NASA Technology Research Articles

Use of Extraterrestrial Resources and Recycling Water: Curb Your Enthusiasm

The NASA approach for technology development for missions is to (1) wait for a mission need, and (2) upgrade the technology available at that time, however inadequate. This is illustrated with two important NASA technologies: in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and recycling wastewater. It also serves as a review with 49 references provided. NASA funding for ISRU has been sporadic and minimal, probably because no mission was being implemented that used ISRU. The state of the technology remains underdeveloped. For example, CO2 in the Mars atmosphere supplies carbon and oxygen. However, we still do not have a viable system to acquire CO2 and compress it with acceptable power requirements and adequate lifetime. NASA technology for recycling wastewater was developed for the International Space Station. It requires frequent attention with replenishment and replacement of subsystems. This system appears to be inadequate for Mars missions and there is no evidence that NASA has a viable plan to fix that.

Developing readiness levels for risk assessment in green transition engineering projects

AbstractThis paper aims to develop a risk assessment framework that addresses both the complexities of the risk landscape that green transition portfolios face, but is recognizable and easily understandable by stakeholders. For this purpose, we build upon the framework of NASA Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). This study analyzes six existing readiness levels framework that are held towards uncertainty factors from the Green Transition. The TRL scale are coupled with Risk, Uncertainty, and Ignorance to score the individual level of uncertainty. The paper ends with suggestion for further studies.

Knowledge, Information, and Data Readiness Levels (KaRLs) for Risk Assessment, Communication, and Governance of Nano-, New, and Other Advanced Materials.

The obvious benefits derived from the increasing use of engineered nano-, new, and advanced materials and associated products have to be weighed out by a governance process against their possible risks. Differences in risk perception (beliefs about potential harm) among stakeholders, in particular nonscientists, and low transparency of the underlying decision processes can lead to a lack of support and acceptance of nano-, new, and other advanced material enabled products. To integrate scientific outcomes with stakeholders needs, this work develops a new approach comprising a nine-level, stepwise categorization and guidance system entitled "Knowledge, Information, and Data Readiness Levels" (KaRLs), analogous to the NASA Technology Readiness Levels. The KaRL system assesses the type, extent, and usability of the available data, information, and knowledge and integrates the participation of relevant and interested stakeholders in a cocreation/codesign process to improve current risk assessment, communication, and governance. The novelty of the new system is to communicate and share all available and relevant elements on material related risks in a user/stakeholder-friendly, transparent, flexible, and holistic way and so stimulate reflection, awareness, communication, and a deeper understanding that ultimately enables the discursive process that is needed for the sustainable risk governance of new materials.

A low-cost adapter for the rehydration of commercially available food and beverages for spaceflight

All current rehydratable food and drink items prepared for U.S. astronauts on missions to the International Space Station (ISS) must be compatible with the station's potable water dispenser, called the rehydration station. This highly validated system ensures that water is compartmentalized and safely transferred to custom-made food and beverage pouches to prevent free-floating food particles and water in microgravity. However, the food and beverages packaged in these single-purpose pouches require complex, time-consuming, and costly procedures before flight, which is not feasible for future commercial space stations seeking more affordable life-support systems. Furthermore, even though a vast number of rehydratable food and beverage items available at supermarkets have appropriate nutritional content and shelf life for spaceflight, their incompatible consumer packaging renders them unusable by astronauts. In this paper, we present a low-cost solution that draws on NASA technology to adapt these commercially developed food and drink items for spaceflight and makes them compatible with the water dispensing unit and consumption in a microgravity environment. The 3D-printed adapter is based on the NASA septum adapter with the addition of a piercing end and one-way barb that stabilizes the adapter inside the food pouch and ensures it is not released due to the force generated by the water when it is dispensed. The dimensions of the adapter are 20.00 (L) x 12.50 (W) x 37.24 (H) mm and the mass is approximately 1.5 g. The design is compatible with at least three types of packaging commonly used for commercially available rehydratable foods: kraft paper and polymer laminate (KP), polymer aluminum laminate (PA), and compostable polymer laminate (CP). Based on these three packages, we present a table of commercial items that could be available to astronauts if the adapter were to be used. To validate the adapter's use in the space environment, we also present data on the structural properties against loads experienced during launch and re-entry, as well as two functionality tests to determine piercing and rehydration effectiveness. The results show that the prototype of the adapter meets structural specifications for spaceflight and can effectively pierce KP and PA materials with minimal tear propagation. The rehydration test with KP showed that the adapter can effectively rehydrate a typical dehydrated food package. In summary, the adapter is an effective method to increase menu diversity while simultaneously eliminating costs associated with space food preparation and re-packaging.

