A technique for measuring mesospheric densities with the X-15 research airplane.
Atmospheric density measurements for altitudes up to 74 km from X-15 flights using stagnation pressure method
ATMOSPHERIC DENSITY↗
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Venus upper atmosphere structure
Atmospheric densities of Venus were measured from the orbital decay of the Pioneer Venus from Dec. 9, 1978 to Aug. 7, 1979 near the 16 deg latitude between 140 and 190 km during the entire day. Comparative atmospheric densities on earth at 150 km are higher by a factor of 3.5 with only a 1% diurnal variation; an atmospheric composition, temperature, and density model based on the orbiter atmospheric drag (OAD) vertical structure is presented. The model shows that atomic oxygen is the major component in the Venus atmosphere above 145 km at night and above 160 km during the day with mixing ratios over 0.1 near 140 km; drag measurements indicate O concentrations from 1 x 10 to the 9th/cu cm in daytime to 3 x 10 to the 7th/cu cm at night. It is concluded that the neutral upper atmosphere of Venus is surprisingly insensitive to solar extreme UV variations and changes in the solar wind.
Keating, G. M.↗
Overview of the MEDLI Project
The Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) Project's objectives are to measure aerothermal environments, sub-surface heatshield material response, vehicle orientation, and atmospheric density for the atmospheric entry and descent phases of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry vehicle. The flight science objectives of MEDLI directly address the largest uncertainties in the ability to design and validate a robust Mars entry system, including aerothermal, aerodynamic and atmosphere models, and thermal protection system (TPS) design. The instrumentation suite will be installed in the heatshield of the MSL entry vehicle. The acquired data will support future Mars entry and aerocapture missions by providing measured atmospheric data to validate Mars atmosphere models and clarify the design margins for future Mars missions. MEDLI thermocouple and recession sensor data will significantly improve the understanding of aeroheating and TPS performance uncertainties for future missions. MEDLI pressure data will permit more accurate trajectory reconstruction, as well as separation of aerodynamic and atmospheric uncertainties in the hypersonic and supersonic regimes. This paper provides an overview of the project including the instrumentation design, system architecture, and expected measurement response.
Gazarik, Michael J.↗
Overview of the MEDLI Project
The Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) Project s objectives are to measure aerothermal environments, sub-surface heatshield material response, vehicle orientation, and atmospheric density for the atmospheric entry and descent phases of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry vehicle. The flight science objectives of MEDLI directly address the largest uncertainties in the ability to design and validate a robust Mars entry system, including aerothermal, aerodynamic and atmosphere models, and thermal protection system (TPS) design. The instrumentation suite will be installed in the heatshield of the MSL entry vehicle. The acquired data will support future Mars entry and aerocapture missions by providing measured atmospheric data to validate Mars atmosphere models and clarify the design margins for future Mars missions. MEDLI thermocouple and recession sensor data will significantly improve the understanding of aeroheating and TPS performance uncertainties for future missions. MEDLI pressure data will permit more accurate trajectory reconstruction, as well as separation of aerodynamic and atmospheric uncertainties in the hypersonic and supersonic regimes. This paper provides an overview of the project including the instrumentation design, system architecture, and expected measurement response.
Gazarik, Michael J.↗
Protecting spacecraft from atomic oxygen
Findings are reported from Space Shuttle flights STS-3, 4, 5, and 8 regarding the degradation of materials exposed to atomic oxygen in low earth orbit. Atomic oxygen, a strong oxidizing agent, is present in low concentrations at such altitudes, and a spacecraft can sweep up considerable volumes of it at orbital velocities of 5 miles/s, especially if mission lifetimes are measured in years or decades. Material loss has been found to be a function of the fluence (the number of oxygen atoms striking a unit area of surface over a given period); fluence is proportional to atmospheric density, orbital velocity, surface attitude relative to velocity vector, and duration of exposure. Atmospheric density depends first on altitude and second on the phase of the 11-year solar activity cycle. Metals, in the experiments, reacted less than nonmetals. Graphs and a table are included, permitting calculation of how far a surface of various organic materials will recede on a spacecraft in low earth orbit. The limited data base on atomic oxygen interactions with materials, using both Shuttle flight experiments and ground-based facilities must be augmented. Space Station design is imminent, and the understanding of such interactions is critical to the success of that design.
