Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Price, H..
NASA's drive to reduce mission costs and accept the risk of incorporating innovative, high payoff technologies into its missions while simultaneously undertaking ever more difficult missions has sparked a greatly renewed interest in solar sails. This paper summarizes these on-going developments in solar sails.
Solar sails are an important propellantless propulsion technology that can enable missions requiring very high velocity changes and/or non-Keplerian orbits.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The Mars Sample Return mission plans to collect sets of samples from two different sites on Mars and return them to Earth in 2008.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This paper contains a fictional presentation of future space station operations.
Results of a study are presented suggesting that a Galileo Jupiter orbiting mission could be performed with a concentrated solar array power source. A baseline spacecraft design using concentrated arrays is given, and the overall spacecraft implications for attitude control, propulsion, power conditioning and the resultant spacecraft mass are examined. It is noted that while the concentrated array concept still requires extensive development effort, no insurmountable system level barriers preclude the use of a concentrated solar array on this difficult mission, with its stressing radiation environment, its lengthy periods of spacecraft shadowing as it passes behind Jupiter, and, finally, its large delta v burn required for orbital insertion.
Design criteria and technology requirements for a system of radar reference devices to be fixed to the surfaces of the inner planets are discussed. Offshoot applications include the use of radar corner reflectors as landing beacons on the planetary surfaces and some deep space applications that may yield a greatly enhanced knowledge of the gravitational and electromagnetic structure of the solar system. Passive retroreflectors with dimensions of about 4 meters and weighing about 10 kg are feasible for use with orbiting radar at Venus and Mars. Earth-based observation of passive reflectors, however, would require very large and complex structures to be delivered to the surfaces. For Earth-based measurements, surface transponders offer a distinct advantage in accuracy over passive reflectors. A conceptual design for a high temperature transponder is presented. The design appears feasible for the Venus surface using existing electronics and power components.
Fabric, made of nylon ripstop coated with Neoprene, provides expansive and contractive mobility along posterior surface of glove fingers allowing maximum digital dexterity and tactility.