Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Electrostatic Flight”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

E-Glider: Active Electrostatic Flight for Airless Body Exploration

The environment near the surface of asteroids, comets, and the Moon is electrically charged due to the Sun's photoelectric bombardment and lofting dust, which follows the Sun illumination as the body spins. Chargeddust is ever present, in the form of dusty plasma, even at high altitudes, following the solar illumination. If abody with high surface resistivity is exposed to the solar wind and solar radiation, sun-exposed areas andshadowed areas become differentially charged. The E-Glider (Electrostatic Glider) is an enabling capability foroperation at airless bodies, a solution applicable to many types of in-situ mission concepts, which leverages thenatural environment. With the E-Glider, we transform a problem (spacecraft charging) into an enablingtechnology, i.e. a new form of mobility in microgravity environments using new mechanisms and maneuveringbased on the interaction of the vehicle with the environment. Consequently, the vision of the E-Glider is toenable global scale airless body exploration with a vehicle that uses, instead of avoids, the local electricallycharged environment. This platform directly addresses the "All Access Mobility" Challenge, one of the NASA'sSpace Technology Grand Challenges. Exploration of comets, asteroids, moons and planetary bodies is limitedby mobility on those bodies. The lack of an atmosphere, the low gravity levels, and the unknown surface soilproperties pose a very difficult challenge for all forms of know locomotion at airless bodies. This E-Gliderlevitates by extending thin, charged, appendages, which are also articulated to direct the levitation force in themost convenient direction for propulsion and maneuvering. The charging is maintained through continuouscharge emission. It lands, wherever it is most convenient, by retracting the appendages or by firing a cold-gasthruster, or by deploying an anchor. The wings could be made of very thin Au-coated Mylar film, which areelectrostatically inflated, and would provide the lift due to electrostatic repulsion with the naturally chargedasteroid surface. Since the E-glider would follow the Sun's illumination, the solar panels on the vehicle wouldconstantly charge a battery. Further articulation at the root of the lateral strands or inflated membrane wings,would generate a component of lift depending on the articulation angle, hence a selective maneuveringcapability which, to all effects, would lead to electrostatic (rather than aerodynamic) flight. Preliminarycalculations indicate that a 1 kg mass can be electrostatically levitated in a microgravity field with a 2 mdiameter electrostatically inflated ribbon structure at 19kV, hence the need for a "balloon-like" system. Due tothe high density and the photo-electron sheath and associate small Debye length, significant power is requiredto levitate even a few kilograms. The power required is in the kilo-Watt range to maintain a constant chargelevel.

Electrostatic Flight↗
NASA NTRS2017

Active Electrostatic flight for airless bodies

The environment near the surface of asteroids, comets, and the Moon is electrically charged due to the Sun’s photoelectric bombardment and lofting dust, which follows the Sun illumination as the body spins. Charged dust is ever present, in the form of dusty plasma, even at high altitudes, following the solar illumination. If a body with high surface resistivity is exposed to the solar wind and solar radiation, sunexposed areas and shadowed areas become differentially charged. The E-Glider (Electrostatic Glider) is an enabling capability for operation at airless bodies, a solution applicable to many types of in-situ missions, which leverages the natural environment. This platform directly addresses the "All Access Mobility" Challenge, one of the NASA’s Space Technology Grand Challenges. Exploration of comets, asteroids, moons and planetary bodies is limited by mobility on those bodies. The lack of an atmosphere, the low gravity levels, and the unknown surface soil properties pose a very difficult challenge for all forms of know locomotion at airless bodies. This EGlider levitates by extending thin, charged, appendages, which are also articulated to direct the levitation force in the most convenient direction for propulsion and maneuvering. The charging is maintained through continuous charge emission. It lands, wherever it is most convenient, by retracting the appendages or by firing a cold-gas thruster, or by deploying an anchor. Preliminary calculations indicate that a 1 kg mass can be electrostatically levitated in a microgravity field with a 2 m diameter electrostatically inflated ribbon structure at 19kV, hence the need for a “balloon-like” system. The wings could be made of very thin Au-coated Mylar film, which are electrostatically inflated, and would provide the lift due to electrostatic repulsion with the naturally charged asteroid surface. Since the E-glider would follow the Sun’s illumination, the solar panels on the vehicle would constantly charge a battery. Further articulation at the root of the lateral strands or inflated membrane wings, would generate a component of lift depending on the articulation angle, hence a selective maneuvering capability which, to all effects, would lead to electrostatic (rather than aerodynamic) flight.