Leger, L. J.↗
The Effect of Air Density on Atmospheric Electric Fields Required for Lightning Initiation from a Long Airborne Object
The purpose of the work was to determine minimum atmospheric electric fields required for lightning initiation from an airborne vehicle at various altitudes up to 10 km. The problem was reduced to the determination of a condition for initiation of a viable positive leader from a conductive object in an ambient electric field. It was shown that, depending on air density and shape and dimensions of the object, critical atmospheric fields are governed by the condition for leader viability or that for corona onset. To establish quantitative criteria for reduced air densities, available observations of spark discharges in long laboratory gaps were analyzed, the effect of air density on leader velocity was discussed and evolution in time of the properties of plasma in the leader channel was numerically simulated. The results obtained were used to evaluate the effect of pressure on the quantitative relationships between the potential difference near the leader tip, leader current and its velocity; based on these relationships, criteria for steady development of a leader were determined for various air pressures. Atmospheric electric fields required for lightning initiation from rods and ellipsoidal objects of various dimensions were calculated at different air densities. It was shown that there is no simple way to extend critical ambient fields obtained for some given objects and pressures to other objects and pressures.
Bazelyan, E. M.↗
Dual falling sphere determination of density and transition flow parameter
A new approach to the analysis of falling sphere drag data is described in which the data from two trajectories through the same region of the atmosphere are analyzed simultaneously. The analysis provides important aerodynamic information which is used to obtain an improved value of atmospheric density. The technique is applied to a set of falling sphere data in which a sphere transition-flow parameter and atmospheric density results are obtained in the 80-120 km region from published data for falling spheres over Kwajalein. Another set of data for a falling sphere test over Wallops Island is also analyzed with comparable results.
Karr, G. R.↗
Upper Atmospheric Monitoring for Ares I-X Ascent Loads and Trajectory Evaluation on the Day-of-Launch
During the launch countdown of the Ares I-X test vehicle, engineers from Langley Research Center will use profiles of atmospheric density and winds in evaluating vehicle ascent loads and controllability. A schedule for the release of balloons to measure atmospheric density and winds has been developed by the Natural Environments Branch at Marshall Space Flight Center to help ensure timely evaluation of the vehicle ascent loads and controllability parameters and support a successful launch of the Ares I-X vehicle.
Roberts, Barry C.↗
Trajectory Software With Upper Atmosphere Model
The Trajectory Software Applications 6.0 for the Dec Alpha platform has an implementation of the Jacchia-Lineberry Upper Atmosphere Density Model used in the Mission Control Center for International Space Station support. Previous trajectory software required an upper atmosphere to support atmosphere drag calculations in the Mission Control Center. The Functional operation will differ depending on the end-use of the module. In general, the calling routine will use function-calling arguments to specify input to the processor. The atmosphere model will then compute and return atmospheric density at the time of interest.
Barrett, Charles↗
Marsbee - Swarm of Flapping Wing Flyers for Enhanced Mars Exploration: NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) - Phase I: Final Report
Mars exploration has received significant interest from academia, industry, government, and the general public. Despite continued interest, flying on Mars remains challenging, mainly due to the ultra-thin Martian atmospheric density. Although the gravitational acceleration on Mars is 38 percent of Earth's 9.8 meters per second squared, the Martian atmospheric density is only 1.3 percent of the air density on Earth. The aerodynamic forces are proportional to the ambient fluid density. Therefore, flying near the surface of Mars has been considered nearly impossible. The proposed mission architecture (Fig. 1) consists of a Mars rover (already existing) that serves as a mobile base for Marsbees - a deployable swarm of small bio-inspired flapping wing vehicles. In one ConOps scenario, each Marsbee would carry an integrated stereographic video camera and the swarm could construct a 3D topographic map of the local surface for rover path planning. These flying scouts would provide a "third-dimension" to the rover capabilities. In other scenarios, each part of the swarm of Marsbees could carry pressure and temperature sensors for atmospheric sampling, or small spectral analyzers for identification of mineral outcroppings. In each scenario, the rover acts as a recharging and deployment/return station and data and communication hub. Human exploration of Mars is one of the major objectives of NASA and commercial entities such as SpaceX and Boeing. The identified innovations unique to the bio-inspired flapping Marsbee provide viable multi-mode flying mobility for Martian atmospheric and terrain exploration. A swarm of Marsbees provides an enhanced reconfigurable Mars exploration system that is resilient to individual component failures. These Marsbees can carry sensors and wireless communication devices in combination with a Mars rover and helicopters. These enhanced sensing and information gathering abilities can contribute to the following NASA Mars mission objectives: i) "Determine the habitability of an environment", ii) "Obtain surface weather measurements to validate global atmospheric models", and iii) "Prepare for human exploration on Mars." Various commercial entities, e.g. SpaceX and Boeing, are investing in technologies to transport humans to Mars.
