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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Impact craters on Venus

Compared with volcanism and tectonism, impact cratering on Venus has played an overall minor role in sculpting the present-day landscape. The study of Venus impact craters is vital to help place the chronology of the geologic features on the surface in the context of the planet's geological evolution. The degradation of impact craters also provides information on surface and interior processes, particularly alteration by tectonism and volcanism. Through orbit 1422, Magellan mapped about 450 impact craters, with diameters ranging from 2 to 275 km, within an area of about 226 million sq km, or 49 percent of the planet's surface. These craters and their associated deposits show surprisingly little evidence of degradation at the 75 m/pixel resolution of the Magellan SAR. Remarkably few craters in the Magellan images appear to be in the process of being buried by volcanic deposits or destroyed by tectonic activity.

Schaber, G. G.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Layered Deposits of Arabia Terra and Meridiani Planum: Keys to the Habitability of Ancient Mars

Understanding the habitability of ancient Mars is a key goal in the exploration of that planet. Evidence for conditions favorable to early life must be sought in ancient sedimentary rocks, such as those of Arabia Terra and Meridiani Planum. Arabia Terra, the northernmost extension of the ancient highlands, is dominated by cratered plains and minor ridged units. These plains extend south into the adjacent Meridiani Planum. The Opportunity rover landed in northern Meridiani, close to the border with Arabia. High resolution MOC images reveal extensive layered sequences across much of the Arabia and Meridiani region. These layers have been interpreted as eroded remnants of sedimentary rock deposits (Edgett, 2005). The layered sequences are concentrated in the SW quadrant of Arabia and in northern Meridiani. Preliminary mapping by Edgett (2005) distinguished four large scale layered sequences in the Arabia and Meridiani region. These have dimensions of hundreds to more than 1,000 km. MOLA altimetry shows that each of the sequences can attain a thickness of 200 to 400 m, with a total thickness greater than 1 km. The sequences are generally flat lying, with regional slopes of a few degrees. Much finer layering is evident within a number of craters. The plains and ridged units of the Arabia and Meridiani region were originally mapped as Noachian based on crater statistics, particularly the number of large craters (Scott and Carr, 1978). The layered sequences in the current study postdate many, but not all, of these large craters. The layered sequences have partially or totally filled a number of craters with diameters ranging from 20 to over 50 km. The topmost layered sequence, as well as the lower two sequences, have intermediate thermal inertia, as derived from THEMIS, indicative of moderate induration. The TES spectra from the lower sequences include features indicative of basalt. Some areas of the topmost sequence, which includes the Opportunity landing site, have TES spectra dominated by hematite. Just below this topmost sequence lies a sequence with higher thermal inertia, indicative of more indurated or coarser grained material. The TES spectra of this sequence lack distinctive mineral features, and the rocks may be obscured by a thin coating of dust. The layers have been extensively eroded. The uppermost sequences are characterized by deeply scalloped boundaries. Filled craters have been partially exhumed. Finely layered deposits within craters have been strongly dissected. Landforms uniquely attributable to wind erosion are rare, but erosive styles and geomorphology characteristic of water and possibly ice are present. The layered sequences in Arabia Terra and Meridiani Planum likely reflect an epoch when the planet was much more habitable than it is today. Several areas in these layered sequences are under intensive study as candidate landing sites for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory.

Allen, Carlton C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Galileo Satellite Tour: Orbit Determination Performance

The Galileo mission is an ambitious attempt to explore the Jovian system by spacecraft. This voyage of exploration is a logical successor to the reconnaissance voyages of Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, and Ulysses. These spacecraft merely flew past Jupiter, spending relatively little time in its system. Galileo differs from these earlier spacecraft in that it will remain within the Jovian system, studying the planet and its four major satellites for a period of two years. Insertion into orbit around Jupiter will occur on December 7, 1995. The portion of the mission encompassing observations of Jupiter and the major and minor satellites, and magnetospheric mapping, has become known as the Jovian tour. During this period Galileo will encounter each of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto at least three times on trajectories that will bring it to altitudes from 200 to 3100 kilometers.