Evaluation of a motorised patient transfer device based on perceived workload, technology acceptance, and emotional states

Purpose The high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among healthcare workers is partly attributed to the low adoption of patient transfer assistive devices. This study aimed to evaluate the nurses’ perceived workload, technology acceptance, and emotional states during the use of the sliding board (SB) and mechanical intervention in the form of a Motorised Patient Transfer Device (MPTD). Methods The SB and MPTD activities were performed by seven nurses on a simulated patient. The nurses’ facial expressions were recorded during the trial. The NASA Task Load Index and technology acceptance questionnaire were also assessed. Results The MPTD significantly reduced the mean overall NASA-TLX score by 68.7% (p = 0.004) and increased the overall acceptance score (median = 8.30) by 21.2% (p = 0.016) when compared to the SB (median = 6.85). All the subjects reported positive feelings towards MPTD. However, facial expression analysis showed that the nurses had a significantly higher peak density of fear while using MPTD (p = 0.016). Besides, there was no improvement in the negative valence and contempt emotion compared to the SB. Conclusion Overall, nurses showed positive perceptions and acceptance of MPTD even when they experienced negative emotions. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION The Motorised Patient Transfer Device (MPTD) reduced the perceived workload of nurses and showed a higher acceptance level compared to the commonly used baseline device (SB). Factors that attributed to the nurses’ negative emotions can be used to improve technology and patient transfer processes. More training should be given to familiarise the health practitioners with the new assistive device to reduce their fear of technology.

Assessing approaches to learning with nonparametric multidimensional scaling.

This article reports on a trace-based assessment of approaches to learning used by middle school aged children who interacted with NASA Mars Mission science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) games in Whyville, an online game environment with 8 million registered young learners. The learning objectives of two games included awareness and knowledge of NASA missions, developing knowledge and skills of measurement and scaling, applying measurement for planetary comparisons in the solar system. Trace data from 1361 interactions were analysed with nonparametric multidimensional scaling methods, which permitted visual examination and statistical validation, and provided an example and proof of concept for the multidimensional scaling approach to analysis of time-based behavioural data from a game or simulation. Differences in approach to learning were found illustrating the potential value of the methodology to curriculum and game-based learning designers as well as other creators of online STEM content for pre-college youth. The theoretical framework of the method and analysis makes use of the Epistemic Network Analysis toolkit as a post hoc data exploration platform, and the discussion centres on issues of semantic interpretation of interaction end-states and the application of evidence centred design in post hoc analysis.

Evaluation of Iron-Based Metal–Organic Framework Activation Temperatures in Acetylene Adsorption

One of the major issues regarding long-term human space exploration is the need for a breathable atmosphere. A major component toward achieving this goal is both the removal of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) and the generation or recovery of oxygen (O2). NASA's current technology only operates at about 50% efficiency due to the need to vent the methane that is produced during the CO2 reduction process. One method of improving the efficiency of this process is through plasma pyrolysis, wherein the methane is pyrolyzed to produce hydrogen and various dehydrogenated carbon byproducts. In this process, acetylene is one of the main components of this byproduct stream. Unfortunately, while the concentration of this effluent is generally high in hydrogen (>90% typically), the presence of the acetylene waste product can act as a poison for the ruthenium-alumina catalyst used in the CO2-reducing Sabatier process, requiring a removal step. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) represent a valuable method for removing these unsaturated hydrocarbons due to their high tunability, particularly through the incorporation of open metal sites. In this study, two common iron-based MOFs, MIL-100 and PCN-250, were studied for their ability to adsorb acetylene. A combination of gas adsorption analysis and density functional theory calculation results shows the ability of these materials to undergo a thermal-induced reduction event, which results in an improvement in gas adsorption performance. This improvement in gas performance appears to be at least partially due to the increased presence of π-backbonding toward the acetylene molecules.

