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NASA NTRS2011

Preliminary Error Budget for the Reflected Solar Instrument for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory

The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) plans to observe climate change trends over decadal time scales to determine the accuracy of climate projections. The project relies on spaceborne earth observations of SI-traceable variables sensitive to key decadal change parameters. The mission includes a reflected solar instrument retrieving at-sensor reflectance over the 320 to 2300 nm spectral range with 500-m spatial resolution and 100-km swath. Reflectance is obtained from the ratio of measurements of the earth s surface to those while viewing the sun relying on a calibration approach that retrieves reflectance with uncertainties less than 0.3%. The calibration is predicated on heritage hardware, reduction of sensor complexity, adherence to detector-based calibration standards, and an ability to simulate in the laboratory on-orbit sources in both size and brightness to provide the basis of a transfer to orbit of the laboratory calibration including a link to absolute solar irradiance measurements. The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) mission addresses the need to observe high-accuracy, long-term climate change trends and to use decadal change observations as the most critical method to determine the accuracy of climate change projections such as those in the IPCC Report. A rigorously known accuracy of both decadal change observations as well as climate projections is critical in order to enable sound policy decisions. The CLARREO Project will implement a spaceborne earth observation mission designed to provide rigorous SI traceable observations (i.e., radiance, reflectance, and refractivity) that are sensitive to a wide range of key decadal change variables, including: 1) Surface temperature and atmospheric temperature profile 2) Atmospheric water vapor profile 3) Far infrared water vapor greenhouse 4) Aerosol properties and anthropogenic aerosol direct radiative forcing 5) Total and spectral solar irradiance 6) Broadband reflected and emitted radiative fluxes 7) Cloud properties 8) Surface albedo There are two methods the CLARREO mission will rely on to achieve these critical decadal change benchmarks: direct and reference inter-calibration. A quantitative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the two methods has led to the recommended CLARREO mission approach. The project consists of two satellites launched into 90-degree, precessing orbits separated by 90 degrees. The instrument suite receiver on each spacecraft includes one emitted infrared spectrometer, two reflected solar spectrometers: dividing the spectrum from ultraviolet through near infrared, and one global navigation receiver for radio occultation. The measurements will be acquired for a period of three years minimum, with a five-year lifetime goal, enabling follow-on missions to extend the climate record over the decades needed to understand climate change. The current work concentrates on the reflected solar instrument giving an overview of its design and calibration approach. The calibration description includes the approach to achieving an SI-traceable system on orbit. The calibration overview is followed by a preliminary error budget based on techniques currently in place at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Thome, Kurtis↗

NASA NTRS2011

Temporary Urine and Brine Stowage System (TUBSS) Development

International Space Station (ISS) crew liquid human waste is treated with chromic and sulfuric acids to maintain stability prior to processing to recover water. This pre-treated urine (PTU) and its processed by-product, brine, are highly toxic fluids that require special containment for on-orbit stowage. The temporary urine and brine stowage syste m (TUBSS) is an assembly used to store and transfer pre-treated urine (PTU) and brine for processing or disposal at a later date. This paper describes the development of the TUBSS, including design for two-fault tolerance and materials selection to maintain a soft, collapsible container. In addition, this paper will provide results of testing as well as lessons learned from the project, culminating in the successful launch of the hardware.

Dries, Kevin↗

NASA NTRS2020

Technical Risks Associated with Heat Melt Compaction Systems

The processing of trash and waste is a welcome and valuable addition to humans living and working in space. Besides the obvious desire to have a pleasant and productive habitation environment, trash management has many practicalbenefits for crew health, resource recovery, and volume reclamation through garbage compaction. The Trash Compaction and Processing System (TCPS), which is a NASA project to develop a trash processing system for long-duration spaceflight, is currently undergoing concept development with engineering prototype validation through two contracted efforts. The development efforts are being supported with activities associated with the NASA Generation 2 Heat Melt Compactor (HMC). The HMC is a facility that compacts trash, recovers water, heats the trash to eliminate biological activity, and manages gas and vapor effluents. The resulting residual processed trash is a compact tile that is free of biological growth and that can be used for augmenting radiation shields. The work being conducted with the HMC focuses on high risk technical areas with respect to operations, subsystem performance, and ISS effluent management interface requirements. This paper gives an overview of the technical risks and the current use of the HMC as a facility for reducing risk.