Schaub, Hanspeter↗
NASA NTRS2003

An Overview of the Materials Science Research at the Marshall Space Flight Center Electrostatic Levitator Facility and Recent CDDF Efforts

Containerless processing is an important tool for materials research. The freedom from a crucible allows processing of liquid materials in a metastable undercooled state, as well as allowing processing of high temperature and highly reactive melts. Electrostatic levitation (ESL) is a containerless method which provides a number of unique advantages, including the ability to process non-conducting materials, the ability to operate in ultra-high vacuum or at moderate gas pressure (approx. = 5 atm), and the decoupling of positioning force from sample heating. ESL also has the potential to reduce internal flow velocities below those possible with electromagnetic, acoustic, or aero-acoustic techniques. In electrostatic levitation, the acceleration of gravity (or residual acceleration in reduced gravity) is opposed by the action of an applied electric field on a charged sample. Microgravity allows electrostatic levitation to work even more effectively. The ESL facility at NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center is in use for materials research and thermophysical property measurement by a number of different internal and external investigators. Results from the recent CDDF studies on the high energy X-ray beamline at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory will be presented. The Microgravity Research Program supports the facility.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2000

Solidification Studies from the Electrostatic Levitation System at the Marshall Space Flight Center

Electrostatic levitation (ESL) provides a means to study molten materials in a high-purity environment, free from contact with a container. Many phenomena important to materials science can be studied in the ESL. Solidification of metals, alloys and undercooled materials represent an important topic for research in the ESL. Recent studies of metals and alloys during solidification in the ESL are reported. Measurements include time, temperature and transformation of metallic glass-forming alloys, solidification velocities, and microstructure,

Rogers, Jan R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) Electrometer Initial Flight Results

The Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) is a suborbital flight payload studying electrostatically charged dust particle dynamics under microgravity, jointly developed by University of Central Florida (UCF) and NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). ERIE combines components from two systems, the COLLisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE) from UCF and the Wheel Electrostatic Spectrometer (WES) from NASA KSC, to advance understanding of charged grain behavior on low gravity bodies such as the Moon and asteroids. ERIE slides a door containing an electrometer system monitoring various insulating disks across the surface of a regolith simulant bed. The experiment is activated when the payload enters the microgravity potion of the flight. The grains in the simulant bed tribocharge via agitation during launch as well as through frictional interactions with the door and its protruding insulators. As the retention door retracts, particles are allowed to loft into an open volume, achieving motion due to electrostatic repulsion. The electrometer system measures the charge transfer between the granular material and the insulators. As the charged grains exit the bed, they travel through an applied electric field and a camera observes the kinematics of the individual grains whose trajectories are determined by their net charges. The design of the ERIE electrometer instrument and initial results from the first flight was presented at the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting under P55E-2002. Shortly after microgravity was achieved and the retaining door began to open, the rate of charge acquisition measured by the electrometer increased, indicating the insulators were accumulating triboelectric charge. Charged grains were observed in the video data to traverse across the external electric field and become deflected from a linear path due to their charges. Pairs of grains were also observed to orbit one another as expected from two oppositely charged bodies in proximity to one another. Improvements to the design of the instrument and preliminary results obtained from the second flight scheduled for Q3 2022 will be presented at this meeting.

Electrostatics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) Electrometer Initial Flight Results

The Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) is a suborbital flight payload studying electrostatically charged dust particle dynamics under microgravity, jointly developed by University of Central Florida (UCF) and NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). ERIE combines components from two systems, the COLLisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE) from UCF and the Wheel Electrostatic Spectrometer (WES) from NASA KSC, to advance understanding of charged grain behavior on low gravity bodies such as the Moon and asteroids. ERIE slides a door containing an electrometer system monitoring various insulating disks across the surface of a regolith simulant bed. The experiment is activated when the payload enters the microgravity potion of the flight. The grains in the simulant bed tribocharge via agitation during launch as well as through frictional interactions with the door and its protruding insulators. As the retention door retracts, particles are allowed to loft into an open volume, achieving motion due to electrostatic repulsion. The electrometer system measures the charge transfer between the granular material and the insulators. As the charged grains exit the bed, they travel through an applied electric field and a camera observes the kinematics of the individual grains whose trajectories are determined by their net charges. The design of the ERIE electrometer instrument and initial results from the first flight was presented at the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting under P55E-2002. Shortly after microgravity was achieved and the retaining door began to open, the rate of charge acquisition measured by the electrometer increased, indicating the insulators were accumulating triboelectric charge. Charged grains were observed in the video data to traverse across the external electric field and become deflected from a linear path due to their charges. Pairs of grains were also observed to orbit one another as expected from two oppositely charged bodies in proximity to one another. Improvements to the design of the instrument and preliminary results obtained from the second flight scheduled for Q3 2022 will be presented at this meeting.

Electrostatics↗
NASA NTRS1990

New high-resolution electrostatic ion mass analyzer using time of flight

The design of a high-resolution ion-mass analyzer is described, which is based on an accurate measurement of the time of flight (TOF) of ions within a region configured to produce a harmonic potential. In this device, the TOF, which is independent of ion energy, is determined from a start pulse from secondary electrons produced when the ion passes through a thin carbon foil at the entrance of the TOF region and at a stop pulse from the ion striking a microchannel plate upon exciting the region. A laboratory prototype instrument called 'VMASS' was built and was tested at the Goddard Space Flight Center electrostatic accelerator, showing a good mass resolution of the instrument. Sensors of the VMASS type will form part of the WIND Solar Wind and Suprathermal Ion experiment, the Soho mission, and the Advanced Composition Explorer.

Hamilton, D. C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of Electrostatic Dust Lofting Suborbital Flight Experiment Examining Photoionization under Lunar Gravity

Dust on the lunar surface electrostatically charges due to the plasma environment surrounding the Moon, causing grains to become lofted and adhere to nearby surfaces including landers and astronauts. Studying the behaviors of these charged particles in the lunar environment is essential to plan around the deleterious effects of dust to future Moon missions. Models attempt to predict the amount of dust loading that can be expected in many of these scenarios, but they require experimental validation to be predictive. This physics cannot be fully studied on Earth due to the six times larger gravitational force obscuring the electrostatic interactions, so it is necessary to run experiments in a more relevant environment, including vacuum and near-lunar gravitational effects. An experiment has been designed to fly on the Lunar Gravity Acceleration (LGA) mission aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital rocket. This experiment will perform photoionization charging of lunar regolith simulant grains under the illumination of an ultraviolet (UV) source. As a result, the charged grains will then electrostatically repel one another and loft in the reduced gravity environment; their trajectories will be imaged via a high-speed camera. Preliminary laboratory results influencing the design of this experiment will be presented, including characterization of several UV sources, measurements of photoionization currents under various vacuum conditions, and examination of lunar simulant dust lofting under terrestrial gravity. Results from this flight will be compared with ground-based testing and the laboratory results outlined above to examine the dependence on gravity and will be fed into the dust charging and lofting models currently under development.

electrostatics↗
NASA NTRS2014

Measurement and Control of Oxygen Partial Pressure in an Electrostatic Levitator

Recently the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center electrostatic levitation (ESL) laboratory has been upgraded to include an oxygen control system. This system allows the oxygen partial pressure within the vacuum chamber to be measured and controlled, at elevated temperatures, theoretically in the range from 10(exp -36) to 10(exp 0) bar. The role of active surface agents in liquid metals is fairly well known; however, published surface tension data typically has large scatter, which has been hypothesized to be caused by the presence of oxygen. The surface tension of metals is affected by even a small amount of adsorption of oxygen. It has even been shown that oxygen partial pressures may need to be as low as 10(exp -24) bar to avoid oxidation. While electrostatic levitation is done under high vacuum, oxide films or dissolved oxygen may have significant effects on materials properties, such as surface tension and viscosity. Therefore, the ability to measure and control the oxygen partial pressure within the chamber is highly desirable. The oxygen control system installed at MSFC contains a potentiometric sensor, which measures the oxygen partial pressure, and an oxygen ion pump. In the pump, a pulse-width modulated electric current is applied to yttrium-stabilized zirconia, resulting in oxygen transfer into or out of the system. Also part of the system is a control unit, which consists of temperature controllers for the sensor and pump, PID-based current loop for the ion pump, and a control algorithm. This system can be used to study the effects of oxygen on the thermophysical properties of metals, ceramics, glasses, and alloys. It can also be used to provide more accurate measurements by processing the samples at very low oxygen partial pressures. The oxygen control system will be explained in more detail and an overview of its use and limitations in an electrostatic levitator will be described. Some preliminary measurements have been made, and the results to date will be provided.