In-flight performance of the Multi-band Uncooled Radiometer Instrument (MURI) thermal sensor

NASA's Earth Science and Technology Office (ESTO) encourages and promotes new and innovative science technologies to improve how the Earth is observed from space. Through their Instrument Incubator Program (IIP), an uncooled multispectral thermal instrument was fabricated and flight-tested to demonstrate its potential utility to support future spaceborne missions. While uncooled systems offer the attractive advantage of eliminating the need for large and expensive cryocoolers, they naturally introduce challenges that must be overcome to achieve the fidelity observed in image data acquired by existing cooled spaceborne instruments.In this work, the Multi-band Uncooled Radiometer Instrument (MURI) system, designed and built by Leonardo DRS, is fabricated using custom microbolometer detector arrays also developed by Leonardo DRS. Potential issues associated with thermal imaging using microbolometers from a spaceborne platform are discussed and innovative engineering solutions to overcome these issues are highlighted. Details of three airborne campaigns designed to assess the fidelity of MURI image data, using Landsat 8's Thermal Infrared Sensor's (TIRS) radiometric & geometric requirements as a baseline, are presented. Results of these campaigns show that the as-built MURI system significantly outperforms these requirements, as compared to ground-based reference measurements. Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) requirements indicate that a five-band instrument is desirable to improve future Landsat science while maintaining continuity with previous thermal instruments. Considering its multiband design, temperature/emissivity separation (TES) is applied to MURI flight data and compared to ground-based spectrometer measurements for several materials. Results of this study indicate that MURI's TES performance is in-line with existing spaceborne systems. When considered in conjunction with its radiometric fidelity, the MURI uncooled system represents an intriguing option for future space-based missions.

Batteries for robotic spacecraft

Batteries for robotic spacecraft

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Robust Cycle Life For Space Applications

While lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries offer tremendous performance advantages over their battery predecessors (e.g., nickel-cadmium, lead-acid), they are approaching an asymptotic limit in specific energy (~250 Wh/kg at cell level) and do not adequately address next generation space platform requirements (e.g., by NASA [1]). As a result, there has been intense research and development (R&D) on higher specific energy batteries that have been coined beyond Li-ion. Rechargeable lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery is a particularly attractive beyond Li-ion battery chemistry because it offers a high theoretical specific energy of 2500 Wh/kg (at materials level) [2] and a demonstrated practical specific energy >300 Wh/kg (at cell level) [3], making it a promising battery chemistry for future space applications that demand higher specific energy in batteries.Currently, no commercial Li-S battery exists due to several significant technical challenges that have thus far prevented the realization of the Li-S chemistry’s tremendous performance potential. These technical challenges include: (i) Low practical energy yield and significant capacity loss with cycling, due to lithium polysulfide formation/dissolution/migration during discharge [4]. (ii) High self-discharge rates and low Coulombic efficiency, due to redox shuttle reactions of the dissolved polysulfides. (iii) Safety concerns, mainly due to Li dendrite growth from the unprotected Li anodes [5].We will present our efforts in the development of a high energy density, long cycle life, long shelf life and enhanced reliability/safety Li-S battery technology, using a holistic and comprehensive approach to overcome technical challenges that hinder commercialization of Li-S batteries. In particular, we will demonstrate impact of various battery testing parameters, such as depth-of-discharge, charge/discharge current C-rate, on Li-S cell cycle performance and shelf life.Our investigation results showed that, using material engineered (active and inactive) cell components, the resultant Li-S cells demonstrated excellent cycle life performance, while achieving high specific capacities and energies when cycled under optimized battery testing schemes. The advanced Li-S battery technology has shown a great promise to achieve unprecedented specific energy/energy density and long-term cycle/shelf life stability for future space applications. References 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy, https://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/taxonomy/index.htmlZhang, Sheng S., Power Sources, 231, 153-162, 2013.Weibing Xing, # A02-0364, 238th Electrochemical Society Meeting (PRiME), Honolulu, HI, October 4-9, 2020.Besenhard JO. Handbook of Battery Materials. Wiley: New York; 1998.James R. Akridge, Battery Power Products & Technology, October 2001. Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge financial support from NASA Glenn Research Center for this R&D work.

