Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “capability development”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,711 records · Page 95
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

Constellation-X Spectroscopy X-Ray Telescope Requirements and Development Program: MSFC Research Program

The Constellation-X Spectroscopy X-ray Telescope (SXT) will provide high-throughput, high-resolution spectroscopy of cosmic sources, from 0.25 keV to 10 keV. Key to this capability is the development of large (1.6 m diameter), lightweight optics for the SXT mirror assembly. Teams led by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and by Italy's Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera (OAB) are currently developing competing mirror technologies for this planned mission. Each team is making significant research progress in developing mirror technologies which satisfy the SXT requirements for lightweight optics, consistent with a system-level optical performance of better than 15 arcsec half-power diameter. The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), has focussed its efforts on full-shell replicated optics, of electroformed nickel alloys. Recent progress in identifying a surface treatment to effect low, controlled adhesion and, more significantly, in developing new high-strength nickel alloys make this a viable, low cost approach to satisfying the SXT requirements.

O'Dell, S. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

The 3D inelastic analysis methods for hot section components

The objective of this research is to develop an analytical tool capable of economically evaluating the cyclic time dependent plasticity which occurs in hot section engine components in areas of strain concentration resulting from the combination of both mechanical and thermal stresses. The techniques developed must be capable of accommodating large excursions in temperatures with the associated variations in material properties including plasticity and creep. The overall objective of this proposed program is to develop advanced 3-D inelastic structural/stress analysis methods and solution strategies for more accurate and yet more cost effective analysis of combustors, turbine blades, and vanes. The approach will be to develop four different theories, one linear and three higher order with increasing complexities including embedded singularities.

Dame, L. T.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Analysis of Measurements for Solid State Lidar Development

A Detector Characterization Facility (DCF), capable of measuring 2-micron detection devices and evaluating heterodyne receivers, was developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The DCF is capable of providing all the necessary detection parameters for design, development, and calibration of coherent and incoherent solid state laser radar (lidar) systems. The coherent lidars in particular require an accurate knowledge of detector heterodyne quantum efficient, nonlinearity properties, and voltage-current relationship as a function of applied optical power. At present, no detector manufacturer provides these qualities or adequately characterizes their detectors for heterodyne detection operation. In addition, the detector characterization facility measures the detectors DC and AC quantum efficiencies noise equivalent power and frequency response up to several GHz. The DCF is also capable of evaluating various heterodyne detection schemes such as balanced detectors and fiber optic interferometers. The design and analyses of measurements for the DCF were preformed over the previous year and a detailed description of its design and capabilities was provided in the NASA report NAS8-38609/DO77. It should also be noted that the DCF design was further improved to allow for the characterization of diffractive andholographical optical elements and other critical components of coherent lidar systems.

Amzajerdian, Farzin↗
DOE OSTI2023

Flow Sensor Test Article (F-STAr) - Assembly and Water Testing Report

The Flow Sensor Test Article (F-STAr) is a new test article under development for the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) facility at Argonne National Laboratory. F-STAr’s purpose is to provide sodium submersible, high flowrate testing capabilities for the development of sensors, components, fluid studies and more. This report will provide a status update on the assembly and initial qualification testing of F-STAr. All components have been manufactured and received. Some modifications to these components were made to support minor changes in the test article design. Additionally, the power distribution, and data acquisition and control enclosures were designed, completed, and tested along with the control system software. Furthermore, initial qualification testing was completed in water. Finally, the F-STAr submersible Electromagnetic Flowmeter (EMFM) was completed and calibrated in flowing sodium.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1979

A unique approach to the development of adaptive sensor systems for future spacecraft

In the Shuttle era, it should be possible to develop adaptive remote sensor systems serving more directly specific researcher and user needs and at the same time alleviating the data management problem via intelligent sensor capabilities. The present paper provides a summary of such an approach, wherein specific capabilities have been developed for future global monitoring applications. A detailed description of FILE-I (Feature Identification and Location Experiment) is included along with a summary of future experiments currently under development.

Schappell, R. T.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Forecasting the impact of virtual environment technology on maintenance training

To assist NASA and the Air Force in determining how and when to invest in virtual environment (VE) technology for maintenance training, we identified possible roles for VE technology in such training, assessed its cost-effectiveness relative to existing technologies, and formulated recommendations for a research agenda that would address instructional and system development issues involved in fielding a VE training system. In the first phase of the study, we surveyed VE developers to forecast capabilities, maturity, and estimated costs for VE component technologies. We then identified maintenance tasks and their training costs through interviews with maintenance technicians, instructors, and training developers. Ten candidate tasks were selected from two classes of maintenance tasks (seven aircraft maintenance and three space maintenance) using five criteria developed to identify types of tasks most likely to benefit from VE training. Three tasks were used as specific cases for cost-benefit analysis. In formulating research recommendations, we considered three aspects of feasibility: technological considerations, cost-effectiveness, and anticipated R&D efforts. In this paper, we describe the major findings in each of these areas and suggest research efforts that we believe will help achieve the goal of a cost-effective VE maintenance training system by the next decade.