Kang, Chang-kwon↗
The measurement of O2 number density by absorption of Lyman alpha
Measurements of O2 number density obtained from rocket observations of the absorption profile of solar Lyman alpha (1216 A) have been compared with values derived from nearly simultaneous measurements of atmospheric density from other rocket techniques: grenades, falling sphere, and Pitot tube. All launches were from Wallops Island, Virginia. The atmospheric density derived from the absorption spectroscopy data is found to be about 20% less than that from the other techniques when a constant value of the absorption cross section of 1.0 times 10 to the minus 20th sq cm is used. The agreement is worse when the cross section is allowed to vary across the width of the solar line. The data in the altitude range 70-90 km are interpreted as showing that the effective value of the absorption cross section at Lyman alpha for O2 at 200 K and negligible pressure is about 0.8 times 10 to the minus 20th sq cm.
Smith, L. G.↗
The BMW analytic aerodynamic drag method for the Vinti satellite theory
In order to retain separability in the Vinti theory of earth satellite motion when a non conservative force such as air drag is considered, a set of variational equations for the orbital elements are introduced, and expressed as functions of the transverse, radial, and normal components of the nonconservative forces acting on the system. In particular, the atmospheric density profile is written as a fitted exponential function of the eccentric anomaly, which reproduces tabular values of static model atmospheric densities at all altitudes to within ninety-eight percent and simultaneously reduces the variational equations to indefinite integrals with closed form evaluations, whose limits are in terms of the eccentric anomaly. The values of the limits for any arbitrary time interval are obtained from the Vinti program. Results of the BMW (Bonavito, Mistretta, Watson) theory for the case of the intense air drag satellites San Marco-2 and Air Force Cannonball are given. These results indicate that the satellite ephemerides produced by the BMW theory in conjunction with the Vinti program are of very high accuracy. In addition, since the program is entirely analytic, several months of ephemerides can be obtained within a few seconds of computer time.
Watson, J. S.↗
Orbit Decay Prediction Sensitivity to Solar Flux Variations
It is well known that atmospheric density errors are the main source of uncertainty in orbit decay predictions. Perhaps less well known is the sensitivity of atmospheric density to solar activity. In this paper, we examine the sensitivity of orbit decay predictions to realistic daily variations in solar flux. We present results from analysis of orbit decay prediction for a variety of orbits, initial epochs, and predicted smooth flux profiles. For each set of initial conditions, we simulate multiple sample flux profiles with simulated daily variations, and compute the orbital re-entry date for comparison.
Naasz, Bo J.↗
Skimming through Saturn's Atmosphere: The Climax of the Cassini Grand Finale Mission
On September 15, 2017, the long-lived Cassini Mission to Saturn came to a triumphant end as the Cassini orbiter plunged deep into Saturn’s atmosphere, all the while transmitting engineering and science data back to Earth before Saturn’s atmosphere destroyed the orbiter. Even before the final plunge, the Cassini spacecraft became the first spacecraft to successfully skim Saturn’s atmosphere and collect atmospheric data during its final five complete orbits around Saturn (Rev-288 through Rev-292). During those five final orbits, the spacecraft was flying in Reaction Control Subsystem (RCS) control in order to maintain greater control authority. Therefore, by analyzing the thruster on-time flight data telemetered back to Earth after each orbit, atmospheric density estimates can be extracted. This paper proposes a method of using Cassini Attitude Control Flight Data to reconstruct Saturn atmospheric density profiles for each of the five final orbits around Saturn.