NASA's Role in Gas Turbine Technology Development: Accelerating Technical Progress Via Collaboration Between Academia, Industry, and Government Agencies

Abstract Given the maturity of the gas turbine engine since its invention and considering the limited resources expected to be allocated for NASA aeronautics research and development, we ask the question are NASA technology investments still needed to enable future turbine engine-based propulsion systems? If so, what is NASA's unique role to justify NASA's investment? To address this topic, we first summarize NASA's role and contributions to turbine engine development, specific to both (1) NASA's role in conducting experiments to understand flow physics and provide relevant benchmark validation experiments for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code development, validation, and assessment and (2) the impact of technologies resulting from NASA collaborations with industry, academia, and other government agencies. Note that the scope of the discussion is limited to the NASA technology contributions with which the author was intimately associated and does not represent the entirety of the NASA contributions to turbine engine technology. The specific research, development, and demonstrations discussed herein were selected to both (1) provide a comprehensive review and reference list of the technology and its impact and (2) identify NASA's unique role and highlight how NASA's involvement resulted in additional benefit to the gas turbine engine community. Second, we will discuss current NASA collaborations that are in progress and provide a status of the results. Finally, we discuss the challenges anticipated for future turbine engine-based propulsion systems for civil aviation and identify potential opportunities for collaboration where NASA involvement would be beneficial.

Creating Startups with NASA Technology

In contrast to the “fail fast, fail often” Silicon Valley paradigm, “failure is not an option” is an adage often observed in traditional space activities. New Space aims to reconcile both perspecti...

Finding faults: A scoping study of fault diagnostics for Industrial Cyber–Physical Systems

Context:As Industrial Cyber–Physical Systems (ICPS) become more connected and widely-distributed, often operating in safety-critical environments, we require innovative approaches to detect and diagnose the faults that occur in them. Objective:We profile fault identification and diagnosis techniques employed in the aerospace, automotive, and industrial control domains. Each of these sectors has adopted particular methods to meet their differing diagnostic needs. By examining both theoretical presentations as well as case studies from production environments, we present a profile of the current approaches being employed and identify gaps. Methodology:A scoping study was used to identify and compare fault detection and diagnosis methodologies that are presented in the current literature. We created categories for the different diagnostic approaches via a pilot study and present an analysis of the trends that emerged. We then compared the maturity of these approaches by adapting and using the NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. Results:Fault identification and analysis studies from 127 papers published from 2004 to 2019 reveal a wide diversity of promising techniques, both emerging and in-use. These range from traditional Physics-based Models to Data-Driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Knowledge-Based approaches. Hybrid techniques that blend aspects of these three broad categories were also encountered. Predictive diagnostics or prognostics featured prominently across all sectors, along with discussions of techniques including Fault trees, Petri nets and Markov approaches. We also profile some of the techniques that have reached the highest Technology Readiness Levels, showing how those methods are being applied in real-world environments beyond the laboratory. Conclusions:Our results suggest that the continuing wide use of both Model-Based and Data-Driven AI techniques across all domains, especially when they are used together in hybrid configuration, reflects the complexity of the current ICPS application space. While creating sufficiently-complete models is labor intensive, Model-free AI techniques were evidenced as a viable way of addressing aspects of this challenge, demonstrating the increasing sophistication of current machine learning systems. Connecting ICPS together to share sufficient telemetry to diagnose and manage faults is difficult when the physical environment places demands on ICPS. Despite these challenges, the most mature papers present robust fault diagnosis and analysis techniques which have moved beyond the laboratory and are proving valuable in real-world environments.

