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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Upgrading Linear Fluorescent Fixtures to LED in Schools

Lighting is a key component to creating a functional and high-quality learning environment for students and staff. Light-emitting diode or LED lighting fixtures have gained traction in common commercial building applications and quality replacement options for common fixture types are widely available. Compared to most fluorescent lighting systems, using LEDs can reduce energy consumption and therefore decrease carbon dioxide emissions, reduce maintenance and operation cost, and improve the visual appearance and lighting quality of the classroom and school environments. When additional controls are considered, more energy can be saved and some controls, like dimming, can offer amenities to occupants. As LEDs become an even more prominent lighting technology, fluorescent equipment may become challenging or expensive to replace. Additionally, school buildings are typically in use for many decades; maintaining a long-term view can be important when deciding which upgrade path to take. This fact sheet provides guidance on the various factors to consider when deciding on an LED upgrade for fluorescent lighting systems.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Memorial Pools Energy Efficiency Retrofits

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum completed a retrofit of the submergible LED lighting fixtures in its North and South Memorial Pools, located at the World Trade Center site in New York City. The two one-acre pools are illuminated nightly by custom LED fixtures set into their base, and the original lights — in place since 2011 — had begun reaching the end of their useful life, leaving sections of the pools dim or dark. Rather than fully replacing the fixtures, the project team worked with the original manufacturer, Acuity Brands, to retrofit and reuse existing components across all eight pool walls (34 fixtures per wall), reducing cost and waste. Fixtures were shipped in custom crates to Minnesota for retrofitting, then reinstalled onsite by Memorial & Museum staff and contractor ABM. The team addressed two key technical challenges during the project: early leakage in retrofitted fixtures, resolved by introducing vacuum-sealing and nitrogen-fill testing before shipment; and chord damage during transit, resolved with custom-designed shipping crates. All eight pool walls were successfully retrofitted and reinstalled by August 27, 2025, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Sitewide electrical consumption in September 2025 reflected an approximate 7% reduction, contributing to the institution's broader net-zero and LEED Gold sustainability goals.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS1980

Emergency/Night Lightning

UDEC's highly efficient lighting system is finding wide acceptance among industrial and commercial firms as an energy savings means of providing emergency and night lighting. Originating from Skylab, the system consists of small high frequency fluorescent light fixtures powered by solar cells. Advantages of UDEC's lighting system stem from high reliability and high light output with very low energy drain. Principal components of system are long life fluorescent lamps operated by electronic circuitry, a sealed gelatine cell battery that needs no maintenance for eight years and a solid-state automatic battery charger. Installation of UDEC lighting in a company's six-and-a-half acre warehouse office cut the annual night lighting electric bill from $8,000 a year to $300 per year.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1988

Light Reflector

Ultra Sales, Inc.'s fluorescent lighting fixture gets a boost in reflectivity through installation of Lightdriver, a thin tough thermoplastic film plated with aluminum, capable of reflecting 95 percent of visible light striking it. Lightdriver increases brightness without adding bulbs, and allows energy savings by removing some bulbs because the mirrorlike surface cuts light loss generally occasioned by conventional low reflectivity white painted surface above the bulbs in many fluorescent fixtures. Forty-five percent reduction in lighting electricity is attainable.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Method for Estimation and Suppression of Quasi-Periodic Noise

Electromagnetic interference, particularly from sources such as light fixtures and power supplies, negatively affects the function and performance of electronic systems. This noise, often quasi-periodic in nature, contains harmonic structure that can be used for noise estimation and suppression. This work proposes a novel method for tracking and filtering such noise signals that reduces the comb filter bandwidth required for noise estimation and suppression by tracking the instantaneous frequency of the fundamental component.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1993

