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Commercial aviation relies almost entirely on subsonic fixed wing aircraft to constantly move people and goods from one place to another across the globe. While air travel is an effective means of transportation providing an unmatched combination of speed and range, future subsonic aircraft must improve substantially to meet efficiency and environmental targets. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) Project addresses the comprehensive challenge of enabling revolutionary energy-efficiency improvements in subsonic transport aircraft combined with dramatic reductions in harmful emissions and perceived noise to facilitate sustained growth of the air transportation system. Advanced technologies, and the development of unconventional aircraft systems, offer the potential to achieve these improvements.

Solar proton events (SPEs) represent the single-most significant source of acute radiation exposure during space missions. Historically, an exponential in rigidity (particle momentum) fit has been used to express the SPE energy spectrum using GOES data up to 100 MeV. More recently, researchers have found that a Weibull fit better represents the energy spectrum up to 1000 MeV (1 GeV). In addition, the availability of SPE data extending up to several GeV has been incorporated in analyses to obtain a more complete and accurate energy spectrum representation. In this paper we discuss the major SPEs that have occurred over the past five solar cycles (~50+ years) in detail - in particular, Aug 1972 and Sept & Oct 1989 SPEs. Using a high-energy particle transport/dose code, radiation exposure estimates are presented for various thicknesses of aluminum. The effects on humans and spacecraft systems are also discussed in detail.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) launched on August 12, 2005 and began aerobraking at Mars in March 2006. In order to save propellant, MRO used aerobraking to modify the initial orbit at Mars. The spacecraft passed through the atmosphere briefly on each orbit; during each pass the spacecraft was slowed by atmospheric drag, thus lowering the orbit apoapsis. The largest area on the spacecraft, most affected by aeroheating, was the solar arrays. A thermal analysis of the solar arrays was conducted at NASA Langley Research Center to simulate their performance throughout the entire roughly 6-month period of aerobraking. A companion paper describes the development of this thermal model. This model has been correlated against many sets of flight data. Several maneuvers were performed during the cruise to Mars, such as thruster calibrations, which involve large abrupt changes in the spacecraft orientation relative to the sun.

A new Green’s function code (GRNTRN) capable of simulating HZE ions with either laboratory or space boundary conditions is currently under development. The computational model consists of combinations of physical perturbation expansions based on the scales of atomic interaction, multiple scattering, and nuclear reactive processes with use of the Neumann-asymptotic expansions with non-perturbative corrections. The code contains energy loss due to straggling, nuclear attenuation, nuclear fragmentation with energy dispersion and downshifts. Recent publications have focused on code validation in the laboratory environment and have shown that the code predicts energy loss spectra accurately as measured by solid-state detectors in ion beam experiments. In this paper emphasis is placed on code validation with space boundary conditions.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are currently under development for NASA missions, earth sciences, aeronautics, the military, and commercial applications. The design of an all electric power and propulsion system for small UAVs was the focus of a detailed study. Currently, many of these small vehicles are powered by primary (nonrechargeable) lithium-based batteries. While this type of battery is capable of satisfying some of the mission needs, a secondary (rechargeable) battery power supply system that can provide the same functionality as the current system at the same or lower system mass and volume is desired. A study of commercially available secondary battery cell technologies that could provide the desired performance characteristics was performed.

The development of a Green’s function approach to ion transport greatly facilitates the modeling of laboratory radiation environments and allows for the direct testing of transport approximations of material transmission properties. Using this approach radiation investigators at the NASA Langley Research Center have established that simple solutions can be found for HZE ions by ignoring nuclear energy downshifts and dispersion. Such solutions were found to be supported by experimental evidence with HZE ion beams when multiple scattering was added. Lacking from the prior solutions were range and energy straggling and energy downshift and dispersion associated with nuclear events. In a more recent publication it was shown how these effects can be incorporated into the multiple fragmentation perturbation series. Analytical approximations for the first two perturbation terms were presented and the third term was evaluated numerically.

Prior studies have been performed where basic fabric lay-ups of the current Shuttle spacesuit were tested for radiation shielding capabilities. It was found that the fabric portions of the suit give far less protection from radiation than previously estimated. This is due to the porosity and non-uniformity of the fabrics and LCVG components. These findings were incorporated into the spacesuit model developed at NASA Langley Research Center to estimate exposures for mission planning and evaluation of safety during radiation field disturbance. Overall material transmission properties were also less than optimal. In order to evaluate the radiation protection characteristics of some proposed new spacesuit materials, fifteen test target combinations of current baseline and new proposed spacesuit materials were exposed to a low-energy proton beam at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Each target combination contained all of the necessary spacesuit layers, i.e.

