Heave Compensated Landing System - A Novel Tool for Subsea Intervention
This paper presents a new intervention system that allows the use of a low cost workboat to deploy and recover delicate payloads in subsea installations. Vessel motions are decoupled from the subsea package...
Protecting Your Work: Balancing the Competing Interests of Ownership
Your firm has invested days, months�perhaps even years�in its latest project. Your staff have poured their thoughts, ideas, and insights into the creation of a bridge, building, overpass,...
A Stewart Platform Lunar Rover
A lunar version of the Robocrane is being developed at the Robot Systems Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to address the needs of NASA researchers....
A Comparison of Propulsion Systems for Space Exploration
There are three promising propulsion systems that might be used for space missions: chemical, direct nuclear, and nuclear electric. Selecting the best system for a mission involves comparing...
Nuclear Propulsion
In this paper, the possibilities and safety of nuclear propulsion will be discussed and explained. The main focus pertains to the efficiency and safety of this form of propulsion. Nuclear...
Science Operations and Engineering Impacts to Lunar Outpost Design
Recent work by scientists and engineers at the Johnson Space Center ha led to a better understanding of the requirements and interfaces needed at an initial lunar outpost to enable scientific...
Surface Payload Unloading and Deployment Options for a Lunar Return Mission
While planetary exploration studies have focuses on many areas that are critical to mission success, such as landing space transportation vehicles on other planets, a preferred method...
Design and Testing of the NDBC Wave Processing Module
The U.S National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) has developed a new wave data acquisition and processing system, called the Wave Processing Module (WPM), using state-of-the-art technologies and...
A Novel Aerobrake Design for a Mars Lander
A flexible/inflatable aerobrake is proposed for delivering small payloads to Mars as an alternative to propulsion landing. Some results that demonstrate feasibility are presented....
Back to the Future: A Saturn V-Based Low Earth Orbital Transportation Node
The Space Exploration Initiative requires a heavy-lift launch vehicle to succeed. Reviving the Saturn V represents the best option for regaining heavy-lift. Utilizing the Saturn V's two-stage-to-orbit...
Orbital Construction of a NTR Mars Transfer Vehicle
This paper examines a reference Nuclear Thermal Mars Transfer Vehicle (NTMTV) in terms of on-orbit construction. The identification of subassemblies, payload manifesting, on-orbit connections,...
On-Orbit Robotics Assembly and Operations of a Nuclear Mars Transfer System
This paper presents an operations concept and associated scenarios for assembly in Earth orbit of a manned Mars vehicle. The assembly of a Rockwell-Spar reference spacecraft configuration...
ESCAPE: Small Payload Strategies
The Extreme ultraviolet Solar Contained Autonomous Payload Experiment (ESCAPE) is a small payload scheduled to fly on the Space Shuttle in April 1992. This payload has been developed at...
Characterization of Emplacement Strategies for Lunar and Mars Missions
In planning missions to the Moon and Mars, a significant activity will be the delivery of the crew and necessary equipment to the planet surface to enable the mission objectives. Because...
A Pilot Sounding Rocket Project Utilizing Student Labor
Space science experiments have been accomplished by suborbital, sounding rockets for over forty years. This inexpensive, reliable, and unique launch platform provides the basis of a state-wide...
Certification Challenges in the Development of an Innovative High Payload Capacity Spent Fuel Transportation Cask
The design approach and certification strategy used in the development of an innovative transportation cask for legal weight truck shipments of spent nuclear fuel is presented. The proposed...
Space Station Freedom Attached Payloads and Commercialization
The Space Station Freedom (SSF) accommodates a class of payloads called external attached payloads. These payloads are attached to the main truss of Space Station Freedom through the use...
Clearing Space Debris Using Energetic Materials
Space debris is growing at an alarming rate. It consists not only of old, unusable payloads but also aluminum oxide combustion products of various space delivery systems and small fragments...
An Overview of the Ease/Access Space Construction Demonstration
With the successful completion of the EASE/ACCESS demonstration, NASA took a significant step toward understanding construction in space. These experiments were performed on November 29...
Nuclear Electric Propulsion for Near-Term Space Missions
Potential uses of nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) for earth-orbit, lunar, and martian missions are analyzed. NEP systems allow a higher payload mass fraction than chemical systems. NEP...
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