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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1979

Minor planets and related objects. XXVII - Lightcurves of 887 Alinda

Eleven light curves and UBV photometry of the Amor asteroid Alinda, a candidate for having a cometary origin, are analyzed. A probable rotation period of 73 h 58 m + or - 3 m (p.e.) is derived on the assumption of two maxima and two minima per cycle in a composite light curve. An absolute V magnitude of 14.10 + or - 0.08 and a phase coefficient of 0.042 + or - 0.003 mag/deg in V are obtained, along with a B-V color of 0.86 + or - 0.02 and a U-B color of 0.50 + or - 0.05, both extrapolated to zero phase. The rotation period is shown to be the longest yet observed for an asteroid. It is concluded that the colors of Alinda are not unusual for an asteroid, that Alinda is probably not an extinct cometary nucleus, that the slow rotation may be a consequence of one or more collisions, and that the pole of Alinda may be nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic.

Dunlap, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Asteroid families - Physical properties and evolution

Asteroid families are considered to be fragments from collisional destruction of precursor bodies. However, results available on the inferred mineralogy, size distributions, and spins of family members do not confirm the expectations of the traditional model. Only a handful of nearly 100 proposed families, most of them populous, have distributions of inferred mineralogies consistent with simple cosmochemical models for parent bodies. It is suggested that most catastrophic collisions may not result in observable families, but rather in a spray of smaller particles, thus accounting for the small number of confirmed and consistent families, despite evidence for extensive collisional evolution of asteroids.

Chapman, Clark R.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Conceptual Design of a Flight Validation Mission for a Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets whose orbits approach or cross Earth s orbit. NEOs have collided with our planet in the past, sometimes to devastating effect, and continue to do so today. Collisions with NEOs large enough to do significant damage to the ground are fortunately infrequent, but such events can occur at any time and we therefore need to develop and validate the techniques and technologies necessary to prevent the Earth impact of an incoming NEO. In this paper we provide background on the hazard posed to Earth by NEOs and present the results of a recent study performed by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center s Mission Design Lab (MDL) in collaboration with Iowa State University s Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC) to design a flight validation mission for a Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle (HAIV) as part of a Phase 2 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) research project. The HAIV is a two-body vehicle consisting of a leading kinetic impactor and trailing follower carrying a Nuclear Explosive Device (NED) payload. The HAIV detonates the NED inside the crater in the NEO s surface created by the lead kinetic impactor portion of the vehicle, effecting a powerful subsurface detonation to disrupt the NEO. For the flight validation mission, only a simple mass proxy for the NED is carried in the HAIV. Ongoing and future research topics are discussed following the presentation of the detailed flight validation mission design results produced in the MDL.

Barbee, Brent W.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Collision frequency of artificial satellites - The creation of a debris belt

As the number of artificial satellites in earth orbit increases, the probability of collisions between satellites also increases. Satellite collisions would produce orbiting fragments, each of which would increase the probability of further collisions, leading to the growth of a belt of debris around the earth. This process parallels certain theories concerning the growth of the asteroid belt. The debris flux in such an earth-orbiting belt could exceed the natural meteoroid flux, affecting future spacecraft designs. A mathematical model was used to predict the rate at which such a belt might form. Under certain conditions the belt could begin to form within this century and could be a significant problem during the next century. The possibility that numerous unobserved fragments already exist from spacecraft explosions would decrease this time interval. However, early implementation of specialized launch constraints and operational procedures could significantly delay the formation of the belt.

Donald J Kessler↗
NASA NTRS1985

Unmelted meteoritic debris in the Late Pliocene iridium anomaly - Evidence for the ocean impact of a nonchondritic asteroid

Ir-bearing particles have been recovered from two piston cores in the Antarctic Basin in the southeastern Pacific. In core E13-3, the particles closely correspond to the Late Pliocene Ir anomaly and have a fluence of about 100 mg/cm sq. In core E13-4, 120 km to the southwest, the particle fluence is about 4 mg/cm sq. Particles with diameters from 0.5 to 4 mm contain at least 35 percent of the Ir in this horizon. Three types of particles have been identified: (1) vesicular, (2) basaltic, and (3) metal. The vesicular particles appear to be shock-melted debris derived from the oceanic impact of a howarditic asteroid containing a minor metal component. These particles have recrystallized from a melt and impact into the ocean has resulted in the incorporation of Na, K, Cl, and radiogenic Sr from the ocean water target. The basaltic clasts appear to be unmelted fragments of the original asteroid which may have separated from the main body prior to impact. Combined vesicular and basaltic particles are believed to have formed by collisions in the debris cloud. Estimates of the diameter of the projectile range from 100 to 500 m. By many orders of magnitude, this is the most massive achondrite sampled by a single meteorite fall.

