of view (FOV), representational differences of infrared (IR) imagery, head-up display (HUD) symbology, HUD advanced concept designs, sensor fusion, and sensor/database fusion and evaluation. Implications for the design and usage of Enhanced or Synthetic Vision Systems are discussed.

Foyle, David C.↗

Engage the Public in Science and Embrace Future Change with Human-Centric Stories, Art, and Imaginings

Human-centric stories that weave in real scientific data may be able to engage the public in environmental issues that do not yet directly affect them. Science fiction and artistically rendered futuristic scenarios can unleash the imagination and act as a lens to envision technological, social, and cultural aspects of transitioning to clean energy. Cultures with strong oral traditions use stories to record history, develop a shared identity, pass on environmental lessons, and prepare for future change. Through the lenses of our non-physical science disciplines (cultural anthropology and environmental sociology), we discuss challenges to communicating science, the use of narratives to illustrate ecosystem processes, and we report on a collaborative, interdisciplinary workshop and book project that is creating narratives of hope and visions for the future through inspiring art, short stories, and essays. We explore the surprising potential of 'cli-fi,' humor, games, and the research behind emotion and imagination-driven engagement. We describe methods that help people visualize their future well-being and we explore opportunities to spread those methods.

clean energy↗

Looking Back and Looking Forward: Reprising the Promise and Predicting the Future of Formation Flying and Spaceborne GPS Navigation Systems

A retrospective consideration of two 15-year old Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) technology 'vision' predictions will be the focus of this paper. A look back analysis and critique of these late 1990s technology roadmaps out-lining the future vision, for two then nascent, but rapidly emerging, GN&C technologies will be performed. Specifically, these two GN&C technologies were: 1) multi-spacecraft formation flying and 2) the spaceborne use and exploitation of global positioning system (GPS) signals to enable formation flying. This paper reprises the promise of formation flying and spaceborne GPS as depicted in the cited 1999 and 1998 papers. It will discuss what happened to cause that promise to be mostly unfulfilled and the reasons why the envisioned formation flying dream has yet to become a reality. The recent technology trends over the past few years will then be identified and a renewed government interest in spacecraft formation flying/cluster flight will be highlighted. The authors will conclude with a reality-tempered perspective, 15 years after the initial technology roadmaps were published, predicting a promising future of spacecraft formation flying technology development over the next decade.

Bauer, Frank H.↗

Aerodynamics for Revolutionary Air Vehicles

Aeronautics research has seriously declined partly because of the perception that it is a mature science and only incremental improvements are possible. Recent aeronautics roadmapping activities at NASA Langley paint a different picture of the future. Breakthroughs are still felt to be possible if we expand the current design space of today's vehicles and optimize the airspace and vehicles as a system. The paper describes some of the challenges that the aircraft and airline industry face. These challenges include political, technical and environmental issues. Examples of the opportunities and technologies that could provide a different vision for the future are discussed.

Sellers, William L., III↗

Challenging the Future - Journey to Excellence. Aeropropulsion strategic plan for the 1990's

Over the past several months, the Lewis Aeropropulsion Management Council (AMC) has conducted a critical assessment of its strategic plan. This assessment clearly indicated a need for change, both in the aeropropulsion program emphasis and in the approach to carrying out that program. Customers sent a strong message that the program must improve the timeliness of research and technology products and services and must work more closely with them to develop and transfer new technology. The strategic plan defines AMC's vision for the future and underlying organizational values. It contains a set of broad strategies and actions that point the way toward achieving the goals of customer satisfaction, organizational effectiveness, and programmatic excellence. Those strategies are expected to form the basis for the development of specific tactical plans by Lewis aeropropulsion thrust teams, divisions, and branches. To guide tactical planning of the aeropropulsion program, this strategic plan outlines the agency's strategic directions and long-range aeronautics goals, the aeropropulsion goals and key objectives for achieving them, projections of Lewis aeropropulsion budgets, planned allocations of resources, and the processes that will be used to measure success in carrying out the strategic plan.