Implementation of commercial Li-ion cells on the MarCO deep space CubeSats

In NASA's first technology demonstration of CubeSats in deep space, MarCO-A and MarCO-B were launched with the Mars InSight mission. These CubeSats successfully transmitted the InSight lander's entry, descent, and landing telemetry back to Earth in near-real time, which was not possible with existing Mars orbital data relay systems. In addition to solar arrays, each MarCO CubeSat was powered by a 3S4P battery comprising 18650-size lithium-ion cells. These commercial lithium-ion cells (Panasonic NCR18650B) were screened and matched using a cell selection process that was simplified relative to larger missions, to ensure safe and reliable battery behavior at an acceptable cost. This paper describes the design of the MarCO power system and battery, the lithium-ion battery cell testing and screening processes and results, and initial performance data from MarCO flight telemetry.

Invited Lecture 8: Innovation and Exponential Technologies in the Era of COVID 19

Brief Biosketch Prof. Mary Hrachoohi Boghosian did her PhD in “Physics of Magnetic Materials” from the University of London, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, and MBA in “Innovation, Technology Planning and Management” from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), School of Management and Technology, Troy, New York. She is working as Adjunct Professor at the American University of Armenia (AUA) and the California State University of Los Angeles (USA). She is also a visiting professor at the Yerevan State University, School of Journalism initiating and teaching a postgraduate-level course on the “Essentials of Creative Thinking”. She spent 16 years working for NASA and the Aerospace Companies leading NASA projects and studies as well as developing the first-ever cost estimation methodology for costing very small satellites. Dr Boghosian is the author of more than forty publications and two inventions on space-related sensors and actuators. She is a recipient of several NASA technology achievement awards. In highly competitive economies, technology advancements move at an exponential pace leading to rapid change in innovation. Covid-19 has reshaped the global scientific and technological community through urgency for sharing information in research and technology development. COVID 19 has also shaped business commercialization and consumer behaviour allowing faster response and new infrastructure for technology and business development. In the midst of all this, exponential technologies supported by disruptive digitization allow companies to create their own innovation processes allowing cross industries and break down barriers. We will discuss the exponential technologies and the disruptive digitization process leading to new innovations and digital society and economy.

An Integrated Data Analytics Platform

An Integrated Science Data Analytics Platform is an environment that enables the confluence of resources for scientific investigation. It harmonizes data, tools and computational resources to enable the research community to focus on the investigation rather than spending time on security, data preparation, management, etc. OceanWorks is a NASA technology integration project to establish a cloud-based Integrated Ocean Science Data Analytics Platform for big ocean science at NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) for big ocean science. It focuses on advancement and maturity by bringing together several NASA open-source, big data projects for parallel analytics, anomaly detection, in situ to satellite data matchup, quality-screened data subsetting, search relevancy, and data discovery. Our communities are relying on data available through distributed data centers to conduct their research. In typical investigations, scientists would (1) search for data, (2) evaluate the relevance of that data, (3) download it, and (4) then apply algorithms to identify trends, anomalies, or other attributes of the data. Such a workflow cannot scale if the research involves a massive amount of data or multi-variate measurements. With the upcoming NASA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission expected to produce over 20PB of observational data during its 3-year nominal mission, the volume of data will challenge all existing Earth Science data archival, distribution and analysis paradigms. This paper discusses how OceanWorks enhances the analysis of physical ocean data where the computation is done on an elastic cloud platform next to the archive to deliver fast, web-accessible services for working with oceanographic measurements.

