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At least 217 records · Page 12

A review of tropospheric refraction effects on Earth-to-satellite systems

Abnormal refractivity gradients may cause radio waves to be trapped within tropospheric layers, thus producing regions through which the waves do not pass called radio holes. For some locations and for many applications, refractive corrections based on the surface refractivity are adequate for elevation angles above a few degrees. However, new systems which operate at elevation angles near the horizon often require improved accuracies. Techniques for obtaining these improved corrections are reviewed.

Althsuler, E. E.↗

SPHERES/Astrobee ISS Free-Flyer Facility

The Evolving Commercial Laboratory: What's Next in Research CapabilitiesAdvancing the research capabilities that are present on the International Space Station is critical to the future of advancing space based R&D as well as enabling a commercial economy in LEO. The options for ISS research are constantly adapting and many new research capabilities are here today and on the horizon. This session will feature presentations and an open discussion with commercial facility providers who are leading a renaissance of in-orbit capabilities that are updating and expanding the R&D opportunities that are available to microgravity and space based researchers aboard the International Space Station.

Benavides, Jose V.↗

Presentation Summary: State of the AGN: Progress Toward Understanding Black Hole Accretion Processes

Accretion of plasma onto black holes power some of the most powerfulsystems in the cosmos. Supermassive black holes at the centers ofgalaxies represent the high-mass limit of these objects and so accountfor the most luminous accretors. As a result, their influence spansvast spatial and temporal scales of cosmic phenomena: intraclusterheating, intergalactic media, galactic feedback and star formation,kiloparsec-scale jets/outflows, variability over time scales of minutesto centuries, and luminous multi-wavelength electromagnetic emissionextending all the way down to its event horizon. Their intrigue isheightened by the fact that they lie at the intersection of variousphysical laws---e.g., general relativistic gravity,magnetohydrodynamics, radiation, high-energy particle physics,thermodynamics, and photo-ionization---which all must be reconciled toarrive at a fundamental understanding and probe for new physics, liketests of general relativity. These physics ingredients must beincorporated into simulations performed somehow on dynamical scalesranging from that of the event horizon to parsec-scales. Fortunately,new computational and theoretical techniques---such as GPU computing,radiation transport, and and novel gridding techniques---are enablingprogress to larger scales, more degrees of freedom, and even to binarysystems. Some of the topics we will survey include recent progress onsimulating the relationship between the disk-jet interaction, howtilted black holes behave, radiation-dominated flow, and how binaryAGN affect the standard picture of black hole accretion. Along theway, we will highlight how new technologies have enabled thesescientific rewards. Future directions and open questions will beprovided to inspire discussion and interaction during the session.

Black Holes↗

State of the AGN: Progress Toward Understanding Black Hole Accretion Processes

Accretion of plasma onto black holes power some of the most powerful systems in the cosmos. Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies represent the high-mass limit of these objects and so account for the most luminous accretors. As a result, their influence spans vast spatial and temporal scales of cosmic phenomena: intracluster heating, intergalactic media, galactic feedback and star formation, kiloparsec-scale jets/outflows, variability over time scales of minutes to centuries, and luminous multi-wavelength electromagnetic emission extending all the way down to its event horizon. Their intrigue is heightened by the fact that they lie at the intersection of various physical laws---e.g., general relativistic gravity, magnetohydrodynamics, radiation, high-energy particle physics, thermodynamics, and photo-ionization---which all must be reconciled to arrive at a fundamental understanding and probe for new physics, like tests of general relativity. These physics ingredients must be incorporated into simulations performed somehow on dynamical scales ranging from that of the event horizon to parsec-scales. Fortunately, new computational and theoretical techniques---such as GPU computing, radiation transport, and and novel gridding techniques---are enabling progress to larger scales, more degrees of freedom, and even to binary systems. Some of the topics we will survey include recent progress on simulating the relationship between the disk-jet interaction, how tilted black holes behave, radiation-dominated flow, and how binary AGN affect the standard picture of black hole accretion. Along the way, we will highlight how new technologies have enabled these scientific rewards. Future directions and open questions will be provided to inspire discussion and interaction during the session.

