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At least 325 records · Page 18

The Use of Subcarriers in Future DSN Missions

The performance of deep space telemetry signals that employ a residual carrier modulation technique is compared in the presence and absence of a subcarrier. When the subcarrier is present, the performance for the resulting pulse-coded modulation/phase-shift keyed/phase-modulated (PCM/PSK/PM) scheme is evaluated for both sine wave and square wave subcarriers and non-return-to zero (NRZ) data. When the subcarrier is absent, the performance for the resulting PCM/PM technique is evaluated for both the NRZ and the bi-phase data format. The comparison is based on telemetry performance as well as bandwidth efficiency. The first criterion is characterized in terms of the symbol error rate (SER) as a function of symbol SNR, loop bandwidth-to-data rate ratio, and modulation index. The bandwidth efficiency is characterized by the occupancy factor. The results of both the analysis and measurements show that when the interference-to-carrier ratio (ICR) is less than -15 dB, the performance degradation in the absence of a subcarrier is negligible. Various combinations of loop bandwidth-to-data rate ratios and modulation indices that achieve this performance are derived and listed. Bandwidth occupancy comparison indicates that PCM/PM/NRZ is the most efficient in this regard. Therefore, by eliminating the subcarrier and using the PCM/PM/NRZ scheme, many advantages can be realized without any sacrifice in performance.

Shihabi, M. M.↗

Energy-absorbing-beam design for composite aircraft subfloors

Data have been presented from the design support testing of composite energy absorbing (EA) aircraft subfloor structures. The focus of the current study is the design and testing of subfloor structural concepts that would limit the loads transmitted to occupants to less than 20 g at crush speeds of approximately 30 fps. The EA composite subfloor is being designed to replace an existing noncrashworthy metallic subfloor in a composite aircraft prior to a full-scale crash test. A sandwich spar construction of a sine wave beam was chosen for evaluation and was found to have excellent energy absorbing characteristics. The design objective of obtaining sustained crushing loads of the spar between 200-300 lbf/inch were achieved for potentially limiting occupants loads to around 20 g's. Stroke efficiency of up to 79 percent of the initial spar height under desired sustained crushing loads was obtained which is far greater than the level provided by metal structure. Additionally, a substantial residual spar stiffness was retained after impact, and the flange integrity, which is critical for seat retention, was maintained after crushing of the spars.

Carden, Huey D.↗

Accelerations and Passenger Harness Loads Measured in Full-Scale Light-Airplane Crashes

Full-scale light-airplane crashes simulating stall-spin accidents were conducted to determine the decelerations to which occupants are exposed and the resulting harness forces encountered in this type of accident. Crashes at impact speeds from 42 to 60 miles per hour were studied. The airplanes used were of the familiar steel-tube, fabric-covered, tandem, two-seat type. In crashes up to an impact speed of 60 miles per hour, crumpling of the forward fuselage structure prevented the maximum deceleration at the rear-seat location from exceeding 26 to 33g. This maximum g value appeared independent of the impact speed. Restraining forces in the seatbelt - shoulder-harness combination reached 5800 pounds. The rear-seat occupant can survive crashes of the type studied at impact speeds up to 60 miles per hour, if body movement is restrained by an adequate seatbelt-shoulder-harness combination so as to prevent injurious contact with obstacles normally present in the cabin. Inwardly collapsing cabin structure, however, is a potential hazard in the higher-speed crashes.

Eiband, A. Martin↗

Baseline characteristics of different strata of astronaut corps

The Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health (LSAH) is an epidemiological study designed to study the effects of the occupational exposures incurred by astronauts in health outcomes and changes in physiological variables. Between 1959 and 1991, 195 individuals were selected for the program. The medical standards for selection have remained essentially unchanged since the Mercury Program, but the range and stringency of these criteria have been modified. Demographic and physiological variables identified during the selection year are examined for various strata of the Astronaut Corps. Specifically, age, sex, race, education, usual occupation, military affiliation, medical history, family medical history, visual and hearing measurements, physical exam variables, and specific laboratory values are investigated. Differences are examined in astronauts for the following criteria: (1) were selected prior to 1970 (n = 73) versus those selected after 1970 (n = 122); (2) have flown multiple missions versus those who have flown less than two missions; (3) have walked in space versus all others; (4) have more than 500 hours of mission time versus all others; and (5) have gone to the Moon versus all others. Length of time served in the Astronaut Corps is examined for each of these strata.