Overview of the high-definition x-ray imager instrument on the Lynx x-ray surveyor

Four NASA Science and Technology Definition Teams have been convened in order to develop and study four mission concepts to be evaluated by the upcoming 2020 Decadal Survey. The Lynx x-ray surveyor mission is one of these four large missions. Lynx will couple fine angular resolution (<0.5 arcsec HPD) x-ray optics with large effective area (~2 m^2 at 1 keV), thus enabling exploration within a unique scientific parameter space. One of the primary soft x-ray imaging instruments being baselined for this mission concept is the high-definition x-ray imager, HDXI. This instrument would use a finely pixelated silicon sensor array to achieve fine angular resolution imaging over a wide field of view (~22 x 22 arcmin). Silicon sensors enable large-format/small-pixel devices, radiation tolerant designs, and high quantum efficiency across the entire soft x-ray bandpass. To fully exploit the large collecting area of Lynx (~30x Chandra), with negligible or minimal x-ray event pile-up, the HDXI will be capable of much faster frame rates than current x-ray imagers. We summarize the planned requirements, capabilities, and development status of the HDXI instrument, and associated papers in this special edition will provide further details on some specific detector options.

3D PRINTING IN CIVIL ENGINEERING: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

New technological developments determine the course of the construction industry. Three-dimensional (3D) printer technology has become one of the technologies that determine the production logic of the 21st century. The concept of Industry 4.0 gained importance in the construction industry with a 3D printer. In this study, a systematic literature review was performed. The publications related to the 3D printer have been examined within the scope of civil engineering implementations. The 3D printer researches associated with BIM, Industry 4.0, NASA, additive manufacturing, and point cloud technology subjects was reviewed through an intensive systematic literature review. As a result of the study, it has been understood that the studies in the field of civil engineering were insufficient compared to manufacturing industry. For this reason, the number of researches on 3D printer applications should increase in construction industry.

Digital technologies in airport ground operations

How has digital transformation changed airport ground operations? Although the relevant peer-reviewed literature emphasizes the role of cost savings as a key driver behind digitalization of airport ground operations, the focus is on data-driven, customer-centric innovations. This paper argues that ground handling agents are deploying new technologies mainly to boost process efficiency and to cut costs. Our research shows that ground handling agents are embracing current trends to craft new business models and develop new revenue streams. In this paper, we examine the ground handling agent's value chain and identify areas that are strongly affected by digital transformation and those that are not. We discuss different business scenarios for digital technology and link them with relevant research, such as automated service data capturing, new digital services for passengers, big data, indoor navigation, and wearables in airport ground operations. We assess the maturity level of discussed technologies using NASA technology readiness levels.

Characterization of Exoplanet Atmospheres with the Optical Coronagraph on WFIRST

Abstract Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)-CGI is a NASA technology demonstration mission that is charged with demonstrating key technologies for future exo-Earth imaging missions in space. In the process, it will obtain images and low-resolution spectra of a handful to a dozen extrasolar planets and possibly protoplanetary disks. Its unprecedented contrast levels in the optical will provide astronomers’ with their first direct look at mature, Jupiter-sized planets at moderate separations. This paper addresses the question: what science can be done with such data? An analytic noise model, which is informed by the ongoing engineering developments, is used to compute maximum achievable signal-to-noise ratios and scientifically viable integration times for hypothetical star–planet systems, as well as to investigate the constraining power of various combinations of WFIRST-CGI photometric and spectral observations. This work introduces two simple models for planetary geometric albedos, which are inspired largely by the solar system’s gas giants. The first planet model is a hybrid Jupiter–Neptune model, which separately treats the short and long wavelengths where chromophores and methane dominate absorption, respectively. The second planet model fixes cloud and haze properties in CoolTLusty to match Jupiter’s albedo spectrum, it then perturbs only the metallicity. MCMC retrievals performed on simulated observations are used to assess the precision with which planet model parameters can be measured subject to different exposure times and observing cases. Planet radius is recovered within ±15% for all observing cases with both the hybrid model and the CoolTLusty metallicity grid. Fit results for both models’ parameterizations of geometric albedo spectra demonstrate that a rough indication of the metallicity or methane content should be possible for some WFIRST-CGI targets. We conclude that real observations will likely be able to differentiate between extreme cases using these models, but will lack the precision necessary to uncover subtle trends.