Schlager, Mark S.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Three-dimensional inelastic analysis methods for hot section components

The objective was to develop analytical methods capable of evaluating the cyclic time dependent inelasticity which occurs in hot section engine components. Because of the large excursions in temperature associated with hot section engine components, the techniques developed must be able to accommodate large variations in material behavior including plasticity and creep. To meet this objective, a matrix consisting of three constitutive mode-element formulations was developed. A separate program for each combination of constitutive mode-element model was written. The source codes of the nine programs range in size from 7300 lines for the Bodner/twenty code to 19,000 lines for the Haisler and Allen/nine code. All the codes were given a stand alone capability of performing cyclic nonlinear analysis.

Lackney, Joseph↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measurements and Characterization

The Measurements and Characterization scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory provide characterization support, conduct collaborative research, and develop new measurement capabilities and diagnostics to advance the photovoltaic (PV) generation of energy. We use state-of- the-art characterization tools to solve problems in all phases of material and device development. Results lead to an increased understanding that drives advances in the performance, reliability, cost, and manufacturability of PV materials, devices, and systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1988

Space medicine

This paper attempts to underscore the importance of continued studies on the effects of space on human physiology. With particular reference to the Space Station, it is pointed out that there are two aspects which are challenging to life scientists: first is the development of a research capability for the life sciences which will be used to conduct investigations necessary to extend the time humans can remain in space; second is the challenge to develop a medical capability to provide prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. A discussion of physiological changes that have been observed in spacecrews follows along the lines of the two aspects mentioned.

Pool, Sam L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Experimental Investigation of Textile Composite Materials Using Moire Interferometry

The viability as an efficient aircraft material of advanced textile composites is currently being addressed in the NASA Advanced Composites Technology (ACT) Program. One of the expected milestones of the program is to develop standard test methods for these complex material systems. Current test methods for laminated composites may not be optimum for textile composites, since the architecture of the textile induces nonuniform deformation characteristics on the scale of the smallest repeating unit of the architecture. The smallest repeating unit, also called the unit cell, is often larger than the strain gages used for testing of tape composites. As a result, extending laminated composite test practices to textiles can often lead to pronounced scatter in material property measurements. It has been speculated that the fiber architectures produce significant surface strain nonuniformities, however, the magnitudes were not well understood. Moire interferometry, characterized by full-field information, high displacement sensitivity, and high spatial resolution, is well suited to document the surface strain on textile composites. Studies at the NASA Langley Research Center on a variety of textile architectures including 2-D braids and 3-D weaves, has evidenced the merits of using moire interferometry to guide in test method development for textile composites. Moire was used to support tensile testing by validating instrumentation practices and documenting damage mechanisms. It was used to validate shear test methods by mapping the full-field deformation of shear specimens. Moire was used to validate open hole tension experiments to determine the strain concentration and compare then to numeric predictions. It was used for through-the-thickness tensile strength test method development, to verify capabilities for testing of both 2-D and 3-D material systems. For all of these examples, moire interferometry provided vision so that test methods could be developed with less speculation and more documentation.

Ifju, Peter G.↗
NASA NTRS2010

On-Demand Urine Analyzer

A lab-on-a-chip was developed that is capable of extracting biochemical indicators from urine samples and generating their surface-enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) so that the indicators can be quantified and identified. The development was motivated by the need to monitor and assess the effects of extended weightlessness, which include space motion sickness and loss of bone and muscle mass. The results may lead to developments of effective exercise programs and drug regimes that would maintain astronaut health. The analyzer containing the lab-on-a- chip includes materials to extract 3- methylhistidine (a muscle-loss indicator) and Risedronate (a bone-loss indicator) from the urine sample and detect them at the required concentrations using a Raman analyzer. The lab-on- a-chip has both an extractive material and a SERS-active material. The analyzer could be used to monitor the onset of diseases, such as osteoporosis.

