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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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NASA NTRS2002

Global Climate Monitoring with the EOS PM-Platform's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E)

The Advanced Microwave Scanning 2 Radiometer (AMSR-E) is being built by NASDA to fly on NASA's PM Platform (now called Aqua) in December 2000. This is in addition to a copy of AMSR that will be launched on Japan's ADEOS-II satellite in 2001. The AMSRs improve upon the window frequency radiometer heritage of the SSM/I and SMMR instruments. Major improvements over those instruments include channels spanning the 6.9 GHz to 89 GHz frequency range, and higher spatial resolution from a 1.6 m reflector (AMSR-E) and 2.0 m reflector (ADEOS-II AMSR). The ADEOS-II AMSR also will have 50.3 and 52.8 GHz channels, providing sensitivity to lower tropospheric temperature. NASA funds an AMSR-E Science Team to provide algorithms for the routine production of a number of standard geophysical products. These products will be generated by the AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) at the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) in Huntsville, Alabama. While there is a separate NASDA-sponsored activity to develop algorithms and produce products from AMSR, as well as a Joint (NASDA-NASA) AMSR Science Team 3 activity, here I will review only the AMSR-E Team's algorithms and how they benefit from the new capabilities that AMSR-E will provide. The US Team's products will be archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Spencer, Roy W.↗
NASA NTRS2002

HFI Bolometer Detectors Programmatic CDR

Programmatic Critical Design Review (CDR) of the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) Bolometer Detector on the Planck Surveyor is presented. The topics include: 1) Scientific Requirements and Goals; 2) Silicon Nitride Micromesh 'Spider-Web' Bolometers; 3) Sub-Orbital Heritage: BOOMERANG; 4) Noise stability demonstrated in BOOMERANG; 5) Instrument Partners; 6) Bolometer Environment on Planck/HFI; 7) Bolometer Modules; and 8) Mechanical Interface. Also included are the status of the receivables and delivery plans with Europe. This paper is presented in viewgraph form.

Lange, Andrew E.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Multiple Etalon Systems for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

Multiple etalons systems are discussed that meet the 4-meter NSO/Advance Technology Solar Telescope (http://www.nso.edu/ATST/index.html) instrument and science requirements for a narrow bandpass imaging system. A multiple etalon system can provide an imaging interferometer working in four distinct modes: as a spectro-polarimeter, a filter-vector magnetograph, and a wide-band and broad-band high-resolution imager. Specific dual and triple etalon configurations will be described that provides spectrographic passband of 2.0-3.5nm and reduces parasitic light levels to 1/10000 as required by precise polarization measurement, e.g., Zeeman measurements of magnetic sensitive lines. A TESOS-like triple etalon system provides for spectral purity of 100 thousandths. The triple designs have the advantage of reducing the finesse requirement on each etalon, allowing much more stable blocking filters, and can have very high spectral purity. A dual-etalon double-pass Cavallini-like configuration can provide a competing configuration. This design can provide high contrast with only a double etalon. The selection of the final focal plan instrument will depend on a trade-off of the ideal instrument versus reality, the number of etalons, the aperture of etalons, the number of blocking filters the electronic control system and computer interfaces, the temperature control and controllers for the etalons and the electronics. The use of existing experience should provide significant cost savings. The heritage of use of etalons and multiple etalon systems in solar physics come from a number of observatories, which includes MSFC Solar Observatory (NASA), Sac Peak Observatory (NSO), and Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics (Germany), Mees Solar Observatory (University of Hawaii), and Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory (Italy). The design of the ATST multiple etalon system will reply on the existing experience from these observatories.

Gary, G. Allen↗
NASA NTRS2002

An Overview of the Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Data Products Status and Availability for Environmental Applications and Global Change Studies

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. The Terra MODIS is in a sun-synchronous orbit going north to south in the daylight portion of the orbit crossing the equator at about 1030 hours local time. The spacecraft, instrument, and data systems are performing well and are producing a wide variety of data products useful for scientific and applications studies in relatively consistent fashion extending from November 2000 to the present. Within the approximately 40 MODIS data products, several are new and represent powerful and exciting capabilities such the ability to provide observations over the globe of fire occurrences, microphysical properties of clouds and sun-stimulated fluorescence from phytoplankton in the surface waters of the ocean. The remainder of the MODIS products exceed or, at a minimum, match the capabilities of products from heritage sensors such as, for example, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Efforts are underway to provide data sets for the greater Earth science community and to improve access to these products at the various Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's) or through Direct Broadcast (DB) stations. The MODIS instrument on the EOS Aqua mission should also be expected to be in orbit and functioning in the Spring of 2002. The Aqua spacecraft will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit going south to north in the daylight portion of the orbit crossing the equator at approximately 1330 hours local time. Subsequently the Aqua MODIS observations will substantially add to the capabilities of the Terra MODIS for environmental applications and global change studies.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗
NASA NTRS2002