HMC↗

NASA NTRS2022

Global Gridded Crop Models Underestimate Yield Responses to Droughts and Heatwaves

Extreme events can lead to crop yield declines, resulting in financial losses and threats to food security, and the frequency and intensity of such events is projected to increase. As global gridded crop models (GGCMs) are commonly used to assess climate change impacts on agricultural yields, there is a need to understand whether these models are able to reproduce the observed yield declines. We evaluated 13 GGCMs from the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project and compared observed and simulated impact of past droughts and heatwaves on yields for four crops (maize, rice, soy, wheat). We found that most models detect but underestimate the impact of droughts and heatwaves on yield. Specifically, the drought signal was detected by 12 of 13 models for maize and all models for wheat, while the heat signal was detected by eleven models for maize and six models for wheat. To investigate whether the difference between simulated and observed yield declines is due to a misrepresentation of simulated exposure to heat or water scarcity (i.e. misrepresentation of growing season), we analysed the relationship between average discrepancies between observed and simulated yield losses, and average simulated exposure to extreme weather conditions across all crop models. We found a positive correlation between simulated exposure to heat and model performance for heatwaves, but found no correlation for droughts. This suggests that there is a systematic underestimation of yield responses to heat and drought and not only a misrepresentation of exposure. Assuming that performance for the past indicates models' capacity to project future yield impacts, models likely underestimate future yield decline from climate change. High-quality temporally and spatially resolved observational data on growing seasons will be highly valuable to further improve crop models' capacity to adequately respond to extreme weather events.

extreme events↗

NASA NTRS1999

Analysis and Application of Airborne Thermal Data at the Local Level Salt Lake City, Utah

Expanding cities are transforming periurban environments such as agricultural land, natural grasslands, forests, wetlands, and and land, into urban surfaces, such as asphalt and concrete. This transformation is part of a process defined as "urban heat island". The urban surfaces get much hotter during the daylight hours in the summer than the natural or vegetated environment. The heat builds up creating a dome effect over the city making it many degrees hotter than it's surrounding area. The impacts from this, which include higher usage of air conditioners, water, etc., are numerous and costly. As cities expand, this problem is exacerbated. It is necessary to incorporate better quality data into urban analysis and for establishing methods that systematically and objectively monitor growth and change due to increased urbanization. NASA initiated Project Atlanta in 1997 "as an interdisciplinary remote sensing study to observe and measure the growth and development of the urban heat island effect over Atlanta, and its associated impacts". This project has recently included Salt Lake City, among others, in the study of the development and effects of "urban heat islands". NASA has made available to Salt Lake City, high resolution, 10 meter, multispectral thermal data collected in June 1998. The data collection was part of a special NASA over-flight, a mission supported by the U.S. EPA in conjunction with their Urban Heat Island (UHI) Mitigation Initiative. Salt Lake City is one of three pilot cities selected to participate in this unique initiative. Hence, this project constitutes a rare opportunity to capitalize upon state-of-the-art NASA technology and link it to an urban community very concerned about rapid growth and development. This data will enhance existing data and be used for improving technical tools used to plan for Utah's future.

Dudley-Murphy, Elizabeth A.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Electrolytic hydrogen fuel production with solid polymer electrolyte technology.

A water electrolysis technology based on a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) concept is presented for applicability to large-scale hydrogen production in a future energy system. High cell current density operation is selected for the application, and supporting cell test performance data are presented. Demonstrated cell life data are included to support the adaptability of the SPE system to large-size hydrogen generation utility plants as needed for bulk energy storage or transmission. The inherent system advantages of the acid SPE electrolysis technology are explained. System performance predictions are made through the year 2000, along with plant capital and operating cost projections.