Hamm, Peggy B.↗

Efficient management of cardiovascular risk screening programs

The Environmental Health Unit, located on-site at the the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), is responsible for the implementation of the Center's Employee Environmental and Occupational Health Program. The Health Unit, Health Physics (HP), and Industrial Hygiene (IH) staffs collaborate to provide quality service to the employees at GSFC. The Health Unit staff identifies, evaluates, and ensures the control of occupational hazards on the Center. In the past, components of the Industrial Hygiene Program have included the Industrial Hygiene Health Hazard Identification Program (IHHIP), the Hearing Conservation Program (HCP), the Hazard Communication Program, and the bi-annual fume hood survey. More recently, the Environmental Health Unit has expanded its services by adding the Ergonomics Program. Various aspects of the Ergonomics Program are discussed.

Roth, Carol↗

Bloodborne Pathogens Program

The final rule on the Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 6, 1991. This Standard, 29 CFR Part 1910.130, is expected to prevent 8,900 hepatitis B infections and nearly 200 deaths a year in healthcare workers in the U.S. The Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health Services at KSC has been planning to implement this standard for several years. Various aspects of this standard and its Bloodborne Pathogens Program at KSC are discussed.

Blasdell, Sharon↗

OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standards Exposure Control Plan

The Hummer Associates Exposure Control Plan is designed to reduce significant occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens and infectious materials for Hummer Associates health care personnel. Under universal precautions, all patients and all body fluids are considered potentially infectious for bloodborne pathogens. Medical personnel need not be at increased risk if universal precautions are correctly understood and followed. This program covers all employees who could reasonably anticipate contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials during the performance of their job responsibilities. Although HIV and hepatitis B are mentioned most often, this program applies to all bloodborne diseases. The two main components needed to implement this program are universal precautions and engineering/work practice controls. This program covers all employees who may have occupational exposure to blood or other potentially infectious materials. Other aspects of this program are discussed.

Luhrs, Caro Elise↗

Development of microgravity, full body functional reach envelope using 3-D computer graphic models and virtual reality technology

In microgravity conditions mobility is greatly enhanced and body stability is difficult to achieve. Because of these difficulties, optimum placement and accessibility of objects and controls can be critical to required tasks on board shuttle flights or on the proposed space station. Anthropometric measurement of the maximum reach of occupants of a microgravity environment provide knowledge about maximum functional placement for tasking situations. Calculations for a full body, functional reach envelope for microgravity environments are imperative. To this end, three dimensional computer modeled human figures, providing a method of anthropometric measurement, were used to locate the data points that define the full body, functional reach envelope. Virtual reality technology was utilized to enable an occupant of the microgravity environment to experience movement within the reach envelope while immersed in a simulated microgravity environment.

Lindsey, Patricia F.↗

Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) work practices report for composites

In an effort to gain a better understanding of effective safety and health work practice controls for composite manufacturing operations, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Occupational Safety and Health Committee established a Composites Task Group. The group's task was to provide AIA members with recommendations for minimizing occupational exposure risk and to determine research needs and information gaps. The strategy included a review of toxicological information on composites, a review of member company experience and control methods, and interaction with other professional organizations who share an interest in composite work practices.

Luca, Jackie↗

Skin exposure: Assessing the hazard in the workplace

An outline of the Occupational Safety and Health Agency's concerns of skin exposure to hazardous chemicals is presented, followed by the corresponding slide narrations. Specifically, dermatitis and skin absorption as compared to lung absorption are addressed. Lung versus skin exposure is examined for glycol ethers and acrylamide. Examples of skin exposure include PBC's in transformers, toluene and xylene from autobody work, polynuclear aromatics (PNA's) among Coke oven workers, toluene diisocyanate (TDI), and occupational chemical exposures in an academic medical center. Permeation through gloves in the semiconductor industry is addressed as evidence for the need to assess the effectiveness of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). This leads to the revisions of the PPE standard and the Safety and Health Program standard.