LISA↗

Horizon: A Proposal for Large Aperture, Active Optics in Geosynchronous Orbit

In 1999, NASA's New Millennium Program called for proposals to validate new technology in high-earth orbit for the Earth Observing-3 (NMP EO3) mission to fly in 2003. In response, we proposed to test a large aperture, active optics telescope in geosynchronous orbit. This would flight-qualify new technologies for both Earth and Space science: 1) a future instrument with LANDSAT image resolution and radiometric quality watching continuously from geosynchronous station, and 2) the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) for deep space imaging. Six enabling technologies were to be flight-qualified: 1) a 3-meter, lightweight segmented primary mirror, 2) mirror actuators and mechanisms, 3) a deformable mirror, 4) coarse phasing techniques, 5) phase retrieval for wavefront control during stellar viewing, and 6) phase diversity for wavefront control during Earth viewing. Three enhancing technologies were to be flight- validated: 1) mirror deployment and latching mechanisms, 2) an advanced microcontroller, and 3) GPS at GEO. In particular, two wavefront sensing algorithms, phase retrieval by JPL and phase diversity by ERIM International, were to sense optical system alignment and focus errors, and to correct them using high-precision mirror mechanisms. Active corrections based on Earth scenes are challenging because phase diversity images must be collected from extended, dynamically changing scenes. In addition, an Earth-facing telescope in GEO orbit is subject to a powerful diurnal thermal and radiometric cycle not experienced by deep-space astronomy. The Horizon proposal was a bare-bones design for a lightweight large-aperture, active optical system that is a practical blend of science requirements, emerging technologies, budget constraints, launch vehicle considerations, orbital mechanics, optical hardware, phase-determination algorithms, communication strategy, computational burdens, and first-rate cooperation among earth and space scientists, engineers and managers. This manuscript presents excerpts from the Horizon proposal's sections that describe the Earth science requirements, the structural -thermal-optical design, the wavefront sensing and control, and the on-orbit validation.

Chesters, Dennis↗

Just over the horizon in space

The article surveys some of the concepts introduced and examined by a New Concepts Symposium convened by the NASA Advisory Council recently. Results are reported from the symposium's eight working groups: astrophysics, climate, communications and navigation, energy, large structures, planetary exploration, propulsion and transportation, and telefactors.

Bekey, I.↗

Path to a Research Plan

This viewgraph presentation discusses the status and goals for the NASA OBPR Physical Science Research Program. The following text was used to summarize the presentation. The OBPR Physical Sciences Research program has been comprehensively reviewed and endorsed by National Research Council. The value and need for the research have been re-affirmed. The research program has been prioritized and resource re-allocations have been carried out through an OBPR-wide process. An increasing emphasis on strategic, mission-oriented research is planned. The program will strive to maintain a balance between strategic and fundamental research. A feasible ISS flight research program fitting within the budgetary and ISS resource envelopes has been formulated for the near term (2003-2007). The current ISS research program will be significantly strengthened starting 2005 by using discipline dedicated research facility racks. A research re-planning effort has been initiated and will include active participation from the research community in the next few months. The research re-planning effort will poise PSR to increase ISS research utilization for a potential enhancement beyond ISS IP Core Complete. The Physical Sciences research program readily integrates the cross-disciplinary requirements of the NASA and OBPR strategic objectives. Each fundamental research thrust will develop a roadmap through technical workshops and Discipline Working Groups (DWGs). Most fundamental research thrusts will involve cross-disciplinary efforts. A Technology Roadmap will guide the Strategic Research for Exploration thrust. The Research Plan will integrate and coordinate fundamental Research Thrusts Roadmaps with the Technology Roadmap. The Technology Roadmap will be developed in coordination with other OBPR programs as well as other Enterprise (R,S,M,N). International Partners will contribute to the roadmaps and through research coordination. The research plan will be vetted with the discipline working groups, the BPRAC subcommittees, and with the BPRAC. Recommendations from NRC past and current committees will be implemented whenever appropriate.Proposed theme element content will be "missionized" around planned content and potential new projects (facilities, modules, initiatives) on approximately a five-year horizon, with the approval of PSRD management. Center/science working group teams will develop descriptions of "mission" objectives, value, and requirements. Purpose is to create a competitive environment for concept development and to stimulate community ownership/advocacy. Proposed theme elements reviewed and approved by PSRD management. Strawman roadmaps for themes developed. Program budget and technology requirements verified. Theme elements are prioritized with the input of advisory groups. Integration into program themes (questions) and required technology investments are defined by science and technology roadmaps. Review and assessment by OBPR management.

