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Henderson, D. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Henderson, D. M..

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1977

Shuttle Program. Euler angles, quaternions, and transformation matrices working relationships

A brief mathematical development of the relationship between the Euler angles and the transformation matrix, the quaternion and the transformation matrix, and the Euler angles and the quaternion is presented. The analysis and equations presented apply directly to current space shuttle problems. The twelve three-axis Euler transformation matrices are given as functions of the Euler angles, the equations for the quaternion as a funtion of the Euler angles, and the Euler angles as a function of the transformation matrix elements.

Henderson, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Euler angles, quaternions, and transformation matrices for space shuttle analysis

Relationships between the Euler angles and the transformation matrix, the quaternion and the transformation matrix, and the Euler angles and the quaternion are analyzed, and equations developed are applied directly to current space shuttle problems. The twelve three-axis Euler transformation matrices as functions of the Euler angles, the equations for the quaternion as a function of the Euler angles, and the Euler angles as a function of the transformation matrix elements are included along with a group of utility subroutines to accomplish the Euler matrix, quaternion matrix, and Euler quaternion relationships.

Henderson, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

CO2 laser communication systems for near-earth space applications

Projections of the growth of earth-sensing systems for the latter half of the 1980's show a data-transmission requirement of 300 Mbit/s and above. The most efficient technique to return the data from a sensing satellite to a ground station is through a geosynchronous data relay satellite. A laser system is most attractive for the space-to-space link. A five-year program was conducted which has shown the basic technical feasibility of accomplishing this link with a CO2 laser system operating at a wavelength near 10 microns. The system uses a mercury-cadmium-telluride infrared mixer cooled to approximately 100 K by a radiative cooler. The laser local oscillator and coupling-modulated laser transmitter use conductively cooled beryllium oxide construction. The optical antenna for transmission and reception has a gain of nominally 92 dB with a 3-dB beamwidth of 80 microrad. Tracking jitter is less than ten microrad, and signal acquisition occurs in less than 1 min. The receiver subsystem has a sensitivity of 10 to the -19th power W/Hz, accommodates a 300-Mbit/s data rate, and can track Doppler frequency variations over a + or - 700-MHz range.

Mcelroy, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Shuttle onboard IMU alignment methods

The current approach to the shuttle IMU alignment is based solely on the Apollo Deterministic Method. This method is simple, fast, reliable and provides an accurate estimate for the present cluster to mean of 1,950 transformation matrix. If four or more star sightings are available, the application of least squares analysis can be utilized. The least squares method offers the next level of sophistication to the IMU alignment solution. The least squares method studied shows that a more accurate estimate for the misalignment angles is computed, and the IMU drift rates are a free by-product of the analysis. Core storage requirements are considerably more; estimated 20 to 30 times the core required for the Apollo Deterministic Method. The least squares method offers an intermediate solution utilizing as much data that is available without a complete statistical analysis as in Kalman filtering.

Henderson, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Waveguide lasers with intracavity electrooptic modulators - Misalignment loss

Coupling from the EH(11) fundamental mode of a square, hollow bore waveguide laser to a square electrooptic modulator is treated. The misalignment loss that results from coupling of the laser fundamental mode into higher order modulator modes is calculated. Results are presented for loss from transverse displacement, angular tilt, and axial separation of the two elements. From these results, the alignment tolerances required to minimize loss for an intracavity modulator are found.

Henderson, D. M.↗