This study addresses the possibility of beaming laser power from synchronous lunar orbits (the L1 and L2 LaGrange points) to a manned long-range lunar rover. The rover and two versions of a satellite system (one powered by a nuclear reactor; the other by photovoltaics) are described in terms of their masses, geometry, power needs, mission and technological capabilities. Laser beam power is generated by a laser diode array in the satellite and converted to 30 kW of electrical power at the rover. Present technological capabilities, with some extrapolation to near future capabilities, are used in the descriptions. The advantages of the two satellite/rover systems over other such systems and over rovers with on-board power are discussed along with the possibility of enabling other missions.

In recent years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in cooperation with U.S. industry has performed flight and wind-tunnel investigations aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of obtaining significant amounts of laminar boundary-layer flow at moderate Reynolds numbers on the swept-back wings of commercial transport aircraft. Significant local drag reductions have been recorded with the use of a hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) concept. In this paper, we address the potential application of HLFC to the external surface of an advanced, high bypass ratio turbofan engine nacelle with a wetted area which approaches 15 percent of the wing total wetted area of future commercial transports. A pressure distribution compatible with HLFC is specified and the corresponding nacelle geometry is computed utilizing a predictor/corrector design method. Linear stability calculations are conducted to provide predictions of the extent of the laminar boundary layer.

Recently, the concept of the application of hybrid laminar flow to modern commercial transport aircraft was successfully flight tested on a Boeing 757 aircraft. In this limited demonstration, in which only part of the upper surface of the swept wing was designed for the attainment of laminar flow, significant local drag reduction was measured. This paper addresses the potential application of this technology to laminarize the external surface of large, modern turbofan engine nacelles which may comprise as much as 5-10 percent of the total wetted area of future commercial transports. A hybrid-laminar-fiow-control (HLFC) pressure distribution is specified and the corresponding nacelle geometry is computed utilizing a predictor/corrector design method. Linear stability calculations are conducted to provide predictions of the extent of the laminar boundary layer. Performance studies are presented to determine potential benefits in terms of reduced fuel consumption.

Design data are presented for a class of high-performance single-engine business airplanes. The design objectives include a cruise speed of 300 knots, a cruise altitude of 10,700 m (35,000 ft), a cruise payload of six passengers (including crew and baggage), and a no-reserves cruise range of 1300 n.mi. Two unconventional aerodynamic technologies were evaluated: the individual and combined effects of cruise-matched wing loading and of a natural laminar flow airfoil were analyzed. The tradeoff data presented illustrate the ranges of wing geometries, propulsion requirements, airplane weights, and aerodynamic characteristics which are necessary to meet the design objectives. very large design and performance improvements resulted from use of the aerodynamic technologies evaluated. Is is shown that the potential exists for achieving more than 200-percent greater fuel efficiency than is achieved by current airplanes capable of similar cruise speeds, payloads, and ranges.

Fuel costs comprise a major portion of air transport operating costs. Thus, energy efficiency is an essential design goal for future transport aircraft. Advanced composite structures, advanced wing geometries, and active control systems all promise substantial benefits in fuel efficiency and direct operating cost for derivative and new aircraft introduced by 1985. Technology for maintenance of a laminar boundary layer in cruise offers great benefits in fuel efficiency and direct operating cost and may be ready for application to transports introduced in the 1990's. NASA and the air transport industry are cooperating in a comprehensive Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program to expedite the introduction of these advanced technologies into production aircraft.

Current aircraft operating problems that must be alleviated for future high-density terminal areas are safety, dependence on weather, congestion, energy conservation, noise, and atmospheric pollution. The MLS under development by FAA provides increased capabilities over the current ILS. It is, however, necessary and urgent to develop the airborne system's capability to take maximum advantage of the MLS capabilities in order to solve the terminal area problems previously mentioned. A major limiting factor in longitudinal spacing for capacity increase is the trailing vortex hazard. Promising methods for causing early dissipation of the vortices are being explored. Also, flight procedures for avoiding the hazard will be explored.