An Overview of the Earth Observing System MODIS Instrument Performance, Data Systems Performance, and Data Products Status and Availability

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. Now, approximately 2 years from that time, the instrument is operating well. All subsystems of the instrument are performing as expected, the signal-to-noise (S/N) performance meets or exceeds specifications, band-to-band registration meets specifications, geodetic registration of observations is nearing 50 meters (one sigma) and the spectral bands are located where they were intended to be pre-launch and attendant gains and offsets are stable to date. The data systems have performed well and are producing a wide variety of data products useful for scientific and applications studies in relatively consistent fashion extending from November 2000 to the present. Within the approximately 40 MODIS data products, several are new and represent powerful and exciting capabilities. The remainder of the MODIS products exceed or, at a minimum, match the capabilities of products from heritage sensors such as, for example, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Efforts are underway to provide data sets for the greater Earth science community and to improve access to these products at the various Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's) or through Direct Broadcast (DB) stations. The MODIS instrument on the EOS Aqua mission should also be expected to be in orbit and functioning in the Spring of 2002.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Luminescence from VUV Irradiated Cosmic Ice Analogs and Organic Residues

The optical luminescent properties for a variety of vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) irradiated cosmic ice analogs and the complex organic residues produced from irradiation might be applicable to Solar System and interstellar observations and processes for various astronomical objects with an ice heritage. Some examples include grain temperature determination and vaporization rates, nebula radiation balance, albedo values, color analysis, and biomarker identification. Detailed results are presented for the mixed molecular ice: H2O:CH3OH:NH3:CO (100:50:1:1), a realistic representation for an interstellar/precometary ice. The irradiated ices and the room-temperature residues resulting from this energetic processing have remarkable photoluminescent properties in the visible (520-570 nm). The luminescence dependence on temperature, thermal cycling, and VUV exposure of the residue is described.

Gudipati, Murthy S.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Managing Satellites

Integral Systems, Inc.'s EPOCH 2000 forms the core of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission's command and control center. EPOCH 2000, which allows ground operators to monitor and control satellites over a wide area network, owes part of its heritage from work completed to support Goddard Space Flight Center. The software automates telemetry processing, commanding, anomaly detection, and archiving collected data. The NEAR spacecraft, launched in February 1996, will rendezvous in early 1999 and orbit the Asteroid Eros for a year. Integral Systems also provided Low Earth Orbit Autonomous Ground Terminals (LEO-Ts) to NASA. The LEO-T is designed to make it easier and less expensive for principal investigators to obtain telemetry, tracking and control services for their science missions. The company products have supported well over 70 satellite missions aimed at scientific research, meteorology, or communications applications.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2002

Science Objectives of EOS-Aura's Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)

OMI is a UV/VIS nadir solar backscatter spectrograph, which provides near global coverage in one day with a spatial resolution of 13 x 24 sq km. OMI is a new instrument, with a heritage from the European satellite instruments GOME, GOMOS and SCIAMACHY. OMI's unique capabilities for measuring important trace gases with a small footprint and daily global coverage, in conjunction with the other Aura instruments, will make a major contribution to our understanding of stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry and climate change. OMI will measure solar irradiance and Earth radiances in the wavelength range of 270 to 500 nm with spectral resolution of about 0.5 nm and a spectral sampling of about 2-3 per FWHM. From these observations, total columns of O3, NO2, BrO and SO2 will be derived from the back-scattered solar radiance using differential absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). The TOMS total ozone record will also be continued by employing the well established TOMS algorithm. Because of the high accuracy and spatial resolution of the measurements, a good estimate of tropospheric amounts of ozone and NO2 are expected. Ozone profiles will be derived using the optimal estimation method. The spectral aerosol optical depth will be determined from measurements between 340 and 500 nm. This will provide information on aerosol concentration, aerosol size distribution and aerosol type. This wavelength range makes it possible to retrieve aerosol information over both land and sea. OMI observations will also allow retrievals of cloud coverage and cloud heights. From these products, the UV-B flux at the surface can then be derived with high spatial resolution.