Chiaramonte, Fran↗

Synchronous parallel system for emulation and discrete event simulation

A synchronous parallel system for emulation and discrete event simulation having parallel nodes responds to received messages at each node by generating event objects having individual time stamps, stores only the changes to state variables of the simulation object attributable to the event object, and produces corresponding messages. The system refrains from transmitting the messages and changing the state variables while it determines whether the changes are superseded, and then stores the unchanged state variables in the event object for later restoral to the simulation object if called for. This determination preferably includes sensing the time stamp of each new event object and determining which new event object has the earliest time stamp as the local event horizon, determining the earliest local event horizon of the nodes as the global event horizon, and ignoring the events whose time stamps are less than the global event horizon. Host processing between the system and external terminals enables such a terminal to query, monitor, command or participate with a simulation object during the simulation process.

Steinman, Jeffrey S.↗

STS-74 Post Flight Presentation

The flight crew of the STS-74 Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis (Cmdr. Ken Cameron, Pilot Jim Halsell, and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield, Jerry Ross, and William McArthur) present an overview of their flight mission, whose primary objective was the rendezvous and space docking with the Russian Mir Space Station. Video film footage includes: prelaunch and launch activities; shuttle launch; installation of the Russian-made docking module to the orbiter; in-orbit rendezvous; in-orbit docking between Mir and the orbiter; general crew activities; transfer of supplies, equipment, and a crystal growth experiment to Mir; data collection of Mir thruster firings; undocking maneuvers and Mir fly around; pre-return checkout of flight systems; and reentry and landing of the orbiter. Earth views include horizon sunsets, atmospheric boundary layers, and a variety of geographical location footage (New Orleans; Atlanta; James Bay, Canada; Poland; Turkey; Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Colorado).

Source record↗

STS-74 Mission Highlights Resource Tape

The flight crew of the STS-74 Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis Cmdr. Ken Cameron, Pilot Jim Halsell, and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield, Jerry Ross, and William McArthur present an overview of their flight mission, whose primary objective is the rendezvous and space docking with the Russian Mir Space Station. Video film footage includes the following: prelaunch and launch activities; shuttle launch; in-orbit rendezvous; installation of the Russian-made docking module; in-orbit docking between Mir and the orbiter; general crew activities; transfer of supplies, equipment, and a crystal growth experiment to Mir; data collection from Mir thruster firings; undocking maneuvers and a Mir fly around; pre-return checkout of flight systems; and the reentry and landing of the orbiter. Earth views include horizon sunsets, atmospheric boundary layers, and a variety of geographical location footage (New Orleans; Atlanta; James Bay, Canada; Poland; Turkey; Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Colorado).

Source record↗

Synchronous Parallel System for Emulation and Discrete Event Simulation

A synchronous parallel system for emulation and discrete event simulation having parallel nodes responds to received messages at each node by generating event objects having individual time stamps, stores only the changes to the state variables of the simulation object attributable to the event object and produces corresponding messages. The system refrains from transmitting the messages and changing the state variables while it determines whether the changes are superseded, and then stores the unchanged state variables in the event object for later restoral to the simulation object if called for. This determination preferably includes sensing the time stamp of each new event object and determining which new event object has the earliest time stamp as the local event horizon, determining the earliest local event horizon of the nodes as the global event horizon, and ignoring events whose time stamps are less than the global event horizon. Host processing between the system and external terminals enables such a terminal to query, monitor, command or participate with a simulation object during the simulation process.

