The frontier represented by the near solar system confronts humanity with intriguing challenges and opportunities. With the inception of the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) enterprise in 1995, NASA has acknowledged the opportunities and has accepted the very significant challenges. Microgravity Research in Support of Technologies for the Human Exploration and Development of Space and Planetary Bodies was commissioned by NASA to assist it in coordinating the scientific information relevant to anticipating, identifying, and solving the technical problems that must be addressed throughout the HEDS program over the coming decades. This report assesses scientific and related technological issues facing NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space endeavor, looking specifically at mission enabling and enhancing technologies which, for development, require an improved understanding of fluid and material behavior in a reduced gravity environment.

Annotation Leading researchers provide a cohesive treatment of the complex issues in high-speed propulsion, as well as introductions to the current capabilities for addressing several fundamental aspects of high-speed vehicle propulsion development. Includes more than 380 references, 290 figures and tables, and 185 equations.

Multiphase thermal systems have numerous applications in aerospace, heat-exchange, transport of contaminants in environmental systems, and energy transport and conversion systems. A reduced - or microgravity - environment provides an excellent tool for accurate study of the flow without the masking effects of gravity. This book presents for the first time a comprehensive coverage of all aspects of two-phase flow behaviour in the virtual absence of gravity.

This book presents the fundamentals of low gravity fluid dynamics and heat transfer. It investigates fluid behavior in low gravity environments such as those found in earth orbiting and space vehicles. The two major fluid phenomena affected by gravity (buoyancy and surface tension) are treated thoroughly from both the theoretical and applications points of view, and limitations of fluid and thermal responses to gravitational fields in space-based settings are clearly delineated. Summaries of all data available from low gravity flight and terrestrial experiments performed to date are also presented.

Annotation Since the invention of the V-2 rocket during World War II, combustion instabilities have been recognized as one of the most difficult problems in the development of liquid propellant rocket engines. This book is the first published in the United States on the subject since NASA's Liquid Rocket Combustion Instability (NASA SP-194) in 1972. In this book, experts cover four major subject areas: engine phenomenology and case studies, fundamental mechanisms of combustion instability, combustion instability analysis, and engine and component testing. Especially noteworthy is the inclusion of technical information from Russia and China--a first.