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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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8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Preparing For Advanced Air Mobility: A System-Level Framework For Infrastructure, Investment, and Deployment

Advanced air mobility (AAM) is moving from demonstration toward early deployment, supported by a growing national strategy that outlines how these systems may evolve across airspace, infrastructure, and operations. As this transition takes shape, a more practical question comes into focus: what does it mean to be ready? This paper introduces a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) as a structured way to think about that challenge. Rather than treating readiness as a fixed condition, it frames it as a progression - one that develops across multiple, interdependent domains over time.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Minimizing Ground Risk in Cellular-Connected Drone Corridors With mmWave Links

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) have been receiving significant interest and support from academia, industry, and regulatory bodies over the past decade due to their various use cases. To safely integrate UAS operations into the national airspace, particularly overpopulated regions, the risk posed to ground users, buildings, and vehicles due to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight should be minimized. This risk can be represented by a numerical metric, which we refer to in this article as the “ground risk.” Many UAS applications also depend on the presence of a reliable wireless communication link between the UAV and a control station for the transmission of UAV position, surveillance video, UAV payload commands, and other mission-related data. Such wireless communication requirements also need to be considered in the design of UAS operations. In this article, we consider both these aspects and study the design of nonintersecting trajectories for UAS operations to minimize ground risk, subject to constraints on the wireless signal strength and geometry of the trajectory, specified in terms of: 1) an enclosing cylinder within which the trajectory must lie and 2) an integrated angular change along the UAV's trajectory. The performance of a computationally expensive optimal algorithm is compared with that of a computationally faster heuristic approach within the dense urban environment of Manhattan, NY, USA. Performance evaluation using ray-tracing simulations shows that the heuristic approach performs close to the optimal algorithm at a reduced computation cost. In conclusion, this research can be utilized to make UAS operations safe and reliable and accelerate their adoption.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Base Station Antenna Uptilt Optimization for Cellular-Connected Drone Corridors

Reliable wireless coverage in drone corridors is critical to enable a connected, safe, and secure airspace. To support beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations of aerial vehicles in a drone corridor, cellular base stations (BSs) can serve as a convenient infrastructure as they are widely deployed to provide seamless wireless coverage. However, antennas in the existing cellular networks are down-tilted to optimally serve their ground users, which results in coverage holes at higher altitudes when they are used to serve drones. In this paper, we consider the use of additional uptilted antennas at each cellular BS and optimize the uptilt angle to maximize the wireless coverage probability across a given drone corridor. Through numerical results, we can characterize the optimal value of the antenna uptilt angle for a given antenna pattern as well as the minimum/maximum altitudes of the drone corridor.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Tethered Balloon System (TBS) Instrument Handbook

The Tethered Balloon System (TBS) is an unmanned aerial system composed of a helium-filled balloon, tether, winch, and sensors. Individual components of the system may change with each flight based on the desired measurements, atmospheric conditions, and flight strategy. The TBS operates within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s R-2204 Restricted Airspace, which encompasses a two-nautical-mile radius centered on Oliktok Point, Alaska that is segmented by altitude into R-2204 Low (0-1,499’ MSL or 0-457 m MSL) and R-2204 High (1,500-6,999’ MSL or 457-2133 m MSL). The TBS may operate outside of R-2204 if allowed to do so under a Certificate of Authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Operational Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Development for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics Field Campaign Report

The overarching goal of the project is to develop integrated small, unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS) capabilities for enhanced atmospheric physics measurements. This team included atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, engineers, computer scientists, geographers, and chemists necessary to evaluate the needs and develop the advanced sensing and imaging, robust autonomous navigation, enhanced data communication, and data management capabilities required to use SUAS in atmospheric physics. The flight campaigns at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) observatory were an integrated evaluation of the systems in coordinated field tests. This enabled sensor testing, and validation of SUAS technology and integration of unmanned aircraft into the airspace. The set of experiments enabled evaluation and progression of remote UAS deployment operations with observing atmospheric sensors. Each flight test endeavor was notable for the significant lessons learned during every deployment event. Team size and roles, equipment use, aircraft instruments, meteorological instruments, and deployment logistics, were all evaluated and improved at every flight-testing day. The details of these are further discussed in the Results section.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Evaluation of ARM tethered-balloon system instrumentation for supercooled liquid water and distributed temperature sensing in mixed-phase Arctic clouds

A tethered-balloon system (TBS) has been developed and is being operated by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility in order to collect in situ atmospheric measurements within mixed-phase Arctic clouds. Periodic tethered-balloon flights have been conducted since 2015 within restricted airspace at ARM's Advanced Mobile Facility 3 (AMF3) in Oliktok Point, Alaska, as part of the AALCO (Aerial Assessment of Liquid in Clouds at Oliktok), ERASMUS (Evaluation of Routine Atmospheric Sounding Measurements using Unmanned Systems), and POPEYE (Profiling at Oliktok Point to Enhance YOPP Experiments) field campaigns. The tethered-balloon system uses helium-filled 34 m 3 helikites and 79 and 104 m 3 aerostats to suspend instrumentation that is used to measure aerosol particle size distributions, temperature, horizontal wind, pressure, relative humidity, turbulence, and cloud particle properties and to calibrate ground-based remote sensing instruments. Supercooled liquid water content (SLWC) sondes using the vibrating-wire principle, developed by Anasphere Inc., were operated at Oliktok Point at multiple altitudes on the TBS within mixed-hase clouds for over 200 h. Sonde-collected SLWC data were compared with liquid water content derived from a microwave radiometer, Ka-band ARM zenith radar, and ceilometer at the AMF3, as well as liquid water content derived from AMF3 radiosonde flights. The in situ data collected by the Anasphere sensors were also compared with data collected simultaneously by an alternative SLWC sensor developed at the University of Reading, UK; both vibrating-wire instruments were typically observed to shed their ice quickly upon exiting the cloud or reaching maximum ice loading. Temperature sensing measurements distributed with fiber optic tethered balloons were also compared with AMF3 radiosonde temperature measurements. Combined, the results indicate that TBS-distributed temperature sensing and supercooled liquid water measurements are in reasonably good agreement with remote sensing and radiosonde-based measurements of both properties. From these measurements and sensor evaluations, tethered-balloon flights are shown to offer an effective method of collecting data to inform and constrain numerical models, calibrate and validate remote sensing instruments, and characterize the flight environment of unmanned aircraft, circumventing the difficulties of in-cloud unmanned aircraft flights such as limited flight time and in-flight icing.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Unseen Winds: Harnessing High-Altitude Winds in the Southeast USA

This project aims to identify potential sites in the United States for further testing and development of airborne wind energy systems (AWES). Through industry questionnaires and interviews with AWES companies, the study assesses existing test sites' capabilities and gaps, leading to a three-tiered test site strategy: short-duration prototype demonstrations, long-duration technical assessments and power validations, and airspace interaction and deconfliction studies. Notably, the southeastern United States presents significant potential for AWES due to its lack of traditional wind turbines, which is attributed to low wind speeds at lower altitudes. However, wind conditions improve significantly at higher altitudes, making this region a promising candidate for AWES deployment. The project considers factors such as wind resources, infrastructure proximity, social acceptance, and environmental impacts to recommend sites that can support the unique needs of AWES manufacturers and facilitate their commercialization. Early findings suggest rural communities with low grid resiliency could benefit economically and technologically from hosting AWES test sites, especially with operator training centers and potential for long-term skilled employment in future disaster relief and other applications.

17 WIND ENERGY↗