Farquharson, Stuart↗
NASA NTRS2010

Flight Dynamics and GN&C for Spacecraft Servicing Missions

Future human exploration missions and commercial opportunities will be enabled through In-space assembly and satellite servicing. Several recent efforts have developed technologies and capabilities to support these exciting future missions, including advances in flight dynamics and Guidance, Navigation and Control. The Space Shuttle has demonstrated significant capabilities for crewed servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). Following the Columbia disaster NASA made significant progress in developing a robotic mission to service the HST. The DARPA Orbital Express mission demonstrated automated rendezvous and capture, In-space propellant transfer, and commodity replacement. This paper will provide a summary of the recent technology developments and lessons learned, and provide a focus for potential future missions.

Naasz, Bo↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lidar Sensor Performance in Closed-Loop Flight Testing of the Morpheus Rocket-Propelled Lander to a Lunar-Like Hazard Field

For the first time, a suite of three lidar sensors have been used in flight to scan a lunar-like hazard field, identify a safe landing site, and, in concert with an experimental Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) system, help to guide the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled, free-flying lander to that safe site on the hazard field. The lidar sensors and GN&C system are part of the Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Detection and Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project which has been seeking to develop a system capable of enabling safe, precise crewed or robotic landings in challenging terrain on planetary bodies under any ambient lighting conditions. The 3-D imaging Flash Lidar is a second generation, compact, real-time, aircooled instrument developed from a number of components from industry and NASA and is used as part of the ALHAT Hazard Detection System (HDS) to scan the hazard field and build a 3-D Digital Elevation Map (DEM) in near-real time for identifying safe sites. The Flash Lidar is capable of identifying a 30 cm hazard from a slant range of 1 km with its 8 cm range precision (1-s). The Flash Lidar is also used in Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN) to provide position updates down to a 250m slant range to the ALHAT navigation filter as it guides Morpheus to the safe site. The Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) system has been developed within NASA to provide velocity measurements with an accuracy of 0.2 cm/sec and range measurements with an accuracy of 17 cm both from a maximum range of 2,200 m to a minimum range of several meters above the ground. The NDLâ€"TM"s measurements are fed into the ALHAT navigation filter to provide lander guidance to the safe site. The Laser Altimeter (LA), also developed within NASA, provides range measurements with an accuracy of 5 cm from a maximum operational range of 30 km down to 1 m and, being a separate sensor from the Flash Lidar, can provide range along a separate vector. The LA measurements are also fed into the ALHAT navigation filter to provide lander guidance to the safe site. The flight tests served as the culmination of the TRL 6 journey for the ALHAT system and included launch from a pad situated at the NASA-Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway, a lunar-like descent trajectory from an altitude of 250m, and landing on a lunar-like hazard field of rocks, craters, hazardous slopes, and safe sites 400m down-range just off the North end of the runway. The tests both confirmed the expected performance and also revealed several challenges present in the flight-like environment which will feed into future TRL advancement of the sensors. Guidance provided by the ALHAT system was impeded in portions of the trajectory and intermittent near the end of the trajectory due to optical effects arising from air heated by the rocket engine. The Flash Lidar identified hazards as small as 30 cm from the maximum slant range of 450 m which Morpheus could provide; however, it was occasionally susceptible to an increase in range noise due to scintillation arising from air heated by the Morpheus rocket engine which entered its Field-of-View (FOV). The Flash Lidar was also susceptible to pre-triggering, during the HRN phase, on a dust cloud created during launch and transported down-range by the wind. The NDL provided velocity and range measurements to the expected accuracy levels yet it was also susceptible to signal degradation due to air heated by the rocket engine. The LA, operating with a degraded transmitter laser, also showed signal attenuation over a few seconds at a specific phase of the flight due to the heat plume generated by the rocket engine.

Roback, V. Eric↗
NASA NTRS2022

Unlocking the Spacecraft and Human Habitat Microbiome to Enable the Next Generation of Space Exploration

Planetary protection is the discipline that prevents harmful contamination of the solar system during exploration activities. The current international guidelines and NASA policy addressing biological contamination on spacecraft surfaces contains prescriptive guidelines of spore requirements (e.g., 300 spores/m2, 5×105 spores per spacecraft) applicable to spacecraft bound for Mars. To verify these requirements spacecraft engineers sample spacecraft surfaces throughout the assembly, test and launch operations phase of the mission using damp water cotton swabs and polyester wipes. After sampling, the potential biological contamination is enumerated using a series of traditional microbiology techniques to include sonication, heat shocking at 80°C for 15min to select for spores, and growth on tryptic soy agar at 32°C for 72 hours. To enable crewed missions to Mars and robotic exploration of the Ocean Worlds a risk informed decision making / performance-based approach to assess biological contamination offers a promising solution in the trade space. Recognizing the need for a performance-based approach, NASA’s new Planetary Protection policies now incorporate the agility for missions to be able to leverage a performance or prescriptive approach. One of top contenders in the option space is a coupled quantitative, descriptive and functional based approach to be able to assess the quantity, types and capabilities of the biological contamination present on spacecraft surfaces. A tailored, mission by mission assurance case could then be formulated by building an argument around the target body, projected capabilities surrounding the types of organisms their potential for survival and proliferation, and ability to be transported on the target body to contaminate an area of biological interest. A performance-based requirement would then be used to demonstrate the mission’s compliance in protecting the planetary environment safety objectives. This symposium talk will showcase the background and need case for NASA to develop such a capability as well as provide an update on the efforts underway in developing a transparent and responsible performance-based approach to biological contamination assessments on spacecraft surfaces.