Kyte, F. T.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Atmospheric entry survival of large micrometeorites: Implications for their sources and for the cometary contribution to the zodiacal cloud

Atmospheric entry heating simulations indicate that a large fraction of the micrometeorites larger than 100 microns in diameter which survive atmospheric entry must have entered the Earth's atmosphere with velocities very near the Earth's escape velocity. Thus, these particles must have been captured by Earth from heliocentric orbits with small eccentricities and low inclinations, indicating a main-belt asteroidal source. Space exposure ages measured on these large micrometeorites are also consistent with a main-belt asteroidal source. However, dynamical calculations have previously indicated that particles larger than 100 microns in diameter were likely to be destroyed by catastrophic collisions in the time required for orbital evolution from the main-belt to Earth capture by Poynting-Robertson drag. The absence of a large amount of collisional debris in the less than 50 microns size range indicates these large micrometeorites are not the few, rare survivors of a mostly collisionally disrupted population. The measured space exposure ages, which are about an order of magnitude larger than their calculated catastrophic collision lifetimes, confirm the survival of these large micrometeorites for times much longer than the calculated catastrophic collision lifetimes. Since collisions with cometary dust less than 20 microns in size were expected to be the major contributor to the collisional destruction of these larger particles, the contribution of cometary material to the zodiacal cloud is likely to be much smaller than previously believed.

Flynn, George J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Distributed Spatiotemporal Motion Planning for Spacecraft Swarms in Cluttered Environments

This paper focuses on trajectory planning for spacecraft swarms in cluttered environments, like debris fields or the asteroid belt. Our objective is to reconfigure the spacecraft swarm to a desired formation in a distributed manner while minimizing fuel and avoiding collisions among themselves and with obstacles. In our prior work we proposed a novel distributed guidance algorithm for spacecraft swarms in static environments. In this paper, we present the Multi-Agent Moving-Obstacles Spherical Expansion and Sequential Convex Programming (MAMO SE-SCP) algorithm that extends our prior work to include spatiotemporal constraints such as time-varying, moving obstacles and desired time-varying terminal positions. In the MAMO SE-SCP algorithm, each agent uses a spherical-expansion-based sampling algorithm to cooperatively explore the time-varying environment, a distributed assignment algorithm to agree on the terminal position for each agent, and a sequential-convex-programming-based optimization step to compute the locally-optimal trajectories from the current location to the assigned time-varying terminal position while avoiding collision with other agents and moving obstacles. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed distributed algorithm can be used by a spacecraft swarm to achieve a time-varying, desired formation around an object of interest in a dynamic environment with many moving and tumbling obstacles.

Bandyopadhyay, Saptarshi↗
NASA NTRS2017

Distributed Spatiotemporal Motion Planning for Spacecraft Swarms in Cluttered Environments

This paper focuses on trajectory planning for spacecraft swarms in cluttered environments, like debris fields or the asteroid belt. Our objective is to reconfigure the spacecraft swarm to a desired formation in a distributed manner while minimizing fuel and avoiding collisions among themselves and with the obstacles. In our prior work we proposed a novel distributed guidance algorithm for spacecraft swarms in static environments.1 In this paper, we present the Multi-Agent Moving-Obstacles Spherical Expansion and Sequential Convex Programming (MAMO SE–SCP) algorithm that extends our prior work to include spatiotemporal constraints such as time-varying, moving obstacles and desired time-varying terminal positions. In the MAMO SE–SCP algorithm, each agent uses a spherical-expansion-based sampling algorithm to cooperatively explore the time-varying environment, a distributed assignment algorithm to agree on the terminal position for each agent, and a sequential-convex-programming-based optimization step to compute the locally-optimal trajectories from the current location to the assigned time-varying terminal position while avoiding collision with other agent and the moving obstacles. Simulations results demonstrate that the proposed distributed algorithm can be used by a spacecraft swarm to achieve a time-varying, desired formation around an object of interest in a dynamic environment with many moving and tumbling obstacles.

Hadaegh, Fred Y.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Experimental Simulations of Large-Scale Collisions

This report summarizes research on the effects of target porosity on the mechanics of impact cratering. Impact experiments conducted on a centrifuge provide direct simulations of large-scale cratering on porous asteroids. The experiments show that large craters in porous materials form mostly by compaction, with essentially no deposition of material into the ejecta blanket that is a signature of cratering in less-porous materials. The ratio of ejecta mass to crater mass is shown to decrease with increasing crater size or target porosity. These results are consistent with the observation that large closely-packed craters on asteroid Mathilde appear to have formed without degradation to earlier craters.