Titterington, W. A.↗

NASA NTRS2003

A Climatology of Tropospheric CO over the Central and Southeastern United States and the Southwestern Pacific Ocean Derived from Space, Air, and Ground-based Infrared Interferometer Spectra

This final report summarizes all research activities and publications undertaken as part of NASA Atmospheric Chemistry and Modeling Analysis Program (ACMAP) Grant NAG-1-2022, 'A Climatology of Tropospheric CO over the Central and Southeastern United States and the Southwestern Pacific Ocean Derived from Space, Air, and Ground-based Infrared Interferometer Spectra'. Major project accomplishments include: (1) analysis of more than 300,000 AERI spectra from the ARM SGP site yielding a 5-year (1998-2002) timeseries of CO retrievals from the Lamont, OK AERI; (2) development of a prototype CO profile retrieval algorithm for AERI spectra; (3) validation and publication of the first CO retrievals from the Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (SHIS); and (4) development of a prototype AERI tropospheric O3 retrieval algorithm. Compilation and publication of the 5-year Lamont, OK timeseries is underway including a new collaboration with scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Public access to this data will be provided upon article submission. A comprehensive CO analysis of the archive of HIS spectra of remains as the only originally proposed activity with little progress. The greatest challenge faced in this project was motivating the University of Wisconsin Co-Investigators to deliver their archived HIS and AERIOO data along with the requisite temperature and water vapor profiles in a timely manner. Part of the supplied HIS dataset from ASHOE may be analyzed as part of a Master s Thesis under a separate project. Our success with the SAFARI 2000 SHIS CO analysis demonstrates the utility of such aircraft remote sensing data given the proper support from the instrument investigators. In addition to the PI and Co-I s, personnel involved in this CO climatology project include one Post Doctoral Fellow, one Research Scientist, two graduate students, and two undergraduate students. A total of fifteen presentations regarding research related to this project were delivered at eleven different scientific meetings. Thus far, three publications have resulted from this project with another five in preparation. No subject inventions resulted from this research project.

McMillian, W. Wallace↗

NASA NTRS2020

Interannual variations in meltwater input to the Southern Ocean from Antarctic ice shelves

Ocean-driven basal melting of Antarctica’s floating ice shelves accounts for about half of their mass loss in steady state, where gains in ice-shelf mass are balanced by losses. Ice-shelf thickness changes driven by varying basal melt rates modulate mass loss from the grounded ice sheet and its contribution to sea level, and the changing meltwater fluxes influence climate processes in the Southern Ocean. Existing continent-wide melt-rate datasets have no temporal variability, introducing uncertainties in sea level and climate projections. Here, we combine surface height data from satellite radar altimeters with satellite-derived ice velocities and a new model of firn-layer evolution to generate a high-resolution map of time-averaged (2010–2018) basal melt rates and time series (1994–2018) of meltwater fluxes for most ice shelves. Total basal meltwater flux in 1994 (1,090 ± 150 Gt/yr) was similar to the steady-state value (1,100 ± 60 Gt/yr), but increased to 1,570 ± 140 Gt/yr in 2009, followed by a decline to 1,160 ± 150 Gt/yr in 2018. For the four largest ‘cold-water’ ice shelves, we partition meltwater fluxes into deep and shallow sources to reveal distinct signatures of temporal variability, providing insights into climate forcing of basal melting and the impact of this melting on the Southern Ocean.