Habitat Microbiome↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays (ALFA)/Lab Collaboration Project (LCP) for Marine Energy (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

The objective of the Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays (ALFA) project was to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) energy by leveraging research, development, and testing capabilities at Oregon State University, University of Washington, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. ALFA is a project within the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC; formerly NNMREC), a multi-institution entity with a diverse funding base that focuses on research and development for marine renewables. The ALFA project aimed to accelerate the development of next-generation arrays of wave energy conversion (WEC) and tidal energy conversion (TEC) devices through a suite of field-focused R&D activities spanning a broad range of strategic opportunity areas identified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement: • Device and/or array operation and maintenance (O&M) logistics development; • High-fidelity resource characterization and/or modeling technique development and validation; • Array-specific component technology development (e.g. moorings and foundations, transmission, and other offshore grid components); • Array performance testing and evaluation; and • Novel cost-effective environmental monitoring techniques and instrumentation testing and evaluation. The objective of the Lab Collaboration Project (LCP) was to accelerate the development of next-generation marine energy conversion systems. The LCP aimed to achieve these project objectives in collaboration with the national laboratories by: • Developing concept generation and assessment tools; • Improving access to existing testing resources; • Validating collision risk models between fish and turbines; and • Advancing analysis and simulation capabilities for wave-WEC interactions and PTO analysis in nonlinear ocean waves. The ALFA portion of the project was comprised of six overarching technical tasks: • Task 1: Debris Modeling, Detection and Mitigation; • Task 2: Autonomous Monitoring & Intervention; • Task 3: Resource Characterization for Extreme Conditions; • Task 4: Robust Models for Design of Offshore Anchoring and Mooring Systems; • Task 5: Performance Enhancement for Marine Energy Converter (MEC) Arrays; and • Task 6: Evaluating Sampling Techniques for MHK Biological Monitoring. The LCP was divided into four overarching technical tasks: • Task 7: Project Management and Reporting • Task 8: Novel Design and Assessment Methodologies for Wave Energy Converter Design (Wave- SPARC) • Task 9: Testing Access for Commercial Marine Renewable Energy Technology Developers • Task 10: Quantifying Collision Risk for Fish and Turbines • Task 11: Nonlinear Ocean Waves and PTO Control Strategy Each ALFA/LCP task listed above functioned as a separate and discreet project. A final Technical Report was written for each individual task and these reports were uploaded to OSTI, after receiving DOE approval. The following document is a compilation of each of these final, approved reports arranged as individual chapters.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1973

SSME structural computer program development. Volume 1: BOPACE theoretical manual

The BOPACE program (Boeing plastic analysis capability for engines) was developed to meet the need for an advanced thermal-elastic-plastic-creep structural analyzer by providing incremental relation between stresses and strains. The cumulative stress-strain relation, for temperature-dependent, or temperature independent elasticity is discussed along with the option for plane-stress analysis or plane-strain analysis. The BOPACE solution approach is summarized.

Vos, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS2000

The Earth Science Vision

NASA's Earth Science Enterprise's long range vision is to enable the development of a national proactive environmental predictive capability through targeted scientific research and technological innovation. Proactive environmental prediction means the prediction of environmental events and their secondary consequences. These consequences range from disasters and disease outbreak to improved food production and reduced transportation, energy and insurance costs. The economic advantage of this predictive capability will greatly outweigh the cost of development. Developing this predictive capability requires a greatly improved understanding of the earth system and the interaction of the various components of that system. It also requires a change in our approach to gathering data about the earth and a change in our current methodology in processing that data including its delivery to the customers. And, most importantly, it requires a renewed partnership between NASA and its sister agencies. We identify six application themes that summarize the potential of proactive environmental prediction. We also identify four technology themes that articulate our approach to implementing proactive environmental prediction.

Schoeberl, Mark↗