Housen, Kevin R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Collisional and dynamical processes in moon and planet formation

The collisional and dynamical processes in moon and planet formation are discussed. A hydrodynamic code of collision calculations, the orbital element changes due to gravitational scattering, a validation of the mass shifting algorithm, a theory of rotations, and the origin of asteroids are studied. A numerical model of planet growth is discussed and a methodology to evaluate the rate at which megaregolith increases its depth as a function of total accumulate number of impacts on an initially smooth, coherent surface is described.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2020

Evolution of the Preliminary Fault Management Architecture and Design for the Psyche Mission

The Psyche Mission presents the first opportunity toexplore the largest metal asteroid in the solar system, (16)Psyche, which is believed to be the exposed core of a largerplanetesimal that was stripped of its rocky mantle throughmultiple collisions during early solar system formation. Themission was selected in January 2017 for a 2022 launch as partof NASA’s Discovery Program and is uniquely enabled by theintegration of a Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassisdelivered by Maxar Space Solutions with JPL’s core deepspace avionics, flight software, and fault managementarchitectures. One of the key design tasks is the development ofa fault management system capable of being responsive to theunique elements of the combined JPL and Maxar spacecraftarchitecture. This new design leverages the strengths of eachorganization, with Maxar delivering its well-proven highvoltage power bus and low-thrust electric propulsionsubsystem from its GEO communications satellite product line,and JPL delivering its deep space mission expertise and thehardware and software most critical to deep space missiondesign. The development of a robust low-thrust mission andthe integration of design philosophies and hardware from twoorganizations is not without its challenges though.A key challenge in the development of the Psyche faultmanagement architecture and design is in the integration ofdesign philosophies and hardware from JPL and Maxar. Atthe architecture level, Maxar GEO communications satellitesare developed under the premise of highly responsive groundin the loop for the resolution of anomalies, and theimplementation takes a fail-operational approach to minimizedown time for its customers. In contrast, a deep space missionmust be able to maintain safety with long periods of groundcommunication outage. Additionally, with no time-criticalevents after launch, the Psyche spacecraft will generally failsafe in the presence of anomalous conditions; specialconsideration is being given to this approach, however, tominimize the loss of electric propulsion thrust time, which iscritical to low-thrust missions. At the hardware level, thedetailed definition of interfaces between JPL and Maxarhardware presents a unique challenge in the development andflowdown of fault management requirements, the developmentand implementation of fault monitors and responses, and thedevelopment and verification of fault containment boundaries.This paper describes the evolution of the Psyche faultmanagement architecture and design from the concept studyinto the preliminary design phase, with a focus on the uniquechallenges associated with flying GEO communicationssatellite hardware in deep space, implementing a robust lowthrust mission, and the integration of design philosophies andhardware from JPL and Maxar. Details regarding how thesechallenges are addressed in the fault management design inorder to maximize heritage, leverage the strengths of eachorganization, and minimize risk across the design are alsodiscussed.

Marsh, Danielle↗
NASA NTRS1987

A photoelectric survey of 130 asteroids

Asteroid collisional evolution has been investigated by an observational survey conducted on 150 nights from November, 1982, to February, 1985. Attention is given to the function of collisions in the clearing of the Kirkwood 3/1 resonance gap and the formation and evolution of the Eos and Koronis families. When combined, the more than 400 lightcurves obtained allowed the derivation of rotational periods and lightcurve amplitudes. In addition, B-V and U-B colors were obtained for most of the objects. Absolute magnitudes have been computed, and a tabulation of observational circumstances is presented.

Binzel, Richard P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Comments on collision mechanics in ring systems

Collisions within planetary ring systems, especially Saturn's, are discussed. The particles may have coherent icy cores and less coherent granular or frosty surface layers, consistent with thermal eclipse observations. Collisions do not cause catastrophic fragmentation of the particles, although minor surface erosion and reaccretion is possible. Evolution by collisional fragmentation is thus not as important as in the asteroid belt. Models suggest that the fractional number of projectile masses dislodged when solid (or solid-core) projectiles strike solid ice or granular surface layers does not exceed the order of 10 to the minus 7th to minus 9th power. Even at this rate, the half life of ring particles would be less than the age of the solar system in crowded ring regions unless there was very efficient reaccretion. A plausible ring particle model involves solid ice cores with granular surface layers that exchange material by slow erosion and efficient reaccretion; the granular layers protect the cores from rapid erosion.

Hartmann, W. K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Photometry of Pluto-Charon mutual events and Hirayama family asteroids

Once every 124 years, nature provides earth-bound astronomers with the opportunity to observe occultation and transit phenomena between Pluto and its satellite, Charon. Ground-based observations of these events will allow precise physical parameters for the Pluto-Charon system to be derived which are unlikely to be improved upon until in situ spacecraft observations are obtained. The proposed program will continue to support photometry observations from McDonald Observatory, a critical location in an international Pluto Campaign network. Knowledge of the diameters, masses, densities, and compositions derived from these observations will augment our understanding of Pluto's origin and its context within the problem of solar system formation. A second task will continue to research the evolutionary processes which have occurred in the asteroid belt by measuring the physical properties of specific Hirayama family members. Photoelectric lightcurve observations of Koronis and Themis family members will be used to investigate the individual catastrophic collision events which formed each family. By comparing these properties with results of laboratory and numerical experiments, the outcomes of catastrophic disruptions and collisional evolution may be more precisely determined.