Haw, R. J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lagrange-Based Options for Relay Satellites to Eliminate Earth-Mars Communications Outages During Solar Superior Conjunctions

Recent conjunction class Mars human mission plans have generally assumed that there will inevitably be periods of communications outages between Earth and Mars. This has significant cost and risk implications for not only Mars missions, but also precursor missions in the lunar environment. But are there ways to avoid these outages? The potential exists for communications to be interrupted by Solar Superior Conjunctions (SSCs). Depending on the communications system, used, there can be communications outages up to as many as 78 days. The higher bandwidth systems experience the greatest outage. If these communications channels are interrupted due to an SSC, there are of course resulting challenges to mission operations. An outage of a few days to a few weeks could allow minor disturbances to become major concerns or even trigger subsystems failures. An inability to consult with the ground at the wrong time could result in loss of mission, loss of an element, or loss of life. Each planet in the solar system has a set of five Lagrange points associated with it and the Sun. At any given point in time, a planet or either its L4 or L5 point is visible to any other planet in the solar system, regardless of the position of the sun relative to the two. Thus, L4 and L5 have high value as relay systems to prevent communications outages. There are four sets of solar Lagrange points that may be of potential use in this study: Mars-Sun L4 and L5 points, Earth-Sun L4 and L5, Venus-Sun L4 and L5, and Mercury-Sun L4 and L5. A candidate relay satellite system will be identified, with consideration of both new technology developments and existing telecommunications satellites. This system may have implications for not only the Mars human mission architectures, but also Gateway and human lunar surface architectures as these other studies are tasked with paving the way to human Mars missions. If Mars communications outages can be eliminated, then the degree of autonomy necessary in Mars and precursor systems may be reduced.

Relay Satellite↗
NASA NTRS1984

New model of Saturn's ionosphere with an influx of water from the rings

A radically different model of Saturn's ionosphere is proposed in which water plays a major role as a minor constituent present by downward diffusion from an external source. The model ionosphere is a classical F2 type layer resulting from the photodissociative production of H(+) from H2 and rapid chemical loss by a series of charge exchange reactions with water. A planet-wide influx of about 4 x 10 to the 7th molecules/sq cm/s of water from the rings is consistent with the observed ionospheric electron densities. An enhanced influx of water occurs at latitudes (-38, +44 deg) connected magnetically at the inner edge of Saturn's B ring, where an electromagnetic erosion process takes place. The present-day influx at these latitudes may be as large as 2 x 10 to the 9th molecules/sq cm/s.

Connerney, J. E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Impacts of free-floating objects: Unique Space Station experiments

The transfer of momentum and kinetic energy between planetary bodies forms the basis for wide-ranging problems in planetary science ranging from the collective long-term effects of minor perturbations to the catastrophic singular effect of a major collision. In the former case, the evolution of asteroid spin rates and orientations and planetary rotation rates are cited. In the latter case, the catastrophic angular momenta and the near-global disruption of partially molten planets are included. Although the collisional transfer of momentum and energy were discussed over the last two decades, major issues remain that largely reflect current limitations in earth-based experimental conditions and 3-D numerical codes. Two examples with potential applications in a Space Station laboratory are presented.