Robotics in a controlled, ecological life support system

Controlled, Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) that utilize plants to provide food, water and oxygen could consume considerable amounts of labor unless crop production, recovery and processing are automated. Robotic manipulators equipped with special end-effectors and programmed to perform the sensing and materials handling tasks would minimize the amount of astronaut labor required. The Human Rated Test Facility (HRTF) planned for Johnson Space Center could discover and demonstrate techniques of crop production which can be reliably integrated with machinery to minimize labor requirements. Before the physical components (shelves, lighting fixtures, etc.) can be selected, a systems analysis must be performed to determine which alternative processes should be followed and how the materials handling tasks should be automated. Given that the current procedures used to grow crops in a CELSS may not be the best methods to automate, then what are the alternatives? How may plants be grown, harvested, processed for food, and the inedible components recycled? What commercial technologies current exist? What research efforts are underway to develop new technologies which might satisfy the need for automation in a CELSS? The answers to these questions should prove enlightening and provide some of the information necessary to perform the systems analysis. The planting, culturing, gathering, threshing and separation, food processing, and recovery of inedible portions of wheat were studied. The basic biological and materials handling processes of each task are defined and discussed. Current practices at Johnson Space Center and other NASA centers are described and compared to common production practices in the plant production industry. Technologies currently being researched which might be applicable are identified and illustrated. Finally, based on this knowledge, several scenarios are proposed for automating the tasks for wheat.

Miles, Gaines E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Design of a pressurized lunar rover

A pressurized lunar rover is necessary for future long-term habitation of the moon. The rover must be able to safely perform many tasks, ranging from transportation and reconnaissance to exploration and rescue missions. Numerous designs were considered in an effort to maintain a low overall mass and good mobility characteristics. The configuration adopted consists of two cylindrical pressure hulls passively connected by a pressurized flexible passageway. The vehicle has an overall length of 11 meters and a total mass of seven metric tons. The rover is driven by eight independently powered two meter diameter wheels. The dual-cylinder concept allows a combination of articulated frame and double Ackermann steering for executing turns. In an emergency, the individual drive motors allow the option of skid steering as well. Two wheels are connected to either side of each cylinder through a pinned bar which allows constant ground contact. Together, these systems allow the rover to easily meet its mobility requirements. A dynamic isotope power system (DIPS), in conjunction with a closed Brayton cycle, supplied the rover with a continuous supply of 8.5 kW. The occupants are all protected from the DIPS system's radiation by a shield of tantalum. The large amount of heat produced by the DIPS and other rover systems is rejected by thermal radiators. The thermal radiators and solar collectors are located on the top of the rear cylinder. The solar collectors are used to recharge batteries for peak power periods. The rover's shell is made of graphite-epoxy coated with multi-layer insulation (MLI). The graphite-epoxy provides strength while the thermally resistant MLI gives protection from the lunar environment. An elastomer separates the two materials to compensate for the thermal mismatch. The communications system allows for communication with the lunar base with an option for direct communication with earth via a lunar satellite link. The various links are combined into one signal broadcast in the S-band at 2.3 GHz. The rover is fitted with a parabolic reflector disk for S-band transmission, and an omnidirectional antenna for local extravehicular activity (EVA) communication. The rover's guidance, navigation, and control subsystem consists of an inertial guidance system, an orbiting lunar satellite, and an obstacle avoidance system. In addition, the rover is equipped with a number of external fixtures including two telerobotic arms, lights, cameras, EVA storage, manlocks, a docking fixture, solar panels, thermal radiators, and a scientific airlock. In conclusion, this rover meets all of the design requirements and clearly surpasses them in the areas of mobility and maneuverability.

Bhardwaj, Manoj↗
DOE OSTI2025

Pressure effects on lithium anode/nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide cathode pouch cells through fixture design

Applying external pressure to a pouch cell results in improved performance, implicating systems-level design of batteries. Here, different formats and amounts of external pressure to Li-Li x Ni 0.8 Mn 0.1 Co 0.1 O 2 (Li-NMC811) pouch cells were studied under lean electrolyte conditions. Due to the more uniform lithium plating/stripping, a constant gap fixture that retains the distance of the frame during cycling performed greater than a constant pressure fixture that retains applied pressure to the cell. In addition, the use of flexible foam in a constant gap fixture revealed enhanced cycle life at 10 psi; however, at 30 psi, the use of a rigid plate extended cycle life to over 250 cycles, while the foam severely shortened cycle life. This discrepancy with pressure was proven to be driven by stress distribution on cell components. The failure mechanisms and the effects of pressure fixture design on cell components were unveiled, shedding light on improving high-energy battery performance through at-scale fixture design.