Jeffrey S Steinman↗

Demand Capacity Balancing at Vertiports for Initial Strategic Conflict Management of Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a new transportation concept that enables highly automated, cooperative, passenger or cargo-carrying air transportation services in and around urban areas. To achieve the high level of operational density and complexity desired by the UAM community, an airspace system that allows UAM operators to readily access and operate safely and efficiently in the airspace is needed. This airspace system will require air traffic management designed to reduce the risk of conflicts and loss of separation between UAM flights. In general, strategic conflict management is considered as the first layer of conflict management for safe flight operations to condition the traffic to reduce the need for airborne separation provision, the second layer of conflict management. Demand Capacity Balancing (DCB) is one of the concept components to achieve strategic conflict management. DCB strategically evaluates traffic demand and resource capacities to allow UAM operators to determine when, where and how they operate, while mitigating conflicting needs for airspace and vertiport capacity. DCB can be applied whenever UAM demand exceeds the capacity in airspace or at vertiports. As the UAM ecosystem evolves with advanced technologies and matured operational procedures, more complicated conflict management will likely be needed. In the current UAM ‘Concept of Operation (ConOps) 1.0’ operational stage defined by FAA, however, it will be meaningful to explore the demand capacity balancing at vertiports only, as an initial strategic conflict management approach for UAM operations because vertiport capacity seems to be a bottleneck of UAM traffic. For this research, we developed a demand-capacity imbalance detection and resolution service for UAM. This DCB service identifies the demand from operators and compares the demand to a given capacity at the shared resources (i.e., vertiports) over the upcoming time horizon which is divided into time bins having a constant interval. When a new flight plan is submitted, the algorithm embedded in the DCB service checks the available time bins based on the desired departure time and estimated arrival time at origin and destination vertiports, respectively. If the time bins for the originally desired times are already occupied by other flights (i.e., demand is at or above capacity), the algorithm finds the next available time bins for takeoff and landing and shifts the conflicting departure time to the earliest time that satisfies the capacity constraints at both origin and destination vertiports. The details of the algorithm will be described in the final manuscript. Figure 1 shows that the proposed DCB algorithm works well for a sample traffic scenario. In this example, a total of 144 flights, split between two operators, are planned over 2 hours, traveling 10 routes between five vertiports. In the heatmaps, the horizontal axis shows 12 time bins where each bin represents a 12-minute interval, and the vertical axis shows five vertiports. The number in each cell shows the number of operations, counting both departures and arrivals, at a specific vertiport in each time bin. For the given capacity of 2 operations/vertiport/bin, Figure 1 shows that the original demand sometimes exceeds the capacity, but the modified demand is reduced to the given capacity after resolving demand-capacity imbalances. When UAM flights are operated, it is expected that many practical issues would arise in the federated system architecture with multiple operators. UAM operators may experience a time synchronization issue due to communication delay between operator and vehicle. UAM vehicles would fly at different flight speeds, depending on vehicle models. Actual departure and arrival times can have large variations, compared to the schedule. The lead time from flight plan submission to desired departure time can vary by service type (e.g., regular shuttle service vs. on-demand service). Using the proposed DCB algorithm, we also investigated how the actual flight schedule and DCB performance are affected by these uncertainties such as unsynchronized times between operators, flight speed differences, lead time differences, and departure time errors. The final manuscript will include the background of this research work, the description of the DCB algorithm and its use cases with traffic scenarios. It will also provide the analytical results about the impact of various uncertainties that can occur in actual UAM operations on the DCB at vertiports, in terms of demand distribution changes, number of simultaneous operations, and delay propagation.

Urban Air Mobility↗

Searching for Black Holes

Our UV/VIS work concentrates on black hole X-ray nova. These objects consist of two stars in close orbit, one of which we believe is a black hole - our goal is to SHOW that one is a black hole. In order to reach this goal we carry out observations in the Optical, UV, IR and X-ray bands, and compare the observations to theoretical models. In the past year, our UV/VIS grant has provided partial support (mainly travel funds and page charges) for work we have done on X-ray nova containing black holes and neutron stars. We have been very successful in obtaining telescope time to support our project - we have completed approximately a dozen separate observing runs averaging 3 days each, using the MMT (5M), Lick 3M, KPNO 2.1M, CTIO 4M, CTIO 1.5M, and the SAO/WO 1.2M telescopes. These observations have allowed the identification of one new black hole (Nova Oph 1977), and allowed the mass of another to be measured (GS2000+25). Perhaps our most exciting new result is the evidence we have gathered for the existence of 'event horizons' in black hole X-ray nova.