Schultz, Peter H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

MW-Class Electric Propulsion System Designs for Mars Cargo Transport

Multi-kilowatt electric propulsion systems are well developed and have been used on commercial and military satellites in Earth orbit for several years. Ion and Hall thrusters have also propelled robotic spacecraft to encounters with asteroids, the Moon, and minor planetary bodies within the solar system. High power electric propulsion systems are currently being considered to support piloted missions to near earth asteroids, as cargo transport for sustained lunar or Mars exploration, and for very high-power piloted missions to Mars and the outer planets. Using NASA Mars Design Architecture 5.0 as a reference, a preliminary parametric analysis was performed to determine the suitability of a nuclear powered, MW-class electric propulsion system for Mars cargo transport. For this initial analysis, high power 100-kW Hall thrusters and 250-kW VASIMR engines were separately evaluated to determine optimum vehicle architecture and estimated performance. The DRA 5.0 cargo mission closed for both propulsion options, delivering a 100 t payload to Mars orbit and reducing the number of heavy lift launch vehicles from five in the baseline DRA 5.0 architecture to two using electric propulsion. Under an imposed single engine-out mission success criteria, the VASIMR system took longer to reach Mars than did the Hall system, arising from the need to operate the VASIMR thrusters in pairs during the spiral out from low Earth orbit.

Gilland, James H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Observations of the Minor Species Al, Fe and Ca(+) in Mercury's Exosphere

We report the first detections of Al and Fe, and strict upper limits for Ca(+) in the exosphere of Mercury, using the HIRES spectrometer at the Keck I telescope. We report observed 4-sigma tangent columns of 1.5x10(exp 7) Al atoms per square centimeter at an altitude of 1220 km (1.5 Mercury radii (R(sub M)) from planet center), and that for Fe of 1.6 x 10 per square centimeter at an altitude of 950 km (1.4 R(sub M)). The observed 3-sigma Ca(+) column was 3.9x10(exp 6) ions per square centimeter at an altitude of 1630 km (1.67 R(sub M). A simple model for zenith column abundances of the neutral species were 9.5 x 10(exp 7) Al per square centimeter, and 3.0 x 10(exp 8) Fe per square centimeter. The observations appear to be consistent with production of these species by impact vaporization with a large fraction of the ejecta in molecular form. The scale height of the Al gas is consistent with a kinetic temperature of 3000 - 9000 K while that of Fe is 10500 K. The apparent high temperature of the Fe gas would suggest that it may be produced by dissociation of molecules. A large traction of both Al and Fe appear to condense in a vapor cloud at low altitudes.

Bida, Thomas A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Wet model of Saturn's ionosphere: Water from the rings

Current theoretical models of Saturn's ionosphere are difficult to reconcile with the ionospheric electron density profiles obtained from the Pioneer and Voyager radio occultation observations and the large diurnal variation of maximum ionospheric electron density deduced from studies of Saturn lightning discharges. A model of Saturn's ionosphere is proposed in which water plays a major role as a minor constituent present by virtue of downward diffusion from an external source. This model of the Saturn ionosphere is a classical 'F2' type layer resulting from the photodissociative production of H(+) from H2 and rapid chemical loss due to a series of charge exchange reactions with water. A planet-wide influx of about 4x10 to the 7th power molecules/sec/sq cm of water from the rings is consistent with the observed ionospheric electron densities and estimates of influx due to micrometeoride bombardment of the rings. An enhanced influx of water occurs at latitudes (-38 deg, +44 deg) magnetically connected to the inner edge of Saturn's B ring which results from an electromagnetic erosion process contributing substantially to the (local) upper atmosphere water content. Present day influx at these latitudes is possibly as large as 2x10 to the 9th power molecules/sec/sq cm.

Connerney, J. E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1998

The Solar Wind

The first evidence of the solar wind was provided through observations of comet tail deflections by L. Biermann in 1951. A cometary ion tail is oriented along the difference between the cometary and solar wind velocities, whereas the dust tail is in the antisunward direction; the ion tail directions demonstrated the existence of an outflow of ionized gas from the Sun (the solar wind) and allowed estimates of solar wind speed. Spacecraft observations have now established that at 1 AU the solar wind has a typical ion number density of about 7 /cc and is composed by number of about 95% protons and 5% Helium, with other minor ions also present. The solar wind as observed at 1 AU in the ecliptic has speeds typically in the range 300-700 km/ s. At such speeds ions travel from the Sun to 1 AU in from 2.5 to 6 days. The impact of the solar wind on planets with magnetic fields (Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) causes phenomena such as magnetospheres, aurorae, and geomagnetic storms, whereas at objects lacking magnetospheres (Mars, Venus, comets), atmospheric neutrals undergo charge exchange and are picked up by the solar wind flow. The solar wind also shields the Earth from low energy cosmic rays, and is responsible for the existence of the anomalous component of the cosmic rays a low energy component that is created locally rather than in the galaxy. Presented here is a brief introduction to the solar wind and a description of some current topics of research. Solar wind properties vary a great deal due to the changing magnetic structure on the Sun.

