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Recent Results of NASA's Space Environments and Effects Program

The Space Environments and Effects (SEE) Program is a multi-center multi-agency program managed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The program evolved from the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), analysis of LDEF data, and recognition of the importance of the environments and environmental effects on future space missions. It is a very comprehensive and focused approach to understanding the space environments, to define the best techniques for both flight and ground-based experimentation, to update the models which predict both the environments and the environmental effects on spacecraft, and finally to ensure that this information is properly maintained and inserted into spacecraft design programs. Formal funding of the SEE Program began initially in FY95. A NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicited research proposals in the following categories: 1) Engineering environment definitions; 2) Environments and effects design guidelines; 3) Environments and effects assessment models and databases; and, 4) Flight/ground simulation/technology assessment data. This solicitation resulted in funding for eighteen technology development activities (TDA's). This paper will present and describe technical results rom the first set of TDA's of the SEE Program. It will also describe the second set of technology development activities which are expected to begin in January 1998. These new technology development activities will enable the SEE Program to start numerous new development activities in support of mission customer needs.

Minor, Jody L.↗

Temperature Dependence of Diffusivities in Liquid Elements (LMD)

This research was to advance the understanding of diffusion mechanisms in liquid metals and alloys through accurate diffusivity measurements over a wide range of temperatures, including the proximity of the materials melting points. Specifically, it was driven towards developing a methodology (and subsequent flight hardware) to enable several diffusion coefficient measurements (i.e., at several different temperatures) to be performed using a single sample. The Liquid Metal Diffusion (LMD) was funded as a Flight Definition Project in February 1993 in response to NRA 91-OSSA-20 (Microgravity Science and Applications Division). The Science Concept Review for LAID was held during April 1994. In January 1995 we were informed that we had failed this review and the project was change to ground-based activities only. A new proposal was submitted for the next NRA addressing the panels concerns. As part of NASA's Risk Mitigation program, a scaled-down version of the hardware was funded in July of 1995 for a flight opportunity utilizing experiment on the Microgravity Isolation Mount. This experiment was to determine the self-diffusivity of indium at 185 C. The LMD was transferred to the Mir Space Station in STS-81 and returned on STS-84 (January - May 1997). Three, out of five, self-diffusion data sets were returned. A description of this experiment/hardware is included below. This summary is only intended to give the reader an overview of the results obtained for the tasks outlined in the original proposal. Research that was not published is explained in more detail. At the end of this report is a list of refereed publications and invited talks that were given as a result of this work. The reader is directed to these for further details. Attachment: Real-time diffusivity measurements in liquids at several temperatures with one sample, On the insensitivity of liquid diffusivity measurements to deviations from 1D transport, and Numerical simulations of the convective contamination of diffusivity measurements in liquids.

Banish, R. Michael↗

Parallelization of Rocket Engine Simulator Software (P.R.E.S.S.)

Parallelization of Rocket Engine System Software (PRESS) project is part of a collaborative effort with Southern University at Baton Rouge (SUBR), University of West Florida (UWF), and Jackson State University (JSU). The project has started on October 19, 1995, and after a three-year period corresponding to project phases and fiscal-year funding by NASA Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center), has ended on October 18, 1998. The one-year no-cost extension period was granted on June 7, 1998, until October 19, 1999. The aim of this one year no-cost extension period was to carry out further research to complete the work and lay the groundwork for subsequent research in the area of aerospace engine design optimization software tools. The previous progress for the research has been reported in great detail in respective interim and final research progress reports, seven of them, in all. While the purpose of this report is to be a final summary and an valuative view of the entire work since the first year funding, the following is a quick recap of the most important sections of the interim report dated April 30, 1999.

Cezzar, Ruknet↗

Acceptance Testing of a Satellite SCADA Photovoltaic-Diesel Hybrid System

Savannah State University (SSU) and the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) have been participating in the NASA Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) program for the last five years. This program was designed by NASA to help maintain U.S. leadership in commercial space communications by funding high-risk research, and to flight-test next-generation digital satellite components. Launched in 1993, ACTS is an U.S. government funded technology test-bed that incorporates high power Ka-band transponders, small spot beams, and on-board digital storage and switching technology. Associated with the spacecraft, is a prototype satellite control center that supports various application experiments. The SSU/FSEC application experiment is to developing a Photovoltaic-Diesel Hybrid Power system complete with satellite Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). The hybrid system was design to demonstrate the feasibility of using SCADA to maintain and operate remote village power systems. This configuration would enable experts at a central location to provide technical assistance to local technicians while they acquire a measure of proficiency with the hybrid system operation and maintenance. Upon full mastery of the technology, similar SCADA arrangement are planned to remotely monitor and control constellation of hybrid systems scattered overlarge rural areas. Two Orion Energy APEX-1000 hybrid systems were delivered in 1998, one was installed at SSU in eastern Georgia and the other was installed at FSEC in Central Florida. The project was designed to: (1) evaluate the performance of ACTS in a SCADA arrangement, (2) monitor the health and performance of all major hybrid subsystems, (3) investigate load control and battery charging strategies to maximize battery capacity and lifetime, and (4) develop satellite communication protocol. Preliminary results indicate that the hybrid design is suitable for satellite Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. A modification to the controller software has produced a robust communication link capable of real time control and long term data collection.

