Transportation vehicle energy intensities. A joint DOT/NASA reference paper

A compilation of data on the energy consumption of air and ground vehicles is presented. The ratio BTU/ASM, British Thermal Units/Available Seat Mile, is used to express vehicle energy intensiveness, and related to the energy consumed directly in producing seat-mile or ton-mile productivity. Data is presented on passenger and freight vehicles which are in current use or which are about to enter service, and advanced vehicles which may be operational in the 1980's and beyond. For the advanced vehicles, an estimate is given of the date of initial operational service, and the performance characteristics. Other key considerations in interpreting energy intensiveness for a given mode are discussed, such as: load factors, operations, overhead energy consumption, and energy investments in new structure and equipment

Ready to Roll?: Overview of Challenges and Opportunities

Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) use combinations of vehicle fuels and technologies to reduce the use of petroleum in on-road vehicles. These include low-carbon fuels (sometimes blended with petroleum), electricity, and hybrid technologies combining internal combustion engines with electric motors. DVRPC's Ready to Roll? Report provides an overview for policymakers and citizens in the Greater Philadelphia region about the challenges and opportunities for expanded use of alternative fuel vehicles. The AFVs covered in this report include those most widely available today or likely to become available in the next 10 to 20 years

India And China Space Programs: From Genesis Of Space Technologies To Major Space Programs And What That Means For The Internati

The Indian and Chinese space programs have evolved into technologically advanced vehicles of national prestige and international competition for developed nations. The programs continue to evolve with impetus that India and China will have the same space capabilities as the United States with in the coming years. This will present new challenges to the international community in spheres civilian, to space and military applications and their residual benefits

Cellulosic Biofuels

Cellulosic biofuels are not as far off as often assumed. EESI's investigation of this issue found some pilot scale cellulosic biofuel production facilities already online and many more demonstration and commercial scale biorefineries under construction or on the drawing board. In fact, 55 cellulosic biorefineries are complete, under construction or in the planning stage in a total of 31 states across the country, adding up to an expected nameplate capacity of 629.5 million gallons per year (MGY) and a potential expansion to 995 MGY. Most of the demonstration and commercial scale facilities are scheduled to start operation in 2009 or 2010

Description of an aeronautical geometry conversion package: Wave-drag to Langley Wireframe Geometry Standard (LaWGS) to Supersonic Implicit Marching Potential (SIMP)

Documented is an aeronautical geometry conversion package which translates wave-drag geometry into the Langley Wireframe Geometry Standard (LaWGS) format and then into a format which is used by the Supersonic Implicit Marching Potential (SIMP) program. The programs described were developed by Computer Sciences Corporation for the Advanced Vehicles Division/Advanced Concepts Branch at NASA Langley Research Center. Included also are the input and output from a benchmark test case

STS Flight Experiments Database

In response to a request of the Space Station Task Force, a data base has been developed, utilizing experiment definitions from all NASA Centers, with emphasis on candidate STS flight experiments that relate to the development and operation of initial and growth versions of a Space Station. Experiments are also included for Shuttle enhancement, for servicing and operations of advanced vehicles such as OMV and OTV, for generic technology such as large structures, control and pointing, heat rejection, for life sciences and for physical sciences and applications. Criteria for selection activity are defined

R&D Process Management in Academic Environment

The mission of the Knowledge Center is to collect and provide information for partners belonging to the corporate body as well as to create new knowledge in the area of vehicle electronics and mechatronics. Consortium partners cover the whole chain of innovation from basic research to product development and marketing. The Knowledge Center positions itself as an interim body between the academic world and the market economy, bringing market and product centric issues into the system of higher education, moreover, promoting the utilization of the most recent vehicle technology in industry. Its goal is to become one of the most appreciable development and service centers in Europe in the area of vehicle electronics and mechatronics.

Ground-to-orbit laser propulsion: Advanced applications

Laser propulsion uses a large fixed laser to supply energy to heat an inert propellant in a rocket thruster. Such a system has two potential advantages: extreme simplicity of the thruster, and potentially high performance, particularly high exhaust velocity. By taking advantage of the simplicity of the thruster, it should be possible to launch small (10 to 1000 kg) payloads to orbit using roughly 1 MW of average laser power per kg of payload. The incremental cost of such launches would be of an order of $200/kg for the smallest systems, decreasing to essentially the cost of electricity to run the laser (a few times$10/kg) for larger systems. Although the individual payload size would be smaller, a laser launch system would be inherently high-volume, with the capacity to launch tens of thousands of payloads per year. Also, with high exhaust velocity, a laser launch system could launch payloads to high velocities - geosynchronous transfer, Earth escape, or beyond - at a relatively small premium over launches to LEO. The status of pulsed laser propulsion is briefly reviewed including proposals for advanced vehicles. Several applications appropriate to the early part of the next century and perhaps valuable well into the next millennium are discussed qualitatively: space habitat supply, deep space mission supply, nuclear waste disposal, and manned vehicle launching

Getting the Word Out: Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) Locator, Mapping Tools, and Outreach Activities

Presentation covers diesel exhaust fluid resources on the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center

Advanced Vehicles: Challenges for Transportation Systems Engineering

Automatic vehicles represent one of the most active research fields within engineering. Among transportation systems engineering research topics, we highlight the need to update and/or develop new mathematical models, computer science methods and electronic technologies that contribute to the development of more effective, accurate and robust tools. In order to develop more effective models, it is advisable to consider the opportunity to interact with other specialists from sectors different of the transportation systems engineering to provide solutions to problems that may arise during the modeling and further new points of view. The main goal of this paper is discussing the most likely positive and negative effects of mixed flow expected in the near future, analyzing the main classifying criteria such as ownership, on-board technologies (sensor), and reviewing the most effective tools already available for macroscopic analysis of multi vehicle type transportation systems