Browsing by Author "Helvensteijn, Ben"
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Item Space Mission Trash Processing Operational and Technical Limits(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Lee, Jeffrey; Martin, Kevin; Feller, Jeffrey; Pace, Gregory; Parodi, Jurek; Trieu, Serena; Kashani, Ali; Helvensteijn, BenTrash management is a critical logistic and life support function for future long duration missions. The Heat Melt Compactor (HMC) has been developed to examine the operational processes and technical limits for space mission trash processing and a new effort for developing and validating concepts for Trash Compaction and Processing Systems (TCPS) is currently underway. The HMC and TCPS examine four important functions when processing trash: trash volume reduction, trash biological safening, trash stabilization and effluent management of water and volatile organics. The requirements for space mission trash processing are non-trivial given the constraints of a confined crew cabin with stringent air quality standards, liquid/vapor phase separation under micro-gravity, biological growth in discarded foodstuff, and power and cooling limits. This paper describes the general requirements of a TCPS, touches upon Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for modeling a TCPS, and notes lessons learned with the HMC.Item Spectral Mass Gauging of Liquids with Acoustic Waves(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Delzeit, Lance; Feller, Jeffrey; Helvensteijn, Ben; Kashani, Ali; Khasin, Michael; Osipov, ViatcheslavMass gauging of liquids in reduced and zero gravity is one of the key technologies required to enable the next step in NASA�s space exploration program. Current mass-gauging technologies rely on modeling the state of liquid in the reduced gravity conditions. Reliable modeling of liquid configuration in space application can be challenging. Recently, a model-free Spectral Mass Gauging (SMG) approach was proposed, based on probing the high-frequency asymptotics of natural acoustic modes of liquid-filled tanks. The foundation of the approach is Weyl�s Law which relates the spectral density of a resonator natural modes to the resonator�s volume. Weyl�s Law is independent of the shape of the liquid (the resonator), and thus can be used to infer the liquid volume in a reduced or zero gravity environment where the liquid configuration is unknown. An important potential application of SMG is gauging water in storage tanks in space. We report the current progress in exploring applicability of SMG to water storage tanks, both experimental and theoretical.Item Technical Risks Associated with Heat Melt Compaction Systems(2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2020-07-31) Lee, Jeffrey; Richardson, Tra-My Justine; Martin, Kevin; Young, Janine; Pace, Gregory; Parodi, Jurek; Trieu, Serena; Helvensteijn, Ben; Ewert, MichaelThe processing of trash and waste is a welcome and valuable addition to humans living and working in space. Besides the obvious desire to have a pleasant and productive habitation environment, trash management has many practical benefits for crew health, resource recovery, and volume reclamation through garbage compaction. The Trash Compaction and Processing System (TCPS), which is a NASA project to develop a trash processing system for long-duration spaceflight, is currently undergoing concept development with engineering prototype validation through two contracted efforts. The development efforts are being supported with activities associated with the NASA Generation 2 Heat Melt Compactor (HMC). The HMC is a facility that compacts trash, recovers water, heats the trash to eliminate biological activity, and manages gas and vapor effluents. The resulting residual processed trash is a compact tile that is free of biological growth and that can be used for augmenting radiation shields. The work being conducted with the HMC focuses on high risk technical areas with respect to operations, sub-system performance, and ISS effluent management interface requirements. This paper gives an overview of the technical risks and the current use of the HMC as a facility for reducing risk.