Cummins, Kevin↗

Size estimation of complexes consisting of hairpin DNAs bound to an assembler-strand

In connection with a model of a primitive translation based entirely on nucleic acids the structural requirements and interactions of small nucleic acids were studied. As shown previously hairpins bind to a complementary single-strand by base pairs of their loop nucleotides if the loop contains at least five nucleotides (Baumann et al 1987). Here, the question is approached to which degree a single-strand, the assembler-strand, is occupied with hairpin molecules. A gapless occupation would allow the close proximity necessary for the assumed peptide bond formation by hairpins bearing an amino acid at their 3'-end. Oligo(dC)(sub n), n = 12, 15, 18, and the investigated hairpins form complexes which are detectable under nondenaturing electrophoretic conditions. The size range is estimated to be 3-4 hairpin molecules to one assembler molecule when oligo(dC)(sub n), n = 15, 18, is used. Due to the limitation of the method, dependence of the migration velocity on the shape which is unique and thus limits the use of marker nucleic acids, and due to the uncertainty if the ends of the assembler form base pairs, a gapless occupation of the assembler is conceivable but not proven.

Baumann, Ulrich↗

Cross-cultural attitudes of flight crew regarding CRM

This study asks if the Cockpit Management Attitude Questionnaire (CMAQ) can detect differences across countries, and/or across occupations. And if so, can those differences be interpreted? Research has shown that the CMAQ is sensitive to attitude differences between and within organizations, thereby demonstrating its effectiveness with American populations. But the CMAQ was originally designed by American researchers and psychometrically refined for American pilots. The items in the questionnaire, though general in nature, still reflect the ubiquitous Western bias, because the items were written by researchers from and for the one culture. Recognizing this constraint, this study is nonetheless interested in attitudes toward crew behavior, and how those attitudes may vary across country and occupation.

Merritt, Ashleigh↗

Guidance and Control Design for High-Speed Rollout and Turnoff (ROTO)

A ROTO architecture, braking and steering control law and display designs for a research high speed Rollout and Turnoff (ROTO) system applicable to transport class aircraft are described herein. Minimum surface friction and FMS database requirements are also documented. The control law designs were developed with the aid of a non-real time simulation program incorporating airframe and gear dynamics as well as steering and braking guidance algorithms. An attainable objective of this ROTO system, as seen from the results of this study, is to assure that the studied aircraft can land with runway occupancy times less then 53 seconds. Runway occupancy time is measured from the time the aircraft crosses the runway threshold until its wing tip clears the near side of the runway. Turnoff ground speeds of 70 knots onto 30 degree exits are allowed with dry and wet surface conditions. Simulation time history and statistical data are documented herein. Parameters which were treated as variables in the simulation study include aircraft touchdown weight/speed/location, aircraft CG, runway friction, sensor noise and winds. After further design and development of the ROTO control system beyond the system developed earlier, aft CG MD-11 aircraft no longer require auto-asymmetric braking (steering) and fly-by-wire nose gear steering. However, the auto ROTO nose gear hysteresis must be less than 2 degrees. The 2 sigma dispersion certified for MD-11 CATIIIB is acceptable. Using this longitudinal dispersion, three ROTO exits are recommended at 3300, 4950 and 6750 feet past the runway threshold. The 3300 foot exit is required for MD-81 class aircraft. Designs documented in this report are valid for the assumptions/models used in this simulation. It is believed that the results will apply to the general class of transport aircraft; however further effort is required to validate this assumption for the general case.

Goldthorpe, S. H.↗

Finite Element Analysis of an Energy Absorbing Sub-floor Structure

As part of the Advanced General Aviation Transportation Experiments program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley Research Center is conducting tests to design energy absorbing structures to improve occupant survivability in aircraft crashes. An effort is currently underway to design an Energy Absorbing (EA) sub-floor structure which will reduce occupant loads in an aircraft crash. However, a recent drop test of a fuselage specimen with a proposed EA sub-floor structure demonstrated that the effects of sectioning the fuselage on both the fuselage section's stiffness and the performance of the EA structure were not fully understood. Therefore, attempts are underway to model the proposed sub-floor structure on computers using the DYCAST finite element code to provide a better understanding of the structure's behavior in testing, and in an actual crash.