Source record↗

Visual and Inertial Datasets for an eVTOL Aircraft Approach and Landing Scenario

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project developing computer vision algorithms for autonomous flight is producing real-world datasets with cameras mounted on aircraft. In related domains, such as autonomous driving, open datasets are key to innovation and advancement in computer vision and autonomous perception for future Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations. Few vision datasets, however, are publicly available in the aviation context. This paper introduces preliminary datasets containing several examples of approach and landing scenarios. The platform aircraft include a multirotor small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) and a crewed helicopter as surrogates for future electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The dataset provides video imagery with associated inertial navigation system-global positioning system (INS-GPS) position and attitude estimates and other sensors. Surveyed locations of the visual features of the landing area are included. This dataset is the first to be released in an ongoing effort to collect and share large, diverse datasets relevant to autonomous aviation; community critique that can inform and improve future flight campaigns is welcome.

Nelson Brown↗

Snowmass’21 Accelerator Frontier

Snowmass’21 is decadal particle physics community planning study. It provides an opportunity for the entire particle physics community to come together to identify and document a scientific vision for the future of particle physics in the U.S. and its international partners. Snowmass will define the most important questions for the field of particle physics and identify promising opportunities to address them. The P5, Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, will take the scientific input from Snowmass and develop a strategic plan for U.S. particle physics that can be executed over a 10 year timescale, in the context of a 20-year global vision for the field. Here we present the goals, progress and plans of the Snowmass’21 Accelerator Frontier.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Status of the International Linear Collider

This paper is not a proposal for a CERN future project but provides information on the International Linear Collider (ILC) considered for Japan in order to facilitate the European Strategy discussion in a global context. It describes progress to date, ongoing engineering studies, updated cost estimate for the machine at $\sqrt{s}=250~\rm GeV$ and the situation in Japan. The physics of the ILC is not presented here, but jointly for all Linear Collider projects in a separate document ``A Linear Collider Vision for the Future of Particle Physics'' submitted for the forthcoming European Strategy deliberations.

Abe, Y. [KEK, Tsukuba]↗

The European ERL Roadmap

Following the European Strategy process in 2019, five Roadmap Panels were set up to prepare the technologies needed for future accelerators and colliders: high-field magnets, SRF, muon colliders, plasma wakefield accelera-tors and Energy Recovery Linacs (ERLs). The ERL Roadmap Panel, consisting of ERL experts from around the world, first developed an overview of current and future ERLs. From this it was possible to carry out a gap analysis to see what R&D would be needed, from which the roadmap could be developed. The European ERL Roadmap [1] focused on three main aspects: 1) the con-tinuation and development of facility programs for which no additional funds are needed, S-DALINAC in Darm-stadt and MESA in Mainz; 2) technology development for room-temperature HOM damping and twin-axis SRF cavities; 3) the timely upgrade of bERLinPro for 100 mA current and the construction of PERLE at Orsay as a dedi-cated 10 MW power multi-turn facility. The roadmap entails a vision of a future energy frontier electron-positron and electron-hadron collider and describes a high-quality ERL program for 4.4K SRF technology at high Q0.

Hutton, A.↗

Wildland Fire Management Interim ConOps v1.0

This document outlines a concept of operations (ConOps) for a future state of wildland fire prevention, mitigation, and suppression offered as a recommendation and initial guidance for updating current methodologies, technologies, or standards to fit the growing scope of wildland fire. This document serves to collect and summarize the research and work of NASA and other U.S. federal agencies, partner groups, and private industry in envisioning ways, backed by expertise, that could bolster and increase support for firefighting personnel such that overall effectiveness, safety, and efficiency is drastically increased. This document will start with the background of the joint efforts and methods of research and collaboration, followed by a detailed discussion of the current state of wildland fire efforts. In contrast to the current state, the vision for the future state reveals specific areas of improvement with suggestions for potential emerging technologies. With such changes in mind, there is a brief discussion on the impacts of these changes from the systems, organizational, and procedural perspectives, as well as measures by which the effectiveness of this ConOps could be evaluated upon adoption. This is commenced with a general discussion on the various trade-offs considered and areas of improvements. Note, this is the first iteration of this document intended for initial peer review.

