Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) thermal design
This paper will describe how the SIM thermal control designers have addressed some of these very challenging requirements.
SIM↗
Engineering topics
Aaron, K. M.
Publications and source records attributed to Aaron, K. M..
Reliability modeling for the Space Interferometry Mission
The Space Interferometry Mission in NASA's Origins Program is a 10m-baseline space-based Michelson interferometer scheduled for launch in 2009. This large instrument will measure the angles between stars to an accuracy of about one billionth of a degree of arc. This is an about two orders of magnitude over current astrometric instruments.
SIM reliability probability modeling↗
Space Interferometry Mission: recent instrument configuration developments
In this paper, we discuss the current reference design of the SIM instrument, and illustrate some of the tradeoffs that led to this arrangement.
SIM configuration↗
SIM vs. SOS: A Space Interferometry Trade Study
This study was undertaken at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to identify salient features of two competing instrument designs and to select the design that best meets the goals of the Space Interferometry Mission.
trade-study↗
Development of Structural and Thermal Elements for Critical Dynamics in Microgravity Experiment
We report on the design, fabrication and test of cryogenic sample cells and structures for the Critical Dynamics in Microgravity Experiment (DYNAMX), an experiment scheduled to fly on the space shuttle as part of the Microgravity Science Payload (MSP) in February 2001.
thermal↗
Hot wire/film behavior in low-temperature gases
Commercially available hot wires/films were used to measure the velocities of evaporated hydrogen or helium gas during cryogenic mixing experiments. Hot wires were found to be too delicate to use in this harsh environment. Hot films were rugged enough to use at cryogenic temperatures even though they failed after a number of thermal cycles. Since the hot films have small aspect ratios, 13.4 and 20, they are quite sensitive to the thermal loading, Tw/Tg, even with a correction for the conduction end loss. In general, although the increase of the Nusselt number with Reynolds number at low temperatures was similar to that at room temperature, there was also a pronounced variation with Tw/Tg over the large range of 1.2 to 12 investigated.
Kwack, E. Y.↗
Simulation and analysis of natural rain in a wind tunnel via digital image processing techniques
It is desired to simulate natural rain in a wind tunnel in order to investigate its influence on the aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft. Rain simulation nozzles have been developed and tested at JPL. Pulsed laser sheet illumination is used to photograph the droplets in the moving airstream. Digital image processing techniques are applied to these photographs for calculation of rain statistics to evaluate the performance of the nozzles. It is found that fixed hypodermic type nozzles inject too much water to simulate natural rain conditions. A modification uses two aerodynamic spinners to flex a tube in a pseudo-random fashion to distribute the water over a larger area.
Aaron, K. M.↗