25 - ENERGY STORAGE↗
NASA NTRS1977

Emergency Lighting

A lighting system originally developed for NASA's Apollo and Skylab manned spacecraft resulted in a industrial spinoff and creation of a whole new company to produce and market the product line. The company is UDEC Corp., Waltham, Mass. UDEC's "Multi-Mode" electronic lighting systems are designed for plant emergency and supplemental use, such as night lighting, "always-on" stairwell lights and illuminated exit signs. Their advantages stem from the qualities demanded for spacecraft installation: extremely high fight output with very low energy drain, compactness, light weight, and high reliability. The Multi-Mode system includes long-life fluorescent lamps operated by electronic circuitry, a sealed battery that needs no maintenance for 10 years, and a solid-state battery charger. A typical emergency installation consists of a master module with battery and an eight watt lamp, together with four remote "Satellight" modules powered by the master's battery. As a night lighting system for maintenance or I security, UDEC fixtures can bypass the battery and 1 operate on normal current at a fraction of the energy 1 demand of conventional night lighting. Industrial customers have realized savings of better than ninety percent with UDEC night lights. UDEC started as a basement industry in 1972 but the company has already sold more than 1,000 lighting systems to building operators.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1966

Rocket engine vibration accurately measured by photography

High speed instrumentation camera focused on a partially masked light bulb which is securely mounted to the test fixture permits measurement of engine performance parameters when usual electronic vibration instrumentation is unavailable. Vibration is recorded as a light trace deviating from the light rays photographed in the static hardware condition.

Craig, K. A.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Energy-reduction concept for incandescent lamps

Reusable infrared reflector maintains filament temperature and reduces power requirements. Fixed installed over light bulb directs energy formerly lost back to lamp filament. This energy aids electric current in heating filament, allowing lower-wattage bulb to produce same amount of light as higher-wattage bulb in ordinary fixture.

Vorhaben, K. H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Beam Stop For High-Power Lasers

Graphite/aluminum plate absorbs most of light. Beam stop fits on standard optical mounting fixture. Graphite plate thick enough to absorb incident laser beam but thin enough to transfer heat quickly to heat sink. Device used for variety of blocking purposes. For example, blocks laser beam after it passes through experimental setup, or at each stage of setup so stages checked and tested in sequence. Negligible reflectance of device is valuable safety feature, protecting both users and equipment from reflections.

Mcdermid, Iain S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

White Light Used to Enable Enhanced Surface Topography, Geometry, and Wear Characterization of Oil-Free Bearings

A new optically based measuring capability that characterizes surface topography, geometry, and wear has been employed by NASA Glenn Research Center s Tribology and Surface Science Branch. To characterize complex parts in more detail, we are using a three-dimensional, surface structure analyzer-the NewView5000 manufactured by Zygo Corporation (Middlefield, CT). This system provides graphical images and high-resolution numerical analyses to accurately characterize surfaces. Because of the inherent complexity of the various analyzed assemblies, the machine has been pushed to its limits. For example, special hardware fixtures and measuring techniques were developed to characterize Oil- Free thrust bearings specifically. We performed a more detailed wear analysis using scanning white light interferometry to image and measure the bearing structure and topography, enabling a further understanding of bearing failure causes.

Lucero, John M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Multiprism collimator

A special purpose optical collimator system which generates multiple collimated light beams with precisely related angular separation of the beams, is comprised of a stack of relatively flat plate-like refracted prisms in the form of wedges. Each prism has a specified angular deviation, mounted on top of one another in a fixture which holds the wedges so that they are adapted to operate at minimum angular deviation and thus are relatively insensitive to rotational and angular charges. A collimated sources of monochromatic light, generated for example by a helium-neon laser and a collimated beam expander, provides a common incident beam to the wedges whereupon a number equally spaced emergent beams are provided.

Minott, P. O.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Wing Leading Edge Joint Laminar Flow Tests

An F-104G aircraft at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center has been equipped with a specially designed and instrumented test fixture to simulate surface imperfections of the type likely to be present near the leading edge on the wings of some laminar flow aircraft. The simulated imperfections consisted of five combinations of spanwise steps and gaps of various sizes. The unswept fixture yielded a pressure distribution similar to that of some laminar flow airfoils. The experiment was conducted at cruise conditions typical for business-jets and light transports: Mach numbers were in the range 0.5-0.8, and unit Reynolds numbers were 1.5-2.5 million per foot. Skin friction measurements indicated that laminar flow was often maintained for some distance downstream of the surface imperfections. Further work is needed to more precisely define transition location and to extend the experiments to swept-wing conditions and a broader range of imperfection geometries.

