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Tech Bytes Summer 2019

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Tech Bytes Summer 2019 Research and Technology This edition of Techbytes features the awardees from FY18 STMD’s Center Innovation Fund (CIF) and Ames funded in-house awards for science and Funding technology via the Internal Research and Devel- Center Innovation Fund (CIF) opment (IRAD) and Ames Research Innovation The purpose of the CIF is to stimulate Award (ARIA). I’m also providing an update to the and encourage creativity, innovation, agency’s Space Technology roadmaps and an up- and collaboration within Ames and be- dated NASA Technology taxonomy from the Office tween Ames and other NASA Centers of the Chief Technologist (OCT), summarized here: in addressing the technology needs of NASA and the Nation. CIF focuses on technology investments that are lon- In 2012, NASA developed the initial edition of the ger-term, higher-risk, high-impact, and agency’s Technology Area Breakdown Structure not necessarily tied to any specific fu- (TABS) as part of its original Space Technology ture mission opportunity. Roadmaps. TABS served as a valuable tool across the agency and among NASA’s partners in industry, Ames Research Innovation academia, and international space agencies to de- Award (ARIA) scribe the areas where NASA had conducted tech- The Ames Research Innovation Award nology development activities. In 2015 the agency (ARIA) promotes the vitality of Ames released an update to TABS which, among other through strategic investments in scien- updates, expanded its scope to also include NA- tific research, capabilities, and people. It encourages the development of new, SA’s aeronautics technology areas. In continuation high- risk/high return investigations that of this evolution the Office of the Chief Technologist stress innovation, exploration, and/or (OCT) has led the development of the 2020 update interdisciplinary work. ARIA focuses on Ames’ emerging technologies that takes the lessons learned from past editions. innovative or basic scientific research in • The updated 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy, areas that are relevant to Agency and or technology “dictionary”, takes a more technol- Center goals, without necessarily being tied to any specific future mission oppor- ogy discipline based approach that also realigns tunity. ARIA proposals must be research like-technologies no matter their application within oriented and are considered seedling bytes the NASA mission portfolio. This tool is meant to funding for innovative/disruptive re- serve as a common technology discipline-based search that will enable next generation communication tool across the agency and with science and research. tech its partners in other government agencies, aca- demia, industry, and across the world. In order to Internal Research and ensure the Taxonomy is of the highest quality and Development (IRAD) fully covers the wide breadth of NASA technologies The IRAD develops strategic techni- OCT has been conducting a thorough review pro- cal capabilities in support of the Cen- ter competencies, and thereby enables cess. The recently completed internal NASA review science, technology, and engineering will now be followed by a public comment period efforts for supporting future Agency in which we invite technologists around the world missions. The advances in science and to provide feedback on the Taxonomy. This public technology and in business capabilities comment period will be announced in early May via expected through this program will help a FedBizOpps.gov special notice. make Ames more competitive, provide opportunities for risk reduction and/or increased cost effectiveness, and ini- - Harry Partridge tiate potentially transformational solu- tions to the most challenging mission-re- lated problems. ABOUT THE COVER Cover background image design by Miki Huynh. tech bytes page 1 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/cct Research and Technology CIF Funding CIF Development of Lightweight Mobility Developing Cryogenic Heat Exchangers System for Passive Tensegrity Landers for Selective Cabin Air Separation PI: Adrian Agogino PI: Grace Belanciko Tensegrity robots can be light-weight, collapsible and highly capable Improvements to the state-of-the-art CO2 removal system are critical making them an enabling technology for future low-cost planetary for future deep space missions returning to the Moon or Mars. The missions. This CIF project provided advancements that turned pre- CO2 Deposition system generates a cold surface to selectively depos- viously static tensegrity structures into active robots, allowing for it CO2 from air. This CIF project vastly improved the cold surface “fin- a large collection of mobile structures that are applicable of a wide head” design of the system. The most sensitive aspect of the