Binzel, Richard P.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Collisional Processing of Comet and Asteroid Surfaces: Velocity Effects on Absorption Spectra

A new paradigm has emerged where 3.9 Gyr ago, a violent reshuffling reshaped the placement of small bodies in the solar system (the Nice model). Surface properties of these objects may have been affected by collisions caused by this event, and by collisions with other small bodies since their emplacement. These impacts affect the spectrographic observations of these bodies today. Shock effects (e.g., planar dislocations) manifest in minerals allowing astronomers to better understand geophysical impact processing that has occurred on small bodies. At the Experimental Impact Laboratory at NASA Johnson Space Center, we have impacted forsterite and enstatite across a range of velocities. We find that the amount of spectral variation, absorption wavelength, and full width half maximum of the absorbance peaks vary non-linearly with the velocity of the impact. We also find that the spectral variation increases with decreasing crystal size (single solid rock versus granular). Future analyses include quantification of the spectral changes with different impactor densities, temperature, and additional impact velocities. Results on diopside, fayalite, and magnesite can be found in Lederer et al., this meeting.

Lederer, S. M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

The outer satellites of Jupiter

Photometry and spectrophotometry of the Jovian outer satellites are used to throw light on the problem of their formation. The main plausible mechanisms for the formation of these satellites are discussd, including capture and breakup in the proto-Jovian nebula, collision within Jupiter's gravitational sphere of influence, and capture through the Jovian Lagrangian points after dissipation of the proto-Jovian nebula. UBV, VRI, and JHK color diagrams for various asteroids are used to show their similarity to the outer Jovian satellites. The evidence suggests that at least two outer Jovian satellites are comparable to C-type asteroids, and that two others are more nearly comparable to RD-type bodies. The apparent C-type satellites are both in the prograde cluster and the apparent RD-types are in the retrograde cluster. The Gradie and Veverka (1980) hypothesis that the reflectances and albedo characteristics of RD bodies may be due to aromatic kerogenlike compounds is discussed.

Cruikshank, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Ulysses dust measurements near Jupiter

Submicrometer- to micrometer-sized particles were recorded by the Ulysses dust detector within 40 days of the Jupiter flyby. Nine impacts were recorded within 50 Jupiter radii with most of them recorded after closest approach. Three of these impacts are consistent with particles on prograde orbits around Jupiter and the rest are believed to have resulted from gravitationally focused interplanetary dust. From the ratio of the impact rate before the Jupiter flyby to the impact rate after the Jupiter flyby it is concluded that interplanetary dust particles at the distance of Jupiter move on mostly retrograde orbits. On 10 March 1992, Ulysses passed through an intense dust stream. The dust detector recorded 126 impacts within 26 hours. The stream particles were moving on highly inclined and apparently hyperbolic orbits with perihelion distances of greater than 5 astronomical units. Interplanetary dust is lost rather quickly from the solar system through collisions and other mechanisms and must be almost continuously replenished to maintain observed abundances. Dust flux measurements, therefore, give evidence of the recent rates of production from sources such as comets, asteroids, and moons, as well as the possible presence of interstellar grains.

Gruen, Eberhard↗
NASA NTRS2002

Laser Prevention of Earth Impact Disasters

We now believe that while there are about 2000 earth orbit crossing rocks greater than 1 kilometer in diameter, there may be as many as 100,000 or more objects in the 100m size range. Can anything be done about this fundamental existence question facing us? The answer is a resounding yes! We have the technology to prevent collisions. By using an intelligent combination of Earth and space based sensors coupled with an infrastructure of high-energy laser stations and other secondary mitigation options, we can deflect inbound asteroids, meteoroids, and comets and prevent them from striking the Earth. This can be accomplished by irradiating the surface of an inbound rock with sufficiently intense pulses so that ablation occurs. This ablation acts as a small rocket incrementally changing the shape of the rock's orbit around the Sun. One-kilometer size rocks can be moved sufficiently in a month while smaller rocks may be moved in a shorter time span.We recommend that the World's space objectives be immediately reprioritized to start us moving quickly towards a multiple option defense capability. While lasers should be the primary approach, all mitigation options depend on robust early warning, detection, and tracking resources to find objects sufficiently prior to Earth orbit passage in time to allow mitigation. Infrastructure options should include ground, LEO, GEO, Lunar, and libration point laser and sensor stations for providing early warning, tracking, and deflection. Other options should include space interceptors that will carry both laser and nuclear ablators for close range work. Response options must be developed to deal with the consequences of an impact should we move too slowly.

Campbell, J.↗