Engineering topics

Long, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Long, A..

3 records

NASA NTRS2004

Mercury: First Spectra from 0.7 to 5.5 micron Support Low FeO and Feldspathic Composition

Spectral measurements of Mercury's surface indicate low or no FeO content as determined from the absence of absorptions centered near 0.9 and 1.2 m. These observations support previous observations. At the Moon these ab-sorption bands are ubiquitous at varying depths. We have obtained spectra from the Moon with the same instrumentation and telescope for comparison. The lunar results are shown in a companion abstract.

Sprague, A. L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Radiocarbon dating of open systems with bomb effect

The application of radiocarbon dating is extended to include systems that are slowly exchanging carbon with the atmosphere. Simple formulae are derived that relate the true age and the exchange rate of carbon to the apparent radiocarbon age. A radiocarbon age determination does not give a unique true age and exchange rate but determines a locus of values bounded by a minimum age and a minimum exchange rate. It is found that for radiocarbon ages as large as 10,000 years it is necessary to correct for the anthropogenic radiocarbon produced in the atmosphere by nuclear weapons testing. A one-term exponential approximation, with an e-folding time of 14.43 years, is used to model this effect and is shown to be accurate to within 3 percent for exchange time constants of 100 years and greater. The approach developed here is not specific to radiocarbon and can be applied to other radioisotopes in open systems.

Mckay, C. P.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Analysis of estimation algorithms for autonomous navigation with TDRSS data

Estimation techniques for onboard orbit determination using Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) data are investigated. The two user satellite orbits studied are similar to Landsat-D (near-circular, 700 kilometers altitude, near-polar inclination). The following estimation algorithms are identified as candidates for use in autonomous navigation: (1) the extended Kalman filter with process noise, (2) the EKF with consider parameters, (3) the sequential Kalman filter with consider parameters, and (4) the batch least-squares differential correction technique. The candidate estimators are evaluated with respect to their performance with both baseline and worst TDRSS measurement errors and tracking configurations.

Dunham, J.↗