system range of missions. It significantly reduced the time in production and is the power requirement, so efficient collection of CO2 ice via the fin- successfully designed and tested three tensegrity robotic configura- head is crucial. New designs that incorporated forked fins and helical tions. Through an innovative use of traction pulleys, the previous stat- twists to add surface area and better direct flow were 3D-printed in ic structures were turned a copper alloy. The finheads were also modeled to better predict the into actuated robots with- effect of the design on system performance. out significantly chang- ing the structure. Robotic hardware tests achieved their mobility and robust- ness goals, and control algorithms were devel- oped for a more complex robot than had been pre- viously tested. CO2 ice thickness on cold surface after 2.5min of flow (left), ppm CO2 in Ames’ emerging technologies Six motors were added to Tensegrity design via a set of traction pulleys, air flowing past the cold surface (right). allowing for effective actuation of an otherwise static structure. • CIF CIF Integrated Focal Plane Waveform Development of an X-ray Tube for bytes Estimating for Space Mission Coronagraphs Planetary Instruments PI: Ruslan Belikov PI: David Blake tech This CIF project demonstrated a new method for wavefront estimation This CIF project developed flight qualifiable X-ray tubes that contrib- as a part of an integrated high-contrast imaging coronagraph. Specif- ute significantly to the success of a DALI proposal for an XRD/XRF ically, an adaptive wavefront correction system was developed at the instrument for lunar regolith analysis. The specific design of the X-ray ACE Coronagraph Laboratory, which measures and corrects, in real tube impacts technological capabilities that do not presently exist. time, the dynamically changing optical aberrations caused by long For example, the bipolar design of the tube (-15 KV cathode +35 KV term mechanical and thermal instability of the system - critical for di- anode) enables the development of a 50 KV accelerating potential in rect imaging missions. The implemented focal plane based wavefront a High Voltage Power Supply that is rated for 35 KV capacity. The de- sensing provides an accurate coronagraph model sufficient both for sign of the cathode focusing grid allows for electronic beam blanking coronagraphic wavefront control (essentially turning the X-ray beam on and off) so that a simpler non algorithms and adaptive wavefront frame-transfer CCD design can be used in our prototype instruments correction. Unexpectedly, the coro- (XTRA, MapX, CheMin-X). nagraphic suppression of starlight is improved by almost a factor of 10 when combined with the technology developed here. Top: The Lyot plane phase and amplitude measurements performed with the “official” flat DM surface and with a fiducial pattern applied to the DM. Bottom: Restoration of dynamically Left: Fabrication of the 20mm housing RTW tube “NASA specs” changing (artificially with the DM) prototype; Right: Instrumented test of a 40mm housing RTW tube using coronagraph aberrations. Spellman HVPS and control board. tech bytes http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/cct page 2 CIF CIF Collective Robotic Assembly of Discrete Autonomous Proprioceptive Terrain Lattice Elements (CRADLE) Detection for Compliant Rovers PI: Kenneth Cheung PI: Terry Fong This CIF enables cost-effective manufacturing of very large space This CIF project explored several methods and sensor configura- structures, which enable higher performance for a variety of mis- tions to estimate terrain properties and robot’s state. The new proto- sions, such as communication antennas and space telescopes, type sensors and algorithms that were developed increase the ability large surface area for energy collection, or habitats for long dis- of pseudo-soft and reconfigurable systems to detect properties of tance travel. Achieving the scale required for such systems is an their state and surroundings. Prototypes include cable feed and ten- ongoing challenge for space exploration and operations. Deploy- sion sensors, soft and deformable contact sensors, a classification able structures are limited to the mass and volume constraints of algorithm to detect ground contact, an algorithm to improve cable a single launch vehicle. Alternatively, on orbit construction can by- tension measurement, and a “long short-term memory” (LSTM) re- pass launch load limits by incrementally building structures larger current neural network algorithm to detect terrain type using inertial than those that can be accommodated in a single launch. However, measurement data. The results of this CIF can be infused in other this does not currently take advantage of the recent renaissance robot systems (e.g., cable-driven robots, planetary rovers,
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