Moore, Scott C.↗

A Comparison of Telemetry Signals in the Presence and Absence of a Subcarrier

The performance of deep-space telemetry signals that employ a residual carrier modulation technique is compared in the presence and absence of a subcarrier. When the subcarrier is present, the performance for the resulting pulse-coded modulation/phase-shift keyed/phase-modulated (PCM/PSK/PM) scheme is evaluated for both sine-wave and square-wave subcarriers and Non-Return-to Zero (NRZ) data. When the subcarrier is absent, the performance for the resulting PCM/PM technique is evaluated for both the NRZ and the bi-phase data format. The comparison is based on telemetry performance as well as bandwidth efficiency. The first criterion is characterized in terms of the Symbol Error Rate (SER) as a function of symbol SNR, loop bandwidth-to-data rate ratio, and modulation index. The bandwidth efficiency is characterized by the occupancy factor. The results of both the analysis and measurements show that when the Interference-to-Carrier Ratio (ICR) is less than -20 dB, the performance degradation in the absence of a subcarrier is negligible. Various combinations of loop bandwidth-to-data rate ratios and modulation indices that achieve this performance are derived and listed. Bandwidth occupancy comparison indicates that PCM/PM/NRZ is the most efficient in this regard. Therefore, by eliminating the subcarrier and using the PCM/PM/NRZ scheme, many advantages can be realized without any sacrifice in performance.

Shihabi, Mazen M.↗

Human habitat positioning system for NASA's space flight environmental simulator

Artificial gravity by centrifugation offers an effective countermeasure to the physiologic deconditioning of chronic exposure to microgravity; however, the system requirements of rotational velocity, radius of rotation, and resultant centrifugal acceleration require thorough investigation to ascertain the ideal human-use centrifuge configuration. NASA's Space Flight Environmental Simulator (SFES), a 16-meter (52-foot) diameter, animal-use centrifuge, was recently modified to accommodate human occupancy. This paper describes the SFES Human Habitat Positioning System, the mechanism that facilitates radius of rotation variability and alignment of the centrifuge occupants with the artificial gravity vector.

Caldwell, W. F.↗

Benefit Estimates of Terminal Area Productivity Program Technologies

This report documents benefit analyses for the NASA Terminal Area Technology (TAP) technology programs. Benefits are based on reductions in arrival delays at ten major airports over the 10 years from 2006 through 2015. Detailed analytic airport capacity and delay models were constructed to produce the estimates. The goal of TAP is enable good weather operations tempos in all weather conditions. The TAP program includes technologies to measure and predict runway occupancy times, reduce runway occupancy times in bad weather, accurately predict wake vortex hazards, and couple controller automation with aircraft flight management systems. The report presents and discusses the estimate results and describes the models. Three appendixes document the model algorithms and discuss the input parameters selected for the TAP technologies. The fourth appendix is the user's guide for the models. The results indicate that the combined benefits for all TAP technologies at all 10 airports range from $550 to $650 million per year (in constant 1997 dollars). Additional benefits will accrue from reductions in departure delays. Departure delay benefits are calculated by the current models.

Hemm, Robert↗

Theoretical Study of the Low-Lying States of TiHe(+),TiNe(+),TiAr(+),VAr(+),CrHe(+),CrAr(+),FeHe(+),FeAr(+),CoHe(+),and CoAr(+)

The potential energy curves for the manifold of molecular states dissociating to the lowest transition metal ion states derived from the 3d(sup n+1) and 3d(sup n)4s(sup 1) occupations have been determined for selected transition-metal ion- rare gas systems. These curves have been computed using large basis sets, and the state-averaged complete- active-space self-consistent-field/multireference configuration interaction level of electron correlation treatment. In general, the families of curves derived from the 3d(sup n+1) and 3d(sup n)4s(sup 1) metal occupations are disjoint; however, for Ti(+) there is a strong mixing of the 3d(sup 2)4s(sup 1) and 3d(sup 3) asymptotes, because of the small separation between the asymptotes. This mixing leads to a failure of single-reference-based techniques; this is discussed in the context of our previous single-reference-based treatments.

Partridge, Harry↗