Susheel Adusumilli↗

NASA NTRS2021

GRACE Follow-On Early In-Flight Challenges

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On Mission is a successor to the highly successful GRACE Mission, which operated from 2002-2017. It is a partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the German Research Center for Geosciences, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ). Under this partnership, the United States provides the project management, satellites and instruments, Germany provides the launch and mission operations. The partners share responsibilities for producing science data products. GRACE Follow-On, like its predecessor GRACE, consists of twin satellites which fly in a tandem formation at a near polar orbit separated by about 200 km along track. The mission continues the work of GRACE by tracking the movement of water, observing changes in ice sheets and sea level to provide a unique view of Earth’s changing climate. The satellites were launched May 22, 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket. Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) were completed within the first week and on-orbit commissioning proceeded for the next 8 months. The GRACE Follow-On mission is designed to last five years. The mission operations team has had to address several technical challenges early into the planned five-year mission life. The commissioning period was extended by 5 months to successfully address these issues, making it possible for the mission to meet key requirements for delivery and quality of the science data products. This paper will address the challenges faced by GRACE Follow-On and the actions taken by the mission operations team to continue to safely operate the mission.

Witkowski, M.M.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Applications systems verification and transfer project. Volume 3: Operational applications of satellite snow cover observations in California

Five southern Sierra snowmelt basins and two northern Sierra-Southern Cascade snowmelt basins were used to evaluate the effect on operational water supply forecasting from satellite imagery. Manual photointerpretation techniques were used to obtain SCA and equivalent snow line for the years 1973 to 1979 for the seven test basins using LANDSAT imagery and GOES imagery. The use of SCA was tested operationally in 1977-79. Results indicate the addition of SCA improve the water supply forecasts during the snowmelt phase for these basins where there may be an unusual distribution of snowpack throughout the basin, or where there is a limited amount of real time data available. A high correlation to runoff was obtained when SCA was combined with snow water content data obtained from reporting snow sensors.

Brown, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Improved Crystal Quality by Detached Solidification in Microgravity

The goals of our work on detached solidification have been to: Develop a complete understanding of all of the phenomena of detached solidification; Make it possible to achieve detached solidification reproducibly; Increase crystallographic perfection through detached solidification. Specifically, we aimed in this project to: Identify a system and develop methods that would allow viewing of the melt surface and convection in the melt during detached solidification in microgravity; Improve understanding of the origination and evolution of detachment through experiments and theoretical treatments; Achieve detachment on earth. The project resulted in 14 publications, 15 presentations, completion of 2 Ph.D. theses, and completion of 2 M.S. theses. Two additional papers are currently being reviewed for publication. Copies of most of the papers are attached as appendices. Among the accomplishments are: Achievement of detached solidification of InSb on earth and determination of the conditions favoring detachment on earth. Development of a new method for coating the interior of silica growth ampoules with transparent boron nitride, which yields the high contact angles for semiconductor melts that favor detachment. Development of a new coating for the interior of Pyrex ampoules yielding very high contact angles for water and molten organic compounds. Development of a material-balance model for steady detached solidification that provides greatly improved insight into the process, both in microgravity and on earth. Dimensionless parameters were found that clarify the role of operating conditions and physical properties. The reason for the occurrence of two steady states was clarified, along with their relative stability. Observation of periodic gas tubes during directional solidification of water and organic compounds. Gas bubbles did not propagate around the periphery to yield full detachment. Failure to obtain detachment is attributed to the ready plastic deformation of these materials, so that the frozen material continues to adhere to the ampoule wall during cooling.

Regel, Liya L.↗

NASA NTRS2008

John F. Kennedy Space Center's Technology Development and Application 2006-2007 Report

