Artist Conception of LRO Orbiting Moon
The flawless launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft took place on Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 5:32 pm from CapeCanaveral, FL. A day after the launch, the K-Band communications system including the Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA) onboard was turned on and the downlink was found to perform as expected.
The K-Band downlink can handle data rates as high as 100 Mbps, which is two orders of magnitude higher than the S-Band downlink. A few of the instruments onboard have been turned on and the spacecraft is now routinely sending telemetry data to Earth through the K-Band downlink.
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| Other Categories: Electron & Opto-Electronic-Devices
GRC is part of the winning Third Frontier proposal led by the Cleveland Clinic. The proposal is related to the application of shape memory alloys for both medical and aerospace applications. University of Toledo and Case Western Reserve University are other members of the team. The winners for the recent round of Ohio Third Frontier proposals were announced on May 27, 2009.
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| Other Categories: Advanced Metallics
Updated 5/2/2009: Mr. Tom Ratvasky has formally been asked by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to be on an icing panel for the recent Colgan Air Flight 3407 Buffalo, NY accident. He successfully met with key NTSB personnel on April 24, to review data from the flight data recorder and to discuss what to expect in the Public Hearing on May 12-14.
The agenda for the hearing has the icing discussion first and will be using a panel of four experts, of which Mr. Ratvasky is one of them, and will discuss icing effects on aircraft performance and ice contaminated tailplane stall. There is a pre-hearing conference at the NTSB (DC office) on May 6, to review agenda and to get more familiar with the hearing process. The Investigator-In-Charge has requested 100 copies of NASA’s Icing Training Combined Product as exhibits.
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| Other Categories: Icing
Several conceptual Venus mission studies have been formulated in the past two decades proposing Lander architectures that potentially extend Lander lifetime. Most recently, the Venus Science and Technology Definition Team was commissioned by NASA to study a Venus Flagship Mission potentially launching in the 2020-2025 time-frame.
Out of all possible technology development efforts, this report ranked the following three GRC technologies, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively: Venus environmental test chamber, Stirling power and cooling, and high temperature instrumentation. Plans are currently being formulated for accommodating these new GRC efforts. This work is supported by the Venus Power/Cooling Project.
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| Other Categories: Sensors & Electronics, Thermal Energy Conversion
April 18, 2009 – 12:26 pm
- An artist’s concept of a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus at the hydrogen fueling station located in downtown Cleveland at the Great Lakes Science Center. The fueling station will generate hydrogen from Lake Erie water for use in a RTA bus powered by fuel cells.
The press release, “NASA Leads Team in Establishing a Renewable Hydrogen Fueling Station,” was released on April 16, 2009. It covers GRC’s work in leading a team of industry and university partners in demonstrating a prototype of a commercial hydrogen fueling station that uses wind and solar power to produce hydrogen from water.
Excerpt of press release, 09-014:
CLEVELAND — NASA’s Glenn Research Center is leading a team of industry and university partners in demonstrating a prototype of a commercial hydrogen fueling station that uses wind and solar power to produce hydrogen from water. This initial installation will produce hydrogen from Lake Erie water to fuel a mass transit bus powered by fuel cells.
The demonstration, featuring a unique, high-capacity electrolyzer that separates water into its elemental components of hydrogen and oxygen, is part of an economic development program in the Cleveland area. Local workers will design and build the electrolyzer using commercially available components.
The Glenn-led collaboration will customize the electrolyzer for the prototype fueling station, and design the circuitry needed to use renewable energy sources to power the electrolyzer and fueling station.
“The project is more than a key technology demonstration,” said project team member Valerie Lyons, chief of Glenn’s Power and In-Space Propulsion Division. “It will be a great educational tool for the public and will serve as a catalyst to inspire new ideas and initiatives that can generate many new jobs and manufacturing opportunities in Ohio.”
Read the entire press release here.
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| Other Categories: Business Development & Partnership, Power & In-Space Propulsion, Press Release
January 10, 2009 – 1:25 pm
Patients and Astronauts Benefit from NEI-NASA Collaboration
A compact fiber-optic probe developed for the space program has now proven valuable for patients in the clinic as the first non-invasive early detection device for cataracts, the leading cause of vision loss worldwide.
Researchers from the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) collaborated to develop a simple, safe eye test for measuring a protein related to cataract formation. If subtle protein changes can be detected before a cataract develops, people may be able to reduce their cataract risk by making simple lifestyle changes, such as decreasing sun exposure, quitting smoking, stopping certain medications and controlling diabetes.
“By the time the eye’s lens appears cloudy from a cataract, it is too late to reverse or medically treat this process,” said Manuel B. Datiles III, M.D., NEI medical officer and lead author of the clinical study. “This technology can detect the earliest damage to lens proteins, triggering an early warning for cataract formation and blindness.”
The new device is based on a laser light technique called dynamic light scattering (DLS). It was initially developed to analyze the growth of protein crystals in a zero-gravity space environment. NASA’s Rafat R. Ansari, Ph.D., senior scientist at the John H. Glenn Research Center and co-author of the study, brought the technology’s possible clinical applications to the attention of NEI vision researchers when he learned that his father’s cataracts were caused by changes in lens proteins.
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| Other Categories: Bio Sciences & Technology, Business Development & Partnership, In the News
November 26, 2008 – 10:50 am
NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is investigating the best methods for monitoring a pilot’s brain activity to help them realize when their stress, fatigue or distraction levels are edging into dangerous territory. The studies are employing functional near-infrared spectroscopy, also know as fNIRS, and other imaging technology to measure blood flow in the brain’s cortex and the concentration of oxygen in the blood.
Researchers hope to improve the interaction between sophisticated avionics and the pilots that operate them, to improve decision-making and safety. Test subjects wear headgear fitted with optical or electrical sensors and sit in a cockpit simulator to validate fNIRS sensor data. The research is sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington.
Read more in Study Investigates Mental Overload in Pilots on the NASA Glenn Research Center website.
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| Other Categories: Aviation Safety, In the News