Garcia, M.↗

Theoretical Astrophysics at Fermilab

The Theoretical Astrophysics Group works on a broad range of topics ranging from string theory to data analysis in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The group is motivated by the belief that a deep understanding of fundamental physics is necessary to explain a wide variety of phenomena in the universe. During the three years 2001-2003 of our previous NASA grant, over 120 papers were written; ten of our postdocs went on to faculty positions; and we hosted or organized many workshops and conferences. Kolb and collaborators focused on the early universe, in particular and models and ramifications of the theory of inflation. They also studied models with extra dimensions, new types of dark matter, and the second order effects of super-horizon perturbations. S tebbins, Frieman, Hui, and Dodelson worked on phenomenological cosmology, extracting cosmological constraints from surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. They also worked on theoretical topics such as weak lensing, reionization, and dark energy. This work has proved important to a number of experimental groups [including those at Fermilab] planning future observations. In general, the work of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group has served as a catalyst for experimental projects at Fennilab. An example of this is the Joint Dark Energy Mission. Fennilab is now a member of SNAP, and much of the work done here is by people formerly working on the accelerator. We have created an environment where many of these people made transition from physics to astronomy. We also worked on many other topics related to NASA s focus: cosmic rays, dark matter, the Sunyaev-Zel dovich effect, the galaxy distribution in the universe, and the Lyman alpha forest. The group organized and hosted a number of conferences and workshop over the years covered by the grant. Among them were:

Source record↗

A Long-Term Vision for Space-Based Interferometry

The processes leading to the formation of planets; the extreme physics occurring near the event horizon of black holes; detailed studies of exoplanets through spectral-spatial mapping: new and unique insights into the physical processes involved across nearly the whole gamut of astrophysics await discovery at small angular scales. The fine spatial resolution needed to explore these processes, however, lies beyond the capabilities of current astronomical facilities and nearly all proposed future facilities. Interferometers can crack this angular resolution problem, and space-based interferometry missions promise to explore entirely new regions of scientific phase space, providing unique new insights into the physical processes lurking at small angular scales.

Rinehart, S. A.↗

Workshop on Space Quantum Communications and Networks

NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program and the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) co-sponsored a two-day workshop in January 2020 on space quantum communications and networks. The workshop was hosted by the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley. About 70 invited technical and program leaders from academia, industry, and government agencies defined science goals and technology requirements for a future NASA “quantum mission” that is fully aligned with the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) vision for a space-ground quantum network. This NQI vision is also a strategic milestone in SCaN’s plans for NASA’s space-based quantum communications and networks. The overall technical objectives of the Workshop were to (i) critically evaluate various mission design concepts, (ii) converge on a small subset of quantum communication and networking experiments suitable for space applications, and (iii) identify key technology gaps and promote new and emerging technologies to enable NASA’s “quantum mission” within a 5-year horizon.

quantum communications↗

MEMS Using SOI Substrate

At NASA, the focus for smaller, less costly missions has given impetus for the development of microspacecraft. MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) technology advances in the area of sensor, propulsion systems, and instruments, make the notion of a specialized microspacecraft feasible in the immediate future. Similar to the micro-electronics revolution,the emerging MEMS technology offers the integration of recent advances in micromachining and nanofabrication techniques with microelectronics in a mass-producible format,is viewed as the next step in device and instrument miniaturization. MEMS technology offers the potential of enabling or enhancing NASA missions in a variety of ways. This new technology allows the miniaturization of components and systems, where the primary benefit is a reduction in size, mass and power. MEMS technology also provides new capabilities and enhanced performance, where the most significant impact is in performance, regardless of system size. Finally,with the availability of mass-produced, miniature MEMS instrumentation comes the opportunity to rethink our fundamental measurement paradigms. It is now possible to expand our horizons from a single instrument perspective to one involving multi-node distributed systems. In the distributed systems and missions, a new system in which the functionality is enabled through a multiplicity of elements. Further in the future, the integration of electronics, photonics, and micromechanical functionalities into "instruments-on-a-chip" will provide the ultimate size, cost, function, and performance advantage. In this presentation, I will discuss recent development, requirement, and applications of various MEMS technologies and devices for space applications.

Tang, Tony K.↗

Opportunities in cosmic-ray physics and astrophysics

The Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Research Council established the Committee on Cosmic-Ray Physics to prepare a review of the field that addresses both experimental and theoretical aspects of the origin of cosmic radiation from outside the heliosphere. The following recommendations are made: NASA should provide the opportunity to measure cosmic-ray electrons, positrons, ultraheavy nuclei, isotopes, and antiparticles in space; NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Energy (DOE) should facilitate direct and indirect measurement of the elemental composition to as high an energy as possible, for which the support of long-duration ballooning and hybrid ground arrays will be needed; NSF and DOE should support the new Fly's Eye and provide for U.S. participation in the big projects on the horizon, which include giant arrays, ground-based gamma-ray astronomy, and neutrino telescopes; and NASA, NSF, and DOE should support a strong program of relevant theoretical investigations.

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