Topics covered include: Reversible Chemochromic Hydrogen Detectors; Determining Trajectory of Triboelectrically Charged Particles, Using Discrete Element Modeling; Using Indium Tin Oxide To Mitigate Dust on Viewing Ports; High-Performance Polyimide Powder Coatings; Controlled-Release Microcapsules for Smart Coatings for Corrosion Applications; Aerocoat 7 Replacement Coatings; Photocatalytic Coatings for Exploration and Spaceport Design; New Materials for the Repair of Polyimide Electrical Wire Insulation; Commodity-Free Calibration; Novel Ice Mitigation Methods; Crack Offset Measurement With the Projected Laser Target Device; New Materials for Structural Composites and Protective Coatings; Fire Chemistry Testing of Spray-On Foam Insulation (SOFI); Using Aerogel-Based Insulation Material To Prevent Foam Loss on the Liquid-Hydrogen Intertank; Particle Ejection and Levitation Technology (PELT); Electrostatic Characterization of Lunar Dust; Numerical Analysis of Rocket Exhaust Cratering; RESOLVE Projects: Lunar Water Resource Demonstration and Regolith Volatile Characterization; Tribocharging Lunar Soil for Electrostatic Beneficiation; Numerically Modeling the Erosion of Lunar Soil by Rocket Exhaust Plumes; Trajectory Model of Lunar Dust Particles; Using Lunar Module Shadows To Scale the Effects of Rocket Exhaust Plumes; Predicting the Acoustic Environment Induced by the Launch of the Ares I Vehicle; Measuring Ultrasonic Acoustic Velocity in a Thin Sheet of Graphite Epoxy Composite; Hail Size Distribution Mapping; Launch Pad 39 Hail Monitor Array System; Autonomous Flight Safety System - Phase III; The Photogrammetry Cube; Bird Vision System; Automating Range Surveillance Through Radio Interferometry and Field Strength Mapping Techniques; Next-Generation Telemetry Workstation; GPS Metric Tracking Unit; and Space-Based Range.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2015

Aircraft Measurements of BrO, IO, Glyoxal, NO2, H2O, O2-O2 and Aerosol Extinction Profiles in the Tropics: Comparison with Aircraft-/Ship-Based in Situ and Lidar Measurements

Tropospheric chemistry of halogens and organic carbon over tropical oceans modifies ozone and atmospheric aerosols, yet atmospheric models remain largely untested for lack of vertically resolved measurements of bromine monoxide (BrO), iodine monoxide (IO) and small oxygenated hydrocarbons like glyoxal (CHOCHO) in the tropical troposphere. BrO, IO, glyoxal, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), water vapor (H2O) and O2-O2 collision complexes (O4/ were measured by the University of Colorado Airborne Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (CU AMAXDOAS) instrument, aerosol extinction by high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL), in situ aerosol size distributions by an ultra high sensitivity aerosol spectrometer (UHSAS) and in situ H2O by vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) hygrometer. Data are presented from two research flights (RF12, RF17) aboard the National Science Foundation/ National Center for Atmospheric Research Gulfstream V aircraft over the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean (tEPO) as part of the "Tropical Ocean tRoposphere Exchange of Reactive halogens and Oxygenated hydrocarbons" (TORERO) project (January/February 2012). We assess the accuracy of O4 slant column density (SCD) measurements in the presence and absence of aerosols. Our O4-inferred aerosol extinction profiles at 477 nm agree within 6% with HSRL in the boundary layer and closely resemble the renormalized profile shape of Mie calculations constrained by UHSAS at low (sub-Rayleigh) aerosol extinction in the free troposphere. CU AMAX-DOAS provides a flexible choice of geometry, which we exploit to minimize the SCD in the reference spectrum (SCDREF, maximize signal-to-noise ratio) and to test the robustness of BrO, IO and glyoxal differential SCDs. The RF12 case study was conducted in pristine marine and free tropospheric air. The RF17 case study was conducted above the NOAA RV Ka'imimoana (TORERO cruise, KA-12-01) and provides independent validation data from ship-based in situ cavity-enhanced DOAS and MAX-DOAS. Inside the marine boundary layer (MBL) no BrO was detected (smaller than 0.5 pptv), and 0.2-0.55 pptv IO and 32-36 pptv glyoxal were observed. The near-surface concentrations agree within 30% (IO) and 10% (glyoxal) between ship and air-craft. The BrO concentration strongly increased with altitude to 3.0 pptv at 14.5 km (RF12, 9.1 to 8.6 deg N; 101.2 to 97.4 deg W). At 14.5 km, 5-10 pptv NO2 agree with model predictions and demonstrate good control over separating tropospheric from stratospheric absorbers (NO2 and BrO). Our profile retrievals have 12-20 degrees of freedom (DoF) and up to 500m vertical resolution. The tropospheric BrO vertical column density (VCD) was 1.5 x 10(exp 13) molec cm(exp -2) (RF12) and at least 0.5 x 10(exp 13) molec cm(exp -2) (RF17, 0- 10 km, lower limit). Tropospheric IO VCDs correspond to 2.1 x 10(exp 12) molec cm(exp -2) (RF12) and 2.5 x 10(exp 12) molec cm(exp -2) (RF17) and glyoxal VCDs of 2.6 x 10(exp 14) molec cm(exp -2) (RF12) and 2.7 x 10(exp 14) molec cm(exp -2) (RF17). Surprisingly, essentially all BrO as well as the dominant IO and glyoxal VCD fraction was located above 2 km (IO: 58 plus or minus 5 %, 0.1-0.2 pptv; glyoxal: 52 plus or minus 5 %, 3-20 pptv). To our knowledge there are no previous vertically resolved measurements of BrO and glyoxal from aircraft in the tropical free troposphere. The atmospheric implications are briefly discussed. Future studies are necessary to better understand the sources and impacts of free tropospheric halogens and oxygenated hydrocarbons on tropospheric ozone, aerosols, mercury oxidation and the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere.

