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A record of the first fifteen years (1945-1959) of research and development tests that were performed at Wallops Island is presented. It begins with the events that led to the establishment of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics flight test range on Wallops Island to the first year as a part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Tungsten-fiber/FeCrAlY (W/FeCrAlY) was identified as a promising aircraft engine, first generation, turbine blade composite material. Based on available data, W/FeCrAlY should have the stress-rupture, creep, tensile, fatigue, and impact strengths required for turbine blades operating from 1250 to 1370 K. It should also have adequate oxidation, hot corrosion, and thermal cycling damage resistance as well as high thermal conductivity. Concepts for potentially low cost blade fabrication were developed. These concepts were used to design a first stage JT9D convection cooled turbine blade having a calculated 50 K use-temperature advantage over the directionally solidified superalloy blade.
The NASA two stage fan was tested with a low aspect ratio first stage rotor having no midspan dampers. At design speed the fan achieved an adiabatic design efficiency of 0.846, and peak efficiencies for the first stage and rotor of 0.870 and 0.906, respectively. Peak efficiency occurred very close to the stall line. In an attempt to improve stall margin, the fan was retested with circumferentially grooved casing treatment and with a series of stator blade resets. Results showed no improvement in stall margin with casing treatment but increased to 8 percent with stator blade reset.
A general overview of the first Spacelab flight is presented and a table is given listing the payload composition. An accommodation study is presented with emphasis on the configuration, mass status, timeline, and experiment interface specifications. Also considered are flight and ground operations, safety factors, and payload specialists training for the first flight.
Preliminary results of measurements obtained by the low energy charged particle instrument on board the Voyager 1 spacecraft during its traversal of the Jovian magnetosphere are reported. The instrument consists of the low energy particle telescope and the low energy magnetospheric particle analyzer, designed to perform measurements in the inner and outer magnetosphere respectively. Ions and electrons comprising the Jovian magnetosphere were first detected at a distance of about 600 Jupiter radii from the planet, with the first bow shock crossing at 85.6 Jupiter radii. Upon crossing the magnetopause at about 67 Jupiter radii, the flows of electrons and ions were observed to change direction from away from the planet to the corotational direction. The hot plasma near the magnetosphere boundary is comprised predominantly of protons, sulfur and oxygen. Selective particle absorption near the Io flux tube indicates some form of particle deflection by Io. Fluxes in the outbound region were found to be enhanced from 90 to 160 deg longitude, and 5- and 10-hour low energy particle flux periodicities were observed.
On August 12, 1978, a scientific spacecraft called International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) was launched towards the interior sun-earth libration point, L1. The spacecraft was placed into a 'halo orbit' around the L1 point on November 20, 1978, thus becoming the first libration-point satellite. During its 100-day transfer trajectory, ISEE-3 lingered in a region where the gravitational effects of the sun and the earth are comparable, leading to some interesting tradeoffs concerning the maneuver strategy for halo-orbit insertion. Following orbit insertion, stationkeeping maneuvers were required to maintain the delicate equilibrium in the halo orbit. Details are presented for all of the velocity change maneuvers that were executed prior to the completion of the first halo orbit on May 14, 1979. Orbit selection, trajectory design, and the scientific objectives of the ISEE-3 mission are also discussed.
Specific configurations of first and second order all digital phase locked loops are analyzed for both ideal and additive white gaussian noise inputs. In addition, a design for a hardware digital phase locked loop capable of either first or second order operation is presented along with appropriate experimental data obtained from testing of the hardware loop. All parameters chosen for the analysis and the design of the digital phase locked loop are consistent with an application to an Omega navigation receiver although neither the analysis nor the design are limited to this application.
Seasat, the satellite dedicated to the study of the oceans using microwave sensors, collected a data set containing information on sea surface winds, sea surface temperatures, wave heights, wave directions, internal waves, currents, tides, the marine geoid, and atmospheric water content. The first two steps of the performance evaluation of the satellite have been completed: (1) the engineering assessment and (2) the sensor evaluation. The results are encouraging for the performance of the instruments and the first level of data processing algorithms.
Fully resolved intensity profiles of various lines in the CO2 bands at 9.4 micrometers and 10.4 micrometers were measured on Mars using an infrared heterodyne spectrometer. Analysis of the line shapes shows that the Mars atmosphere exhibits positive gain on these lines, providing the first definite detection of natural optical gain amplification and enabling identification of these lines as the first definite natural laser ever discovered.
The conservation of the first adiabatic invariant of particle motion, the particle magnetic moment, at the front of perpendicular magnetosonic fast-mode shock waves is considered. Results of numerical simulations are presented which show that preshock and postshock values of the magnetic moment are on the average equal for particles transmitted by infinitesimally thin perpendicular magnetosonic fast-mode shocks, in contrast to extrapolations from adiabatic theory, which suggest that the first invariant is least likely to be conserved in this situation. The observed conservation is thus attributed to the continuity of the flux of total particle and field angular momentum across the shock front as a result of angular momentum conservation.
Measurements of the 2200/cm fundamental and 4300/cm first overtone vibration-rotation band systems of solar carbon monoxide, were obtained with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer of the McMath telescope at Kitt Peak. The overtone measurements were taken at the east, north, and west heliocentric limbs, and at disk center. Observations of the strong fundamental bands were obtained at disk center and near the north limb. The low core brightness temperatures of the strongest fundamental carbon monoxide lines near the limb, reported previously by Noyes (1972) and Hall (1974), are confirmed. The possibility that thermal inhomogeneities might be responsible for the unusual behavior of the fundamental carbon dioxide lines have been examined. The somewhat discordant behavior of the fundamental lines at disk center compared with the north limb seems to favor a limb shadowing effect. The first overtone limb equivalent widths and the best-fit thermal and microvelocity models indicate a solar carbon abundance of 0.004 (on the scale with A sub H = 1) for an oxygen-to-carbon abundance ratio of 2.
