Inflatable robotics for planetary applications
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Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Wu, J. J..
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A novel, robotics vehicle is presently under development at JPL that will have the capacity to fly, drive and float, as well as conduct submersible studies on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
The Mars In-Situ Propellant Production (ISPP) Precursor (MIP) experiment package is planned for inclusion on the Mars 2001 Lander. This experiment package consists of five experiments whose purpose is to demonstrate the performance of various ISPP processes in-situ on Mars. The demonstrated ability to produce propellant for Mars Return Vehicles (MRV) is considered to be a necessary precursor to any future manned mission to Mars. The Mars Atmosphere Acquisition and Compression (MAAC) experiment is part of the MIP package and is intended to demonstrate that, by using a sorption compressor, CO2 can be preferentially adsorbed at about 6 torr from the Mars atmosphere during the night when the bed is cold then subsequently compressed to about 800 torr by heating the bed and desorbing CO2 during the day. The compressed CO2 produced by MAAC is to be fed to the Oxygen Generator Subsystem (OGS) where pure oxygen is to be produced. Pure oxygen is considered to be one of the primary constituents of a future manned MRV propellant system. A MAAC Development Unit (DU) has been fabricated and tested at JPL. The MAAC DU consists of 1) a sorption bed filled with a CO2 selective sorbent material, 2) a purge system to be used to periodically backflush non-CO2 gases from the sorbent bed during adsorption, 3) a JPL-developed gas-gap heat switch that allows heat transfer to a radiator for heat removal from the bed during the night time adsorption period and that impedes heat transfer during the day time desorption period, 4) a radiator to radiate heat to the night sky during the adsorption period, 5) a set of three isolation valves and connecting tubing. 6) two pressure transducers and several thermocouples for monitoring the MAAC operating conditions, and command and data handling electronics. This paper will describe the operational theory and the configuration of the MAAC DU and will discuss the current status of the MAAC experiment development including some selected results of performance testing that has been completed prior to the ISRU III meeting.
The Mars In-Situ Propellant Production (ISPP) Precursor (MIP) experiment package is planned for inclusion on the Mars 2001 Lander. This experiment package consists of five experiments whose purpose is to demonstrate the performance of various ISPP processes in-situ on Mars. The demonstrated ability to produce propellant for Mars Return Vehicles (MRV) is considered to be a necessary precursor to any future manned mission to Mars. The Mars Atmosphere Acquisition and Compression (MAAC) experiment is part of the MIP package and is intended to demonstrate that, by using a sorption compressor, CO2 can be preferentially adsorbed at about 6 torr from the Mars atmosphere during the night when the bed is cold then subsequently compressed to about 800 torr by heating the bed and desorbing C02 during the day. The compressed CO2 produced by MAAC is to be fed to the Oxygen Generator Subsystem (OGS) where pure oxygen is to be produced. Pure oxygen is considered to be one of the primary constituents of a future manned MRV propellant system. A MAAC Development Unit (DU) has been fabricated and tested at JPL. The MAAC DU consists of: (1) a sorption bed filled with a CO2 selective sorbent material; (2) a purge system to be used to periodically backflush non-CO2 gases from the sorbent bed during adsorption; (3) a JPL-developed gas-gap heat switch that allows heat transfer to a radiator for heat removal from the bed during the night time adsorption period and that impedes heat transfer during the day time desorption period; (4) a radiator to radiate heat to the night sky during the adsorption period; (5) a set of three isolation valves and connecting tubing; (6) two pressure transducers and several thermocouples for monitoring the MAAC operating conditions, and command and data handling electronics. This paper will describe the operational theory and the configuration of the MAAC DU and will discuss the current status of the MAAC experiment development including some selected results of performance testing that has been completed prior to the ISRU III meeting.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
An 80-K Joule-Thomson (J-T) cooling system designed for the Probe Infrared Laser Spectrometer (PIRLS) proposed for the Huygens Titan Probe of the Cassini Saturn orbiter mission is presented. The cryogenic cooling requirements of the PIRLS instrument are listed, and the cooler system design including details of a J-T cryostat, cold head, and dewar design is described along with the results of a thermal modeling effort and lab cooler performance testing. It is shown that by using active feedback temperature control of the cold head in combination with the self-regulating action of the J-T cryostat, a temperature stability of less than 0.1 mK/min is achieved by the cooler weighting 1.8 kg.
Powder synthesis by thermally induced vapor phase reactions is described. The powder generated by this technique consists of spherical, nonagglomerated particles of high purity. The particles are uniform in size, in the 0.1-0.2-micron size range. Most of the particles are crystalline spheres. A small fraction of the spheres are amorphous. Chain agglomerates account for less than 1 percent of the spherules.