transportation↗

Harness the power of atomistic modeling and deep learning in biofuel separation

Biofuels offer a remarkable, sustainable energy source for a future of clean energy. The development of efficient biofuel separation plays a crucial role in achieving cost-effective utilization of biofuel. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the recent advancements in atomistic-level modeling and deep learning in the rational design of novel, efficient biofuel separation. The fundamental principles of quantum and statistical mechanics are covered in appropriate detail to highlight their underlying differences in theory. The methodologies of several molecular representations and deep learning algorithms applicable to biofuel separation are briefly demonstrated as well. The applications, successes, and risks of employing density functional theory, ab initio molecular dynamics, classical molecular dynamics, and deep learning are provided to showcase their recent accomplishments in biofuel separation as well as potential improvements in both methodology and application. Lastly, a vision for the future growth of these methods is illustrated.

deep learning, artificial intelligence, biofuels, ↗

The Evolution of the VASIMR Engine

Our future deep space explorers face many daunting challenges but three of these loom high above the rest: Physiological debilitation, radiation sickness and psychological stress. Many countermeasures are presently being considered to ameliorate these difficulties however, in the long run, two important new developments are required: abundant space power and advanced propulsion. The development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) addresses these important areas of need. The VASIMR is a high power, radio frequency-driven magneto plasma rocket, capable of very high exhaust velocities. In addition, its unique architecture allows in-flight mission-optimization of thrust and specific impulse to enhance performance and reduce trip time. A NASA-led, research team, involving industry, academia and government facilities is pursuing the development of this concept in the United States. The technology can be validated, in the near term, in venues such as the International Space Station, where it can also serve as both a drag compensation device and a plasma contactor for the orbital facility. Other near-Earth applications in the commercial and scientific satellite sectors are also envisioned. This presentation covers the present status of the technology, plans for its near term deployment and a vision for its future evolution.

Chang-Diaz, F. R.↗

An Overview of Future NASA Missions, Concepts, and Technologies Related to Imaging of the World's Land Areas

In the near term NASA is entering into the peak activity period of the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS AM-1 /"Terra" spacecraft is nearing launch and operation to be followed soon by the New Millennium Program (NMP) Earth Observing (EO-1) mission. Other missions related to land imaging and studies include EOS PM-1 mission, the Earth System Sciences Program (ESSP) Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) mission, the EOS/IceSat mission. These missions involve clear advances in technologies and observational capability including improvements in multispectral imaging and other observing strategies, for example, "formation flying". Plans are underway to define the next era of EOS missions, commonly called "EOS Follow-on" or EOS II. The programmatic planning includes concepts that represent advances over the present Landsat-7 mission that concomitantly recognize the advances being made in land imaging within the private sector. The National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite Series (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) is an effort that will help to transition EOS medium resolution (herein meaning spatial resolutions near 500 meters), multispectral measurement capabilities such as represented by the EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) into the NPOESS operational series of satellites. Developments in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and passive microwave land observing capabilities are also proceeding. Beyond these efforts the Earth Science Enterprise Technology Strategy is embarking efforts to advance technologies in several basic areas: instruments, flight systems and operational capability, and information systems. In the case of instruments architectures will be examined that offer significant reductions in mass, volume, power and observational flexibility. For flight systems and operational capability, formation flying including calibration and data fusion, systems operation autonomy, and mechanical and electronic innovations that can reduce spacecraft and subsystem resource requirements. The efforts in information systems will include better approaches for linking multiple data sets, extracting and visualizing information, and improvements in collecting, compressing, transmitting, processing, distributing and archiving data from multiple platforms. Overall concepts such as sensor webs, constellations of observing systems, and rapid and tailored data availability and delivery to multiple users comprise and notions Earth Science Vision for the future.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