Primary stability and control derivative estimates garnered from the first Shuttle entry are reported. The craft was the first vehicle to maneuver over a wide range of hypersonic velocities, yielding data on flight characteristics from previously unexplored regimes. The flight envelope was confined to entry and safe landing, with no additional maneuvers to gain control data. Data for a Mach number range of 25-1.5 and altitudes of 515,000-50,000 ft are provided, and functional ranges of the Shuttle control surfaces and attitude jets are outlined. On-board systems gathered data on aerodynamic coefficient identification, flight condition and Euler angles, and jet chamber pressures. A maximum likelihood estimation program, which contained unknown stability and control derivatives, was used for control; a control input determined the value of the unknown derivatives, and the input and spacecraft response were measured. Longitudinal and lateral directional maneuvers and their derivative estimates are described, noting wind contamination of the sideslip measurements below Mach 3. Further maneuvering and stability tests are projected for subsequent flights.
Design features and performance of the Shuttle main engines first flight are presented. Each of the three engines produces 470,000 lb of thrust, operates at 3,012 psia, and has a 77.5 to 1 nozzle expansion ratio. The engines are designed for a 7.5 hr operational life, and will be tested at 109% capacity in future Shuttle flights. The developmental program is outlined, and includes 127,000 sec of operational testing on 19 engines. Engine operations and components are described, noting 100% burning of the hydrogen and oxidizer, high pressure fuel turbopumps, the controller assembly, etc.; details of solutions to fatigue failures and subsequent certification are provided. The nine minute first flight firing revealed a radiant heating of a control sensor transducer, which was shielded for succeeding flights. Alternatives are given for thrust augmentation, for which each 1% yields an additional 800 lb payload increase capability, and can be implemented by 1987.
NASA made a major stride in readying a second delivery vehicle for its Space Transportation System (STS) fleet with the perfect landing of Shuttle Orbiter Challenger at Edwards Air Force Base, California, April 9, 1983. Besides being the first flight test of Challenger's performance, the mission marked the orbiting of the first spacecraft in NASA's new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The new family of orbiting space communications platforms is essential to serve future Shuttle missions. Although the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) second stage engine firing failed to place TDRS in its final 35,888 kilometer (22,300 mile) geosynchronous orbit, its release from the orbiter cargo bay went as planned. Launch officials were confident they can achieve its planned orbit in a matter of weeks.
The combined load statistics are developed by taking the acoustically induced load to be a random population, assumed to be stationary. Each element of this ensemble of acoustically induced loads is assumed to have the same power spectral density (PSD), obtained previously from a random response analysis employing the given acoustic field in the STS cargo bay as a stationary random excitation. The mechanically induced load is treated as either (1) a known deterministic transient, or (2) a nonstationary random variable of known first and second statistical moments which vary with time. A method is then shown for determining the probability that the combined load would, at any time, have a value equal to or less than a certain level. Having obtained a statistical representation of how the acoustic and mechanical loads are expected to combine, an analytical approximation for defining design levels for these loads is presented using the First Passage failure criterion.
On Nov. 12, 1981, the Space Shuttle was launched for its second flight (STS-2). It carried with it the first scientific payload designed to perform remote sensing observations of the earth. During the 54 hour flight, scientific instruments from the OSTA-1 (Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications) payload gathered data over the earth's oceans and land masses, and global atmospheric data on concentrations of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. The flight demonstrated the capability of the Shuttle to serve as an orbiting platform for scientific research. Instruments were successfully developed for spaceflight for a fraction of the costs associated with instruments flown on unmanned satellite missions. Perhaps most importantly, the instruments have been successfully returned to the investigators for the first time in the history of remote sensing from space.
Solar flare data from June 27, 1980 balloon-based observations were studied in terms of the hard X ray component. A temporal delay of 3 sec was observed for the X ray emissions above 235 keV. The delay occurred relative to the low-energy electrons and indicated a second acceleration stage. An estimation of the acceleration rate of the first-order Fermi process operating in a closed flare loop was found to be in agreement with the resulting data, including the acceleration of both protons and relativistic electrons. Additional support for the first-order Fermi process is noted in the fact that flares generally occur in magnetic loops, a condition which allows energetic particles to continually interact with the upward moving shock fronts. A correlation has also been observed between the delay times and the H-alpha areas, encouraging the interpretation that the delay times are the shock transit times.
Evidence from reflectance and contact angle measurements is presented that three-phase mixtures of i-C3H7OH-C7F14 exhibit a first-order wetting phase transition at the liquid-vapor interface at 38 C. Equilibration phenomena support this interpretation. Ellipsometry was used to measure the apparent thickness of the intruding layer in the three-phase mixture. At temperatures slightly above the wetting temperature T(w), the intruding layer's thickness is several hundred angstroms and its variation with temperature is extremely weak. Below T(w), three-phase contact can occur between the vapor and both the upper and lower liquid phases; one of the angles which characterizes this contact has a very simple temperature dependence. The thickness of the intruding layer, monitored as the solutions approached equilibrium, is found to depend quite weakly on the height spanned by the upper liquid phase in the vicinity of a first-order wetting transition.