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Anderson, R. C.

Publications and source records attributed to Anderson, R. C..

At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Lybia Montes: A Safe, Ancient Cratered Terrain, Mars Surveyor Landing Site at the Isidis Basin Rim

The Isidis basin rim may be key to understanding Mars' past with future lander missions: this area enables the mission objective to explore Mars' climatic and geologic history, including the search for liquid water and evidence of prior or extant life in ancient terrains. While two safe candidate landIng sites for Mars Pathfinder were identified in Isidis Planitia, and one is being pursued for the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, the region around Isidis Planitia. in contrast to Tharsis for example, has only been lightly studied. The advent of new high resolution data sets provides an opportunity to re-assess the geologic context of this Impact basin and its rim within the Martian geologic sequence as a candidate site for studying Mars' ancient cratered terrain and ancient hydrosphere. This reexamination is warranted by the various hypotheses that Isidis was once filled with ice or water.

Haldemann, A. F. C.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Lybia Montes: A Safe, Ancient Cratered Terrain, Mars Surveyor Landing Site at the Isidis Basin Rim

The Isidis basin rim may be key to understanding Mars' past with future lander missions: this area enables the mission objective to explore Mars' climatic and geologic history, including the search for liquid water and evidence of prior or extant life in ancient terrains. While two safe candidate landing sites for Mars Pathfinder were identified in Isidis Planitia, and one is being pursued for the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander [Crumpler: 3.4 N, 277.8 W], the region around Isidis Planitia, in contrast to Tharsis for example, has only been lightly studied. The advent of new high resolution data sets provides an opportunity to reassess the geologic context of this impact basin and its rim within the Martian geologic sequence as a candidate site for studying Mars' ancient cratered terrain and ancient hydrosphere. This reexamination is warranted by the various hypotheses that Isidis was once filled with ice or water.

Haldemann, A. F. C.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Mars Surveyor 2001 21-Sol Plan

The Mars Surveyor 2001 21-sol plan defines the baseline surface science mission. This success-oriented plan is designed to be conservative and demonstrates that the primary mission success for each instrument can be attained during the first 21 sols on the surface of Mars. The 21-sol plan is designed to meet all of the power and data volume constraints placed upon the payload by the lander and is developed by the Science Operations Working Group (SOWG). It is the intent of the mission that SOWG will form a Core Operations Team (COT) that will be responsible for taking this plan and producing conflict free sequences of science activities.

Anderson, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Rock Statistics at the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site, Roughness and Roving on Mars

Several rock counts have been carried out at the Mars Pathfinder landing site producing consistent statistics of rock coverage and size-frequency distributions. These rock statistics provide a primary element of "ground truth" for anchoring remote sensing information used to pick the Pathfinder, and future, landing sites. The observed rock population statistics should also be consistent with the emplacement and alteration processes postulated to govern the landing site landscape. The rock population databases can however be used in ways that go beyond the calculation of cumulative number and cumulative area distributions versus rock diameter and height. Since the spatial parameters measured to characterize each rock are determined with stereo image pairs, the rock database serves as a subset of the full landing site digital terrain model (DTM). Insofar as a rock count can be carried out in a speedier, albeit coarser, manner than the full DTM analysis, rock counting offers several operational and scientific products in the near term. Quantitative rock mapping adds further information to the geomorphic study of the landing site, and can also be used for rover traverse planning. Statistical analysis of the surface roughness using the rock count proxy DTM is sufficiently accurate when compared to the full DTM to compare with radar remote sensing roughness measures, and with rover traverse profiles.

Haldemann, A. F. C.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Optical Fuel Injector Patternation Measurements in Advanced Liquid-Fueled, High Pressure, Gas Turbine Combustors

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging and planar Mie scattering are used to examine the fuel distribution pattern (patternation) for advanced fuel injector concepts in kerosene burning, high pressure gas turbine combustors. Three fuel injector concepts for aerospace applications were investigated under a broad range of operating conditions. Fuel PLIF patternation results are contrasted with those obtained by planar Mie scattering. For one injector, further comparison is also made with data obtained through phase Doppler measurements. Differences in spray patterns for diverse conditions and fuel injector configurations are readily discernible. An examination of the data has shown that a direct determination of the fuel spray angle at realistic conditions is also possible. The results obtained in this study demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of these nonintrusive optical techniques for investigating fuel spray patternation under actual combustor conditions.

Locke, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Fuel Injector Patternation Evaluation in Advanced Liquid-Fueled, High Pressure, Gas Turbine Combustors, Using Nonintrusive Optical Diagnostic Techniques

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging and planar Mie scattering are used to examine the fuel distribution pattern (patternation) for advanced fuel injector concepts in kerosene burning, high pressure gas turbine combustors. Three diverse fuel injector concepts for aerospace applications were investigated under a broad range of operating conditions. Fuel PLIF patternation results are contrasted with those obtained by planar Mie scattering. Further comparison is also made for one injector with data obtained through phase Doppler measurements. Differences in spray patterns for diverse conditions and fuel injector configurations are readily discernible. An examination of the data has shown that a direct determination of the fuel spray angle at realistic conditions is also possible. The results obtained in this study demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of these nonintrusive optical techniques for investigating fuel spray patternation under actual combustor conditions.