Levelt, P. F.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Ion Engine and Hall Thruster Development at the NASA Glenn Research Center

NASA's Glenn Research Center has been selected to lead development of NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) system. The central feature of the NEXT system is an electric propulsion thruster (EPT) that inherits the knowledge gained through the NSTAR thruster that successfully propelled Deep Space 1 to asteroid Braille and comet Borrelly, while significantly increasing the thruster power level and making improvements in performance parameters associated with NSTAR. The EPT concept under development has a 40 cm beam diameter, twice the effective area of the Deep-Space 1 thruster, while maintaining a relatively-small volume. It incorporates mechanical features and operating conditions to maximize the design heritage established by the flight NSTAR 30 cm engine, while incorporating new technology where warranted to extend the power and throughput capability. The NASA Hall thruster program currently supports a number of tasks related to high power thruster development for a number of customers including the Energetics Program (formerly called the Space-based Program), the Space Solar Power Program, and the In-space Propulsion Program. In program year 2002, two tasks were central to the NASA Hall thruster program: 1.) the development of a laboratory Hall thruster capable of providing high thrust at high power; 2.) investigations into operation of Hall thrusters at high specific impulse. In addition to these two primary thruster development activities, there are a number of other on-going activities supported by the NASA Hall thruster program, These additional activities are related to issues such as thruster lifetime and spacecraft integration.

Domonkos, Matthew T.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Control Surface and Afterbody Experimental Aeroheating for a Proposed Mars Smart Lander Aeroshell

Several configurations, having a Viking aeroshell heritage and providing lift-to-drag required for precision landing, have been considered for a proposed Mars Smart Lander. An experimental aeroheating investigation of two configurations, one having a blended tab and the other a blended shelf control surface, has been conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center in the 20-Inch Mach 6 Air Tunnel to assess heating levels on these control surfaces and their effects on afterbody heating. The proposed Mars Smart Lander concept is to be attached through its aeroshell to the main spacecraft bus, thereby producing cavities in the forebody heat shield upon separation prior to entry into the Martian atmosphere. The effects these cavities will have on the heating levels experienced by the control surface and the afterbody were also examined. The effects of Reynolds number, angle-of-attack, and cavity location on aeroheating levels and distributions were determined and are presented. At the highest angle-of-attack, blended tab heating was increased due to transitional reattachment of the separated shear layer. The placement of cavities downstream of the control surface greatly influenced aeroheating levels and distributions. Forebody heat shield cavities had no effect on afterbody heating and the presence of control surfaces decreased leeward afterbody heating slightly.

Liechty, Derek S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Onboard Processor for Compressing HSI Data

With EO-1 Hyperion and MightySat in orbit NASA and the DoD are showing their continued commitment to hyperspectral imaging (HSI). As HSI sensor technology continues to mature, the ever-increasing amounts of sensor data generated will result in a need for more cost effective communication and data handling systems. Lockheed Martin, with considerable experience in spacecraft design and developing special purpose onboard processors, has teamed with Applied Signal & Image Technology (ASIT), who has an extensive heritage in HSI, to develop a real-time and intelligent onboard processing (OBP) system to reduce HSI sensor downlink requirements. Our goal is to reduce the downlink requirement by a factor greater than 100, while retaining the necessary spectral fidelity of the sensor data needed to satisfy the many science, military, and intelligence goals of these systems. Our initial spectral compression experiments leverage commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) spectral exploitation algorithms for segmentation, material identification and spectral compression that ASIT has developed. ASIT will also support the modification and integration of this COTS software into the OBP. Other commercially available COTS software for spatial compression will also be employed as part of the overall compression processing sequence. Over the next year elements of a high-performance reconfigurable OBP will be developed to implement proven preprocessing steps that distill the HSI data stream in both spectral and spatial dimensions. The system will intelligently reduce the volume of data that must be stored, transmitted to the ground, and processed while minimizing the loss of information.