Experimental studies were conducted to investigate the flow and the performance of thrust augmenting ejectors for flight Mach numbers in the range of 0.5 to 0.8, primary air stagnation pressures up to 107 psig (738 kPa), and primary air stagnation temperatures up to 1250 F (677 C). The experiment verified the existence of the second solution ejector flow, where the flow after complete mixing is supersonic. Thrust augmentation in excess of 1.2 was demonstrated for both hot and cold primary jets. The experimental ejector performed better than the corresponding theoretical optimal first solution ejector, where the mixed flow is subsonic. Further studies are required to realize the full potential of the second solution ejector. The research program was started by the Flight Dynamics Research Corporation (FDRC) to investigate the characteristic of a high speed ejector which augments thrust of a jet at high flight speeds.
An aerosol reactor system was developed in which large particles of silicon can be grown by silane pyrolysis. To grow particles to sizes larger than one micron, vapor deposition must be used to grow a relatively small number of seed particles. Suppression of nucleation is achieved by limiting the rate of gas phase chemical reactions such that the condensible products of the gas phase chemical reactions diffuse to the surface of the seed particles as rapidly as they are produced. This prevents high degrees of supersaturation and runaway nucleation during the growth process. Particles on the order of 10 microns were grown repeatedly with the present aersol reactor. The nucleation controlled aerosol reactor is, therefore, a suitable system for the production of powders that can readily be separated from the gas by aerodynamic means.
An aerosol reactor for the growth of large silicon particles by silane pyrolysis was shown to demonstrate the following properties: (1) generate seed particles by pyrolysis of a small amount of silane; (2) mix seed aerosol with primary silane flow, limiting number concentration such that the amount of silane is sufficient to grow the desired size of particles from the seed; and (3) react the silane at a rate which is controlled such that the seed particles scavenge the condensible vapors rapidly enough to inhibit further nucleation.
A single ejector equipped with only one vector control jet and a diffuser flap was installed close to the leading edge of the strake of a one-fifth scale, semi-span model of the aircraft, without wing, canard, or tail surface. Tests of the system at a nozzle pressure ratio of 1.24 indicated a thrust augmentation of 1.92 and a thrust in the flight direction of about 12% of the total thrust under static conditions. An ejector stall occured at a ratio of tunnel dynamic pressure to nozzle gage pressure of about 0.008. Ejector stall speed can be delayed by using a boundary layer control jet at the front inlet lip of the ejector.
Attached primary nozzles were developed to replace the detached nozzles of jet-diffuser ejectors. Slotted primary nozzles located at the inlet lip and injecting fluid normal to the thrust axis, and rotating the fluid into the thrust direction using the Coanda Effect were investigated. Experiments indicated excessive skin friction or momentum cancellation due to impingement of opposing jets resulted in performance degradation. This indicated a desirability for location and orientation of the injection point at positions removed from the immediate vicinity of the inlet surface, and at an acute angle with respect to the thrust axis. Various nozzle designs were tested over a range of positions and orientations. The problems of aircraft integration of the ejector, and internal and external nozzle losses were also considered and a geometry for the attached nozzles was selected. The effect of leaks, protrusions, and asymmetries in the ejector surfaces was examined. The results indicated a relative insensitivity to all surface irregularities, except for large protrusions at the throat of the ejector.
The paper considers thrust augmenting ejectors in which the processes of mixing and diffusion are partly carried out downstream of the ejector solid surfaces. A jet sheet surrounding the periphery of a widely diverging diffuser prevents separation and forms a gaseous, curved surface to provide effective diffuser ratio and additional length for mixing of primary and induced flows. Three-dimensional potential flow methods achieved a large reduction in the length of the associated solid surface; primary nozzle design further reduced the volume required by the jet-diffuser ejectors, resulting in thrust augmentation in excess of two, and an overall length of about 2 1/2 times the throat width.
Some aspects of ejector design and application, including, three dimensional effects and cross flow effects are presented.
A thermomechanical investigation of the sliding contact problem encountered in high-energy disk brakes is described. The analysis includes a modelling, using the finite element method of the thermoelastic instabilities that cause transient changes in contact area to occur on the friction surface. In order to include the effect of wear at the contact surface, a wear criterion is proposed that results in the prediction of wear rates for disk brakes that are quite close to experimentally determined wear rates. The thermal analysis shows that the transient temperature distribution in a disk brake assembly can be determined more accurately by use of this thermomechanical analysis than by a more conventional analysis that assumes constant contact conditions. It also shows that lower, more desirable, temperatures in disk brakes can be attained by increasing the volume, the thermal conductivity, and, especially, the heat capacity of the brake components.