Kalu, Alex↗

Hyperspectral Imaging and Related Field Methods: Building the Science

The proposal requested funds for the computing power to bring hyperspectral image processing into undergraduate and graduate remote sensing courses. This upgrade made it possible to handle more students in these oversubscribed courses and to enhance CSES' summer short course entitled "Hyperspectral Imaging and Data Analysis" provided for government, industry, university and military. Funds were also requested to build field measurement capabilities through the purchase of spectroradiometers, canopy radiation sensors and a differential GPS system. These instruments provided systematic and complete sets of field data for the analysis of hyperspectral data with the appropriate radiometric and wavelength calibration as well as atmospheric data needed for application of radiative transfer models. The proposed field equipment made it possible to team-teach a new field methods course, unique in the country, that took advantage of the expertise of the investigators rostered in three different departments, Geology, Geography and Biology.

Goetz, Alexander F. H.↗

Development of Airborne Eddy-Correlation Flux Measurement Capabilities for Reactive Oxides of Nitrogen

This report addresses the Tropospheric Trace Gas and Airborne Measurement Group (TTGAMG) endeavors to continue to push the evolution of the Georgia Institute of Technology's Airborne Laser Induced Fluorescence Experiment (GITALIFE) into a sensor capable of making airborne eddy correlation measurements of nitrogen oxides. It will mainly address the TTGAMG successes and failures as well as its participation in the summer 1998 Wallops Island test flights on board the P3-B. Due to the restructuring and reorganization of the TTGAMG since the original funding of this grant, some of the objectives and the deliverables can not be achieved as proposed in the original funding of this grant. Most of these changes have been driven by the passing away of John Bradshaw, the original principal investigator.

Sandholm, Scott↗

Postseismic Deformation after the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake: Collaborative Research with Goddard Space Flight Center

The purpose of this project was to carry out GPS observations on the Kenai Peninsula, southern Alaska, in order to study the postseismic and contemporary deformation following the 1964 Alaska earthquake. All of the research supported in this grant was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Steven Cohen of Goddard Space Flight Center. The research funding from this grant primarily supported GPS fieldwork, along with the acquisition of computer equipment to allow analysis and modeling of the GPS data. A minor amount of salary support was provided by the PI, but the great majority of the salary support was provided by the Geophysical Institute. After the expiration of this grant, additional funding was obtained from the National Science Foundation to continue the work. This grant supported GPS field campaigns in August 1995, June 1996, May-June and September 1997, and May-June 1998. We initially began the work by surveying leveling benchmarks on the Kenai peninsula that had been surveyed after the 1964 earthquake. Changes in height from the 1964 leveling data to the 1995+ GPS data, corrected for the geoid-ellipsoid separation, give the total elevation change since the earthquake. Beginning in 1995, we also identified or established sites that were suitable for long-term surveying using GPS. In the subsequent annual GPS campaigns, we made regular measurements at these GPS marks, and steadily enhanced our set of points for which cumulative postseismic uplift data were available. From 4 years of Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements, we find significant spatial variations in present-day deformation between the eastern and western Kenai peninsula, Alaska. Sites in the eastern Kenai peninsula and Prince William Sound move to the NNW relative to North America, in the direction of Pacific-North America relative plate motion. Velocities decrease in magnitude from nearly the full plate rate in southern Prince William Sound to about 30 mm/yr at Seward and to about 5 mm/yr near Anchorage. In contrast, sites in the western Kenai peninsula move to the SW, in a nearly trenchward direction, with a velocity of about 20 mm/yr. The data are consistent with the shallow plate interface offshore and beneath the eastern Kenai and Prince William Sound being completely locked or nearly so, with elastic strain accumulation resulting in rapid motion in the direction of relative plate motion of sites in the overriding plate. The velocities of sites in the western Kenai, along strike to the southwest, are opposite in sign with those predicted from elastic strain accumulation. These data are incompatible with a significant locked region in this segment of the plate boundary. Trenchward velocities are found also for some sites in the Anchorage area. We interpret the trenchward velocities as being caused by a continuing postseismic transient from the 1964 great Alaska earthquake.

Freymueller, Jeffrey T.↗

"X-Ray Transients in Star-Forming Regions" and "Hard X-Ray Emission from X-Ray Bursters"

This grant funded work on the analysis of data obtained with the Burst and Transient Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The goal of the work was to search for hard x-ray transients in star forming regions using the all-sky hard x-ray monitoring capability of BATSE. Our initial work lead to the discovery of a hard x-ray transient, GRO J1849-03. Follow-up observations of this source made with the Wide Field Camera on BeppoSAX showed that the source should be identified with the previously known x-ray pulsar GS 1843-02 which itself is identified with the x-ray source X1845-024 originally discovered with the SAS-3 satellite. Our identification of the source and measurement of the outburst recurrence time, lead to the identification of the source as a Be/X-ray binary with a spin period of 94.8 s and an orbital period of 241 days. The funding was used primarily for partial salary and travel support for John Tomsick, then a graduate student at Columbia University. John Tomsick, now Dr. Tomsick, received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in July 1999, based partially on results obtained under this investigation. He is now a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of California, San Diego.

Halpern, Jules P.↗

Deformation of Alaskan Volcanoes, Measured by Satellite Radar Inferometry

The purpose of this project was to determine the suitability of measuring active deformation of volcanoes in Alaska using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (INSAR) techniques. Work sponsored by this grant supported one graduate student (for almost 2 years) and one postdoc (for several months), and has resulted in two published peer-reviewed papers and a front-page article in EOS. An additional paper is in review and a fourth is in preparation