Goldstein, B. E.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Time Synchronization and Distribution Mechanisms for Space Networks

This work discusses research on the problems of synchronizing and distributing time information between spacecraft based on the Network Time Protocol (NTP), where NTP is a standard time synchronization protocol widely used in the terrestrial network. The Proximity-1 Space Link Interleaved Time Synchronization (PITS) Protocol was designed and developed for synchronizing spacecraft that are in proximity where proximity is less than 100,000 km distant. A particular application is synchronization between a Mars orbiter and rover. Lunar scenarios as well as outer-planet deep space mother-ship-probe missions may also apply. Spacecraft with more accurate time information functions as a time-server, and the other spacecraft functions as a time-client. PITS can be easily integrated and adaptable to the CCSDS Proximity-1 Space Link Protocol with minor modifications. In particular, PITS can take advantage of the timestamping strategy that underlying link layer functionality provides for accurate time offset calculation. The PITS algorithm achieves time synchronization with eight consecutive space network time packet exchanges between two spacecraft. PITS can detect and avoid possible errors from receiving duplicate and out-of-order packets by comparing with the current state variables and timestamps. Further, PITS is able to detect error events and autonomously recover from unexpected events that can possibly occur during the time synchronization and distribution process. This capability achieves an additional level of protocol protection on top of CRC or Error Correction Codes. PITS is a lightweight and efficient protocol, eliminating the needs for explicit frame sequence number and long buffer storage. The PITS protocol is capable of providing time synchronization and distribution services for a more general domain where multiple entities need to achieve time synchronization using a single point-to-point link.

Woo, Simon S.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Signatures in Martian Volatiles and the Magma Sources of NC Meteorites

We report nitrogen and xenon isotopic signatures in Yamato nakhlites and use the data to assess properties of the magma source of NC meteorites in planet Mars. The Chassigny meteorite was investigated by Floran et al, who classified it as a cumulate dunite with hydrous amphibole-bearing melt inclusions with no preferred orientation of the olivines. Their inferred composition of the parent magma, which was based on electron microprobe analyses, has been questioned. The trace and minor elements in minerals were analyzed in nakhlites and in Chassigny and the authors conclude that nakhlites may represent samples from different horizons of the same lithologic unit, but that Chassigny was not co-magmatic with the nakhlites.

Marti, K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

On the nature of global classification

Molecular sequencing technology has brought biology into the era of global (universal) classification. Methodologically and philosophically, global classification differs significantly from traditional, local classification. The need for uniformity requires that higher level taxa be defined on the molecular level in terms of universally homologous functions. A global classification should reflect both principal dimensions of the evolutionary process: genealogical relationship and quality and extent of divergence within a group. The ultimate purpose of a global classification is not simply information storage and retrieval; such a system should also function as an heuristic representation of the evolutionary paradigm that exerts a directing influence on the course of biology. The global system envisioned allows paraphyletic taxa. To retain maximal phylogenetic information in these cases, minor notational amendments in existing taxonomic conventions should be adopted.