Volkamer, R.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Copper-Water and Hybrid Aluminum-Ammonia Heat Pipes for Spacecraft Thermal Control Applications

Copper-water heat pipes are commonly used for thermal management of electronics systems on earth and aircraft, but have not been used in spacecraft thermal control applications to date, due to the satellite industry's requirement that any device or system be successfully tested in a microgravity environment prior to adoption. Recently, Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc., (ACT), NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the International Space Station office at NASA's Johnson Space Center demonstrated flight heritage in Low-Earth Orbit. The testing was conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) under the Advanced Passive Thermal eXperiment (APTx) project. The heat pipes were embedded in a high conductivity (HiK"TM") aluminum base plate and subject to a variety of thermal tests over a temperature range of -10 to 38 ºC for a ten-day period. Results showed excellent agreement with both predictions and ground tests. In addition, novel hybrid wick aluminum-ammonia heat pipes are developed to handle heat flux requirements for spacecraft thermal control applications. The 5-10 W/cm2 heat density limitation of aluminum-ammonia grooved heat pipes has been a fundamental limitation in the current design for space applications. The recently demonstrated 50 W/cm2 capability of the hybrid high heat flux heat pipes provides a realistic means of managing the high heat density anticipated for the next generation space designs.

Ababneh, Mohammed T.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Copper-Water and Hybrid Aluminum-Ammonia Heat Pipes for Spacecraft Thermal Control Applications

Copper-water heat pipes are commonly used for thermal management of electronics systems on earth and aircraft, but have not been used in spacecraft thermal control applications to date, due to the satellite industry's requirement that any device or system be successfully tested in a microgravity environment prior to adoption. Recently, Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc., (ACT), NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the International Space Station office at NASA's Johnson Space Center demonstrated flight heritage in Low-Earth Orbit. The testing was conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) under the Advanced Passive Thermal eXperiment (APTx) project. The heat pipes were embedded in a high conductivity (HiK "TM") aluminum base plate and subject to a variety of thermal tests over a temperature range of -10 to 38 C for a ten-day period. Results showed excellent agreement with both predictions and ground tests. In addition, novel hybrid wick aluminum-ammonia heat pipes are developed to handle heat flux requirements for spacecraft thermal control applications. The 5-10 W/cm2 heat density limitation of aluminum-ammonia grooved heat pipes has been a fundamental limitation in the current design for space applications. The recently demonstrated 50W/cm2 capability of the hybrid high heat flux heat pipes provides a realistic means of managing the high heat density anticipated for the next generation space designs.