Locke, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Warrego Valles and Other Candidate Sites of Local Hydrothermal Activity Within The Thaumasia Region, Mars

We have previously demonstrated for the Thaumasia region of Mars that: (1) valley formation peaked during the Noachian and declined substantially during the Hesperian and Amazonian Periods and (2) valleys, many of which form networking systems, largely occur near volcanoes, highly faulted terrains, and large impact craters of similar age, thus suggesting hydrothermal activity. In Tanaka et al, the various hypotheses for valley formation on Mars are presented, and a geologic explanation for valley erosion in the Thaumasia region is given that "best fits" the region's geographic and geologic datasets. That comprehensive GIS-based investigation suggests that hydrothermal and seismic activity were the primary causes of valley formation in the Thaumasia region; the data make widespread precipitation less likely as a major factor in valley formation, except perhaps during the Early Noachian, for which much of the geologic record has been destroyed. Based on the reconstruction of the stratigraphic, tectonic, volcanic, and erosional histories and the close association of valleys in time and space with Noachian to Early Hesperian volcanoes and rift systems and Hesperian to Early Amazonian impact craters less than 50 km in diameter, we propose 13 sites of hydrothermal activity within the Thaumasia region; these are the best examples of valleys associated with these geologic features, but there are other less pronounced correlations elsewhere in the region.

Dohm, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Imaging Fluorescent Combustion Species in Gas Turbine Flame Tubes: On Complexities in Real Systems

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) is used to visualize the flame structure via OH, NO, and fuel imaging in kerosene- burning gas turbine combustor flame tubes. When compared to simple gaseous hydrocarbon flames and hydrogen flames, flame tube testing complexities include spectral interferences from large fuel fragments, unknown turbulence interactions, high pressure operation, and the concomitant need for windows and remote operation. Complications of these and other factors as they apply to image analysis are considered. Because both OH and gas turbine engine fuels (commercial and military) can be excited and detected using OH transition lines, a narrowband and a broadband detection scheme are compared and the benefits and drawbacks of each method are examined.

Hicks, Y. R.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Two-Dimensional Imaging of OH in a Lean Burning High Pressure Combustor

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) images of OH have been obtained from an optically accessible, lean burning high pressure combustor burning Jet-A fuel. These images were obtained using various laser excitation lines of the OH A (reverse arrow) X (1,0) band for several fuel injector configurations with pressures ranging from 1013 kPa (10 atm) to 1419 kPa (14 atm). Non-uniformities in the combusting flow, attributed to differences in fuel injector configuration, are revealed by these images. Contributions attributable to fluorescent aromatic hydrocarbons and complex fuel chemistries are also not evident.

Locke, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Gravitational effects on planetary neutron flux spectra

The effects of gravity on the planetary neutron flux spectra for planet Mars, and the lifetime of the neutron, were investigated using a modified one-dimensional diffusion accelerated neutral-particle transport code, coupled with a multigroup cross-section library tailored specifically for Mars. The results showed the presence of a qualitatively new feature in planetary neutron leakage spectra in the form of a component of returning neutrons with kinetic energies less than the gravitational binding energy (0.132 eV for Mars). The net effect is an enhancement in flux at the lowest energies that is largest at and above the outermost layer of planetary matter.

Feldman, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Integrated exhaust gas analysis system for aircraft turbine engine component testing

An integrated exhaust gas analysis system was designed and installed in the hot-section facility at the Lewis Research Center. The system is designed to operate either manually or automatically and also to be operated from a remote station. The system measures oxygen, water vapor, total hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen. Two microprocessors control the system and the analyzers, collect data and process them into engineering units, and present the data to the facility computers and the system operator. Within the design of this system there are innovative concepts and procedures that are of general interest and application to other gas analysis tasks.

Summers, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Electron velocity distributions near interplantary shocks

Previous work on electron heating mechanisms operating at the supercritical earth's bow shock is extended to the generally lower Mach number interplanetary shocks. This is done by studying electron velocity distributions observed both upstream and downstream of interplanetary shocks observed by ISEE 3 between August 1978 and December 1979. It is found that perpendicular heating accompanied by little or no parallel heating occurs at the weaker shocks but that parallel heating is dominant for the stronger shocks. When perpendicular heating is dominant, downstream velocity distributions are for the most part Gaussian at low energies (core) and Lorentzian at high energies (halo). When parallel heating is dominant, however, these distributions are flat-topped at low energies, having power law extensions to higher energies. At the weaker shocks, the observations are consistent with electron heating resulting from conservation of the magnetic moment, whereas at the stronger shocks the heating is quite similar to that observed at the earth's bow shock.

Feldman, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Plasma regimes in the deep geomagnetic tail - ISEE 3

The spacecraft remained close to or within a previously unexplored part of the distant (60-220 earth radii) geomagnetic tail nearly continuously from January 1 to March 30, 1983. Analysis of the data reveals that all of the plasma regimes identified previously with near-earth measurements (plasma sheet, low-latitude boundary layer, plasma mantle, lobe, and magnetosheath) remain recognizable in the distant tail. These regimes, however, are found to be intermingled in a more chaotic fashion than near the earth. Within the plasma sheet at approximately 200 earth radii, typical flow velocities are about 500 km/s tailward, considerably higher than in the near-earth plasma sheet. Earthward flow within the plasma sheet is observed occasionally, indicating the temporary presence of a neutral line beyond 220 earth radii. Also found are strong bidirectional electron anisotropies throughout much of the distant plasma sheet, boundary layer, and magnetosheath.

Bame, S. J.↗