Cook, Sid↗
NASA NTRS2002

Initial Operation and Checkout of Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment and Meteor-3M Satellite

Under a joint agreement between the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (RASA), the Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) instrument was launched in low earth orbit on December 10,2001 aboard the Russian Meteor-3M satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. SAGE III is a spectrometer that measures attenuated radiation in the 282 nm to 1550 nm wavelength range to obtain the vertical profiles of ozone, aerosols, and other chemical species that are critical in studying the trends for the global climate change phenomena. This instrument version is more advanced than any of the previous versions and has more spectral bands, elaborate data gathering and storage, and intelligent terrestrial software. There are a number of Russian scientific instruments aboard the Meteor satellite in addition to the SAGE III instrument. These instruments deal with land imaging and biomass changes, hydro-meteorological monitoring, and helio-geophysical research. This mission was under development for over a period of six years and offered a number of unique technical and program management challenges for both Agencies. SAGE III has a long space heritage, and four earlier versions of this instrument have flown in space for nearly two decades now. In fact, SAGE II, the fourth instrument, is still flying in space on NASA s Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), and has been providing important atmospheric data over the last 18 years. It has provided vital ozone and aerosol data in the mid latitudes and has contributed vastly in ozone depletion research. Ball Aerospace built the instrument under Langley Research Center s (LaRC) management. This paper presents innovative approaches deployed by the SAGE III and the Meteor teams in performing the initial on-orbit checkout. It further documents a number of early science results obtained by deploying low risk, carefully coordinated procedures in resolving the serious operational issues of this satellite.

Habib, Shahid↗
NASA NTRS2003

Luminescence from Vacuum-Ultraviolet-Irradiated Cosmic Ice Analogs and Residue

Here we report a study of the optical luminescent properties for a variety of vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV)-irradiated cosmic ice analogs and the complex organic residues produced. Detailed results are presented for the irradiated, mixed molecular ice: H2O: CH3OH:NH3:CO(100:50:1:1), a realistic representation for an interstellar/precometary ice that reproduces all the salient infrared spectral features associated with interstellar ices. The irradiated ices and the room-temperature residues resulting from this energetic processing have remarkable photoluminescent properties in the visible (520-570 nm). The luminescence dependence on temperature, thermal cycling, and VUV exposure is described. It is suggested that this type of luminescent behavior might be applicable to solar system and interstellar observations and processes for various astronomical objects with an ice heritage. Some examples include grain temperature determination and vaporization rates, nebula radiation balance, albedo values, color analysis, and biomarker identification.

Gudipati, Murthy S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

High-Performance, Space-Storable, Bi-Propellant Program Status

Bipropellant propulsion systems currently represent the largest bus subsystem for many missions. These missions range from low Earth orbit satellite to geosynchronous communications and planetary exploration. The payoff of high performance bipropellant systems is illustrated by the fact that Aerojet Redmond has qualified a commercial NTO/MMH engine based on the high Isp technology recently delivered by this program. They are now qualifying a NTO/hydrazine version of this engine. The advanced rhenium thrust chambers recently provided by this program have raised the performance of earth storable propellants from 315 sec to 328 sec of specific impulse. The recently introduced rhenium technology is the first new technology introduced to satellite propulsion in 30 years. Typically, the lead time required to develop and qualify new chemical thruster technology is not compatible with program development schedules. These technology development programs must be supported by a long term, Base R&T Program, if the technology s to be matured. This technology program then addresses the need for high performance, storable, on-board chemical propulsion for planetary rendezvous and descent/ascent. The primary NASA customer for this technology is Space Science, which identifies this need for such programs as Mars Surface Return, Titan Explorer, Neptune Orbiter, and Europa Lander. High performance (390 sec) chemical propulsion is estimated to add 105% payload to the Mars Sample Return mission or alternatively reduce the launch mass by 33%. In many cases, the use of existing (flight heritage) propellant technology is accommodated by reducing mission objectives and/or increasing enroute travel times sacrificing the science value per unit cost of the program. Therefore, a high performance storable thruster utilizing fluorinated oxidizers with hydrazine is being developed.

Schneider, Steven J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Comparison of Bus Architectures for Safety-Critical Embedded Systems

We describe and compare the architectures of four fault-tolerant, safety-critical buses with a view to deducing principles common to all of them, the main differences in their design choices, and the tradeoffs made. Two of the buses come from an avionics heritage, and two from automobiles, though all four strive for similar levels of reliability and assurance. The avionics buses considered are the Honeywell SAFEbus (the backplane data bus used in the Boeing 777 Airplane Information Management System) and the NASA SPIDER (an architecture being developed as a demonstrator for certification under the new DO-254 guidelines); the automobile buses considered are the TTTech Time-Triggered Architecture (TTA), recently adopted by Audi for automobile applications, and by Honeywell for avionics and aircraft control functions, and FlexRay, which is being developed by a consortium of BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Motorola, and Philips.