NASA Program Exobiology↗
NASA NTRS2012

In Situ Analysis of Orthopyroxene in Diogenites Using Laser Ablation ICP-MS

Howardites, eucrites and diogenites (HED) form a suit of igneous achondrite meteorites that are thought to have formed on a single asteroidal body. While there have been many different models proposed for the formation of the HED parent asteroid they can be generalized into two end member models. One is the magma ocean model (e.g. [1]) in which the entire HED parent body was continuously fractionated from a planet wide magma ocean with diogenites representing the lower crust and eucrites being upper crustal rocks. The second model hypothesizes that diogenites and eucrites were formed as a series of intrusions and/or extrusions of partial melts of a primitive proto-Vesta [2]. We use in situ trace element analysis together with major and minor element analysis to try and distinguish between these different hypotheses for the evolution of the HED parent body.

Elk, Mattias↗
NASA NTRS2002

Migration of Matter from the Edgeworth-Kuiper and Main Asteroid Belts to the Earth

The main asteroid belt (MAB), the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt (EKB), and comets belong to the main sources of dust in the Solar System. Most of Jupiter-family comets came from the EKB. Comets can be distracted due to close encounters with planets and the Sun, collisions with small bodies, a nd internal forces. We support the Eneev's idea that the largest objects in the ELB and MAB could be formed directly by the compression of rarefied dust condensations of the protoplanetary cloud but not by the accretion of small (for example, 1-km) planetesimals. The total mass of planetesimals that entered the EKB from the feeding zone of the giant planets during their accumulation could exceed tens of Earth's masses. These planetesimals increased eccentricities of 'local' trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and swept most of these TNOs. A small portion of such planetesimals could left beyond Neptune's orbit in highly eccentric orbits. The results of previous investigations of migration and collisional evolution of minor bodies were summarized. Mainly our recent results are presented.

Ipatov. S. I.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Abundances of molecules in planetary atmospheres from middle infrared spectroscopic observations

The application of middle-infrared spectroscopy to the study of molecular abundances in planetary atmospheres is discussed with particular reference to the Jovian atmosphere. Data on the observed composition of the Jovian atmosphere are examined with speculation as to the sources of the minor components. Solar and Jovian elemental abundances are contrasted, and a dynamical meteorological model of Jupiter's atmosphere is summarized. An observed high-altitude spectrum of Jupiter is compared with synthetic H2O spectra calculated for two abundances (solar and observed). The observed composition of Saturn's atmosphere is reported, and middle-IR studies of terrestrial planets are surveyed.

Larson, H. P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Thermal and humidity winds in outer planet atmospheres

Among the dynamical consequences of molecular weight variations due to condensation in hydrogen atmospheres is the creation of geostrophic wind variations by horizontal variations in molecular weight. In the present illustrative model, it is shown that such horizontal gradients are generated by methane condensation in the cases of the Uranus and Neptune atmospheres. As a result, the zonal wind shear is different in both magnitude and direction from the value determined while neglecting molecular weight variations. The horizontal molecular weight gradients due to condensation of minor constituents also vertically shear the zonal wind, giving rise to what may be termed the 'humidity wind'.

Sun, Zi-Ping↗
NASA NTRS1993

New dust opacity mapping from Viking Infrared Thermal Mapper data

Global dust opacity mapping for Mars has been carried forward using the approach described by Martin (1986) for Viking IR Thermal Mapper data. New maps are presented for the period from the beginning of Viking observations, until Ls 210 deg in 1979 (1.36 Mars years). This range includes the second and more extensive planet-encircling dust storm observed by Viking, known as storm 1977b. Improvements in approach result in greater time resolution and smaller noise than in the earlier work. A strong local storm event filled the Hellas basin at Ls 170 deg, prior to the 1977a storm. Dust is retained in equatorial regions following the 1977b storm far longer than in mid-latitudes. Minor dust events appear to raise the opacity in northern high latitudes during northern spring. Additional mapping with high time resolution has been done for the periods of time near the major storm origins in order to search for clues to the mechanism of storm initiation. The first evidence of the start of the 1977b storm is pushed back to Ls 274.2 deg, preceding signs of the storm in images by about 15 hours.

Martin, Terry Z.↗