Drake, Aaron↗
NASA NTRS1994

Oscillating lamp fixture for growing areas

The Oscillating Parabolic Mirror of 'Beamflicker' was designed by Dr. Richard W. Tinus, Supervisory Plant Physiologist, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experimental Station, Flagstaff, Arizona. With his idea, an economic greenhouse lighting system was developed and patented, U.S. Patent #5095414. The Beamflicker uses a stationary 400 watt high pressure sodium arc bulb. The parabolic mirror rotates 180 degrees around the bulb to produce intermittent lighting every minute throughout the night. This one bulb can replace up to 88 incandescent bulbs in a 40 x 100 foot greenhouse over different sections of a growing area. The lighting intensity of the Beamflicker varies greatly depending on the distance from the bulb. The light intensity varies from 1.3 (mu)mol m(exp 2)/s feet from the bulb to 52.5 (mu)mol m(exp 2)/s directly beneath the bulb. A year long study involving light intensity and many species will be concluded in July 1994. These research results should be published within the next year.

Hiatt, Harvey↗
NASA NTRS1986

Effect of 16 and 24 hours daily radiation (light) on lettuce growth

A 50% increase in total radiation by extending the photoperiod from 16 to 24 hr doubled the weight of all cultivars of loose-leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) 'Grand Rapids Forcing', 'Waldmanns Green', 'Salad Bowl', and 'RubyConn', but not a Butterhead cultivar, 'Salina'. When total daily radiation (moles of photons) was the same, plants under continuous radiation weighed 30% to 50% more than plants under a 16 hr photoperiod. By using continuous radiation on loose-leaf lettuce, fewer lamp fixtures were required and yield was increased.

NASA Center KSC↗
NASA NTRS1994

Investigation of a Laminar Flow Leading Edge

The recent resurgence of interest in utilizing laminar flow on aircraft surfaces for reduction in skin friction drag has generated a considerable amount of research in natural laminar flow (NLF) and hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) on transonic aircraft wings. This research has focused primarily on airfoil design and understanding transition behavior with little concern for the surface imperfections and manufacturing variations inherent to most production aircraft. In order for laminar flow to find wide-spread use on production aircraft, techniques for constructing the wings must be found such that the large surface imperfections present in the leading edge region of current aircraft do not occur. Toward this end, a modification to existing leading edge construction techniques was devised such that the resulting surface did not contain large gaps and steps as are common on current production aircraft of this class. A lowspeed experiment was first conducted on a simulation of the surface that would result from this construction technique. Preston tube measurements of the boundary layer downstream of the simulated joint and flow visualization using sublimation chemicals validated the literature on the effects of steps on a laminar boundary layer. These results also indicated that the construction technique was indeed compatible with laminar flow. In order to fully validate the compatibility of this construction technique with laminar flow, thus proving that it is possible to build wings that are smooth enough to be used on business jets and light transports in a manner compatible with laminar flow, a flight experiment is being conducted. In this experiment Mach number and Reynolds number will be matched in a real flight environment. The experiment is being conducted using the NASA Dryden F-104 Flight Test Fixture (FTF). The FTF is a low aspect ratio ventral fin mounted beneath an F-104G research aircraft. A new nose shape was designed and constructed for this experiment. This nose shape provides an accelerating pressure gradient in the leading edge region. By flying the aircraft at appropriate Mach numbers and altitudes, this nose shape simulates the leading edge region of a laminar flow wing for a business jet or light transport. Manufactured into the nose shape is a spanwise slot located approximately four inches downstream of the leading edge. The slot, which is an inch wide and one-eighth of an inch deep allows the simulation of surface imperfections, such as gaps and steps at skin joints, which will occur on aircraft using this new construction technique. By placing strips of aluminum of various sizes and shapes in the slot, the effect on the boundary layer of different sizes and shapes of steps and gaps will be examined. It is planned to use five different configurations, differing primarily in the size and number of gaps. Downstream of the slot, the state of the boundary layer is determined using hot film gages and Stanton gages. Agreement between these two very different techniques of measuring boundary layer properties is considered important to being able to state with confidence the effects on the boundary layer of the simulated manufacturing imperfections. To date, the aircraft has not flown. First flights of the aircraft are on schedule to begin October 4, 1993. Low-speed, preliminary experiments at matching Reynolds numbers have been completed.

Drake, Aaron↗