Rushby, John↗
NASA NTRS2003

Luminescence from Vacuum-Ultraviolet-Irradiated Cosmic Ice Analogs and Residues

Here we report a study of the optical luminescent properties for a variety of vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV)- irradiated cosmic ice analogs and the complex organic residues produced. Detailed results are presented for the irradiated, mixed molecular ice: H2O:CH3OH:NH3:CO (100:50:1:1), a realistic representation for an interstellar/precometary ice that reproduces all the salient infrared spectral features associated with interstellar ices. The irradiated ices and the room-temperature residues resulting from this energetic processing have remarkable photoluminescent properties in the visible (520-570 nm). The luminescence dependence on temperature, thermal cycling, and VUV exposure is described. It is suggested that this type of luminescent behavior might be applicable to solar system and interstellar observations and processes for various astronomical objects with an ice heritage. Some examples include grain temperature determination and vaporization rates, nebula radiation balance, albedo values, color analysis, and biomarker identification.

Gudipati, Murthy S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

An Overview of the Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Data Products and Availability for Environmental Applications and Global Change Studies

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. The Terra MODIS is in a sun-synchronous orbit going north to south in the daylight portion of the orbit crossing the equator at about 1030 hours local time. The spacecraft, instrument, and data systems are performing well and are producing a wide variety of data products useful for scientific and applications studies in relatively consistent fashion extending from November 2000 to the present. Within the approximately 40 MODIS data products, several are new and represent powerful and exciting capabilities such the ability to provide observations over the globe of fire occurrences, microphysical properties of clouds and sun-stimulated fluorescence from phytoplankton in the surface waters of the ocean. The remainder of the MODIS products exceeds or, at a minimum, matches the capabilities of products from heritage sensors such as, for example, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Efforts are underway to provide data sets for the greater Earth science community and to improve access to these products at the various Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) or through Direct Broadcast (DB) stations. The EOS Aqua mission was launched successfully May 4,2002 with another MODIS on it. The Aqua spacecraft operates in a sun-synchronous orbit going south to north in the daylight portion of the orbit crossing the equator at approximately 1330 hours local time. Subsequently the Aqua MODIS observations will substantially add to the capabilities of the Terra MODIS for environmental applications and global change studies.

Salomonson, V. V.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Multiple-etalon systems for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

Multiple etalon systems are discussed that meet the science requirements for a narrow-passband imaging system for the 4-meter National Solar Observatory (NSO)/Advance Technology Solar Telescope (ATST). A multiple etalon system can provide an imaging interferometer that works in four distinct modes: as a spectro-polarimeter, a filter-vector magnetograph, an intermediate-band imager, and broadband high-resolution imager. Specific dual and triple etalon configurations are described that provide a spectrographic passband of 2.0-3.5 micron and reduce parasitic light levels to 10(exp -4) as required for precise polarization measurement, e.g., Zeeman measurements of magnetic sensitive lines. A TESOS-like (Telecentric Etalon SOlar Spectrometer) triple etalon system provides a spectral purity of 10(exp -5). The triple designs have the advantage of reducing the finesse requirement on each etalon; allow the use of more stable blocking filters, and have very high spectral purity. A dual-etalon double-pass (Cavallini-like) system can provide a competing configuration. Such a dual-etalon design can provide high contrast. The selection of the final focal plane instrument will depend on a trade-off between an ideal instrument and practical reality. The trade study will include the number of etalons, their aperture sizes, complexities of the optical train, number of blocking filters, configuration of the electronic control system, computer interfaces, temperature controllers, etalon controllers, and their associated feedback electronics. The heritage of single and multiple etalon systems comes from their use in several observatories, including the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak Observatory (NSO), and Kiepenheuer-Institut fur Sonnenphysik (KIS, Germany), Mees Solar Observatory (University of Hawaii), and Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory (Italy). The design of the ATST multiple etalon system will benefit from the experience gained at these observatories.

Gary, G. Allen↗