SanSoucie, Michael P.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Submersion Quenching of Undercooled Liquid Metals in an Electrostatic Levitator

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) electrostatic levitation (ESL) laboratory has a long history of providing materials research and thermophysical property data. The laboratory has recently added a new capability, a rapid quench system. This system allows samples to be dropped into a quench vessel that can be filled with a low melting point material, such as a gallium or indium alloy. Thereby allowing rapid quenching of undercooled liquid metals and alloys. This is the first submersion quench system inside an electrostatic levitator. The system has been tested successfully with samples of zirconium, iron-cobalt alloys, titanium-zirconium-nickel alloys, and silicon-cobalt alloys. This rapid quench system will allow materials science studies of undercooled materials and new materials development, including studies of metastable phases and transient microstructures. In this presentation, the system is described and some initial results are presented.

SanSoucie, Michael P.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Temperature Material Properties Measurement Capabilities of the MSFC Electrostatic Levitation (ESL) Laboratory

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) electrostatic levitation (ESL) laboratory has a long history of providing materials research and thermophysical property data. The lab can measure thermophysical properties, such as density, surface tension, and viscosity of liquid materials, including elements, alloys, glasses, ceramics, and oxides. For improved measurement quality, the ESL lab also has an oxygen control system, which allows the oxygen partial pressure within the vacuum chamber to be measured and controlled, at elevated temperatures, over a wide range of partial pressures. The surface tension of metals is affected by even a small amount of adsorption of oxygen, and the presence of oxygen has been hypothesized as a likely cause for the large scatter seen in published surface tension data. This presentation will cover the MSFC ESL lab, its high temperature material properties measurement capabilities, and some information about measurements done on alloys relevant to additive manufacturing.

Michael SanSoucie↗
NASA NTRS1924

Balloon flight and atmospheric electricity

The air is known to be charged with electricity (chiefly positive) with reference to the earth, so that its potential increases with the altitude and the difference in potential between two points in the same vertical line, divided by the distance between them, gives a value called the "potential gradient," which may vary greatly with the altitude, the nature of the ground and the atmospheric conditions.

BALLOON FLIGHTS↗
NASA NTRS2007

Measurement of Creep Properties of Ultra-High-Temperature Materials by a Novel Non-Contact Technique

A non-contact technique for measuring the creep properties of materials has been developed and validated as part of a collaboration among the University of Massachusetts, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Electrostatic Levitation Facility (ESL), and the University of Tennessee. This novel method has several advantages over conventional creep testing. The sample is deformed by the centripetal acceleration from the rapid rotation, and the deformed shapes are analyzed to determine the strain. Since there is no contact with grips, there is no theoretical maximum temperature and no concern about chemical compatibility. Materials may be tested at the service temperature even for extreme environments such as rocket nozzles, or above the service temperature for accelerated testing of materials for applications such as jet engines or turbopumps for liquid-fueled engines. The creep measurements have been demonstrated to 2400 C with niobium, while the test facility, the NASA MSFC ESL, has processed materials up to 3400 C. Furthermore, the ESL creep method employs a distribution of stress to determine the stress exponent from a single test, versus the many tests required by conventional methods. Determination of the stress exponent from the ESL creep tests requires very precise measurement of the surface shape of the deformed sample for comparison to deformations predicted by finite element models for different stress exponents. An error analysis shows that the stress exponent can be determined to about 1% accuracy with the current methods and apparatus. The creep properties of single-crystal niobium at 1985 C showed excellent agreement with conventional tests performed according to ASTM Standard E-139. Tests on other metals, ceramics, and composites relevant to rocket propulsion and turbine engines are underway.

Hyers, Robert W.↗