Andrade, Luis G.↗
Earth radiation pressure and the determination of density from atmospheric drag.
The effect of earth radiation pressure relative to that of atmospheric drag increases with height through the lower thermosphere. While it can be entirely neglected as a correction in the determination of density at lower heights, it becomes significant somewhat below 1000 km and rapidly becomes comparable in magnitude to drag above 1000 km. The effects of earth radiation pressure on the orbit of the balloon satellite 1963 30D were calculated during two series of intervals when the orbit was entirely in sunlight. The first of these was when the perigee was very high so that hydrogen was expected to be the dominant atmospheric constituent. The second was when the perigee was lower and helium was expected to be the dominant constituent. Two sets of calculations were performed, one using a constant mean model and the other using a seasonal-latitudinal model, based on reported Tiros VII data, for the albedo and infrared radiation.
Slowey, J. W.↗
A Design Study of Onboard Navigation and Guidance During Aerocapture at Mars
The navigation and guidance of a high lift-to-drag ratio sample return vehicle during aerocapture at Mars are investigated. Emphasis is placed on integrated systems design, with guidance algorithm synthesis and analysis based on vehicle state and atmospheric density uncertainty estimates provided by the navigation system. The latter utilizes a Kalman filter for state vector estimation, with useful update information obtained through radar altimeter measurements and density altitude measurements based on IMU-measured drag acceleration. A three-phase guidance algorithm, featuring constant bank numeric predictor/corrector atmospheric capture and exit phases and an extended constant altitude cruise phase, is developed to provide controlled capture and depletion of orbital energy, orbital plane control, and exit apoapsis control. Integrated navigation and guidance systems performance are analyzed using a four degree-of-freedom computer simulation. The simulation environment includes an atmospheric density model with spatially correlated perturbations to provide realistic variations over the vehicle trajectory. Navigation filter initial conditions for the analysis are based on planetary approach optical navigation results. Results from a selection of test cases are presented to give insight into systems performance.
Fuhry, Douglas Paul↗
Prediction and Validation of Mars Pathfinder Hypersonic Aerodynamic Data Base
Postflight analysis of the Mars Pathfinder hypersonic, continuum aerodynamic data base is presented. Measured data include accelerations along the body axis and axis normal directions. Comparisons of preflight simulation and measurements show good agreement. The prediction of two static instabilities associated with movement of the sonic line from the shoulder to the nose and back was confirmed by measured normal accelerations. Reconstruction of atmospheric density during entry has an uncertainty directly proportional to the uncertainty in the predicted axial coefficient. The sensitivity of the moment coefficient to freestream density, kinetic models and center-of-gravity location are examined to provide additional consistency checks of the simulation with flight data. The atmospheric density as derived from axial coefficient and measured axial accelerations falls within the range required for sonic line shift and static stability transition as independently determined from normal accelerations.
Gnoffo, Peter A.↗
Aerobraking techniques for planetary missions
Aerobraking techniques are applied to trajectory design for the VOIR (Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar) mission to enhance overall mission performance. The approach can be used for other planetary missions such as a Titan orbiter or a Mars sample return to earth. The orientation of the elliptical insertion orbit must be chosen in such a way that the combined effects of solar gravity, central-body harmonics, and drag on periapsis altitude are minimized to avoid frequent maneuvers. The selection of the base and width of a corridor for periapsis altitude depends upon the temperature and integrated heat of the aerobrake shield, the atmospheric density profile, the duration of aerobraking, the number of maneuvers, the time available between maneuvers, and uncertainties in the central-body gravity field and atmospheric density. Flight path profiles for an aerodynamically stable spacecraft and an inertially fixed spacecraft passing through the free molecular flow regime, as well as the transitional flow regime, are illustrated
Tang, C. C. H.↗