Ababneh, Mohammed T.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Aqua Factorem: Ultra Low Energy Lunar Water Extraction

We propose a new method we call Aqua Factorem to extract lunar water. It will drastically reduce energy and complexity of lunar mining operations helping to establish this industry. Other methods to extract water from the regolith are based on phase change, pumping energy into the regolith to sublimate the ice into vapor, then capturing the vapor, re-freezing it, and hauling the solid ice to a chemical processor where it is converted again into vapor for purification then electrolysis. This requires transporting high power into the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) not only to vaporize the ice in situ in the soil but to heat the surrounding soil itself, which is wasted energy. Still other methods are based on strip mining and hauling the resource along with slag (the unwanted silicates, which constitutes about 95% of the mass), to a processing unit that is located outside the PSRs. That may be a simpler architecture but is generally not favored because hauling 49,000 t of regolith over many kilometers yearly to produce the projected demand of 2,450 t of propellant would be terribly difficult and expensive with high risk that the vehicles will get stuck driving with such loads across the unprepared regolith. We propose an alternative to both of these approaches, taking advantage of the processing that the unique lunar geology has already performed. Micrometeoroid bombardment has already broken most solid material in the upper part of the regolith into fine grains. This includes solid material of all compositions, including the ice, which is as hard as granite at PSR temperatures and is therefore essentially another type of rock. These ice grains are intermixed with all the other minerals, so a simple, ultra-low-energy grain-sorting process can extract the ice without phase change. As another benefit it can extract the 1 wt% free metal known to be in lunar soil, again with very little energy. The ice can then be hauled to the chemical processing unit in solid phase and converted into rocket propellant. We estimate the 800 kW power needed for thermal extraction can be reduced to less than 100 watts using the new method. This affects the entire architecture of the mining operation producing extensive economic benefit, which we will quantify in this study. We will study it in the context of a mission to mine propellants commercially for space tugs that boost commercial communication satellites from Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) to Geostationary Orbit (GEO) then return to the lunar surface for refueling. This simple architecture requires the minimum number of in-space elements, and notably does not require an in-space propellant depot, so it provides the lowest cost and lowest risk startup for a commercial operation. The study will also test the innovative Aqua Factorem process through laboratory experiments, and this will produce basic insights into the handling of lunar resources.

lunar↗

NASA NTRS1985

Analysis of Remote Sensing Data

A brief assessment of remote sensing applied to geological studies is given. An analysis of thematic mapping data on oak-hickory forests in southern Missouri is discussed. It was found that there is a control on the infrared reflectance (bands 4, 5, and 7 of the Thematic Mapper (TM) of the forests that correlates with rock and soil types. During the growing season, soils with low water retention capacities correlate with high infrared (band 4, lesser with band 5 and 7) signatures. A metamorphic core complex called the Meatiq located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt was studied. The dome provides exposure of most of the rock units of the Arabian-Nubian Precambrian Shield. The dome bears many resemblances to Cordilleran metamorphic complexes. LANDSAT TM data was used to improve on reconnaissance maps of the dome. The remote sensing data was interpreted in the context of field observations, petrographic, and chemical analysis of rock units in the dome, in order to map similar domes in the Eastern Desert from TM data. Mapping projects such as the one just described will help constrain the geologic evolution of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Two particular hypotheses that researchers hope to test for the development of the shield are: (1) closure of a proto-Red Sea; and (2) accretion of a primitive island arc system onto the shield.

Guiness, E. A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Laser radar observation of the polar stratospheric aerosol layer

The polar stratosphere has been speculated to be an active sink region of various stratospheric materials; ozone, water vapor, NOX, aerosol particles and so on, but this process is not theoretically and/or observationally made clear. The observation of the polar stratospheric aerosol layer using laser radar certainly contributes to the study of the global transport of these stratospheric minor constituents. In addition to this, from the viewpoint of aerosol science, there may be many interesting phenomena which cannot be found in the stratosphere at mid and low latitudes; the effect of precipitation of high energy molecules and atoms, of very cold winter stratosphere, of very cold mesopause in summer. Laser radar observation is one of the main activities of the Antarctic Middle Atmosphere (AMA) project at Syowa Station (69.00 deg S, 39.35 deg E), Antarctica since May 1983. Laser radar measurement at Syowa Station is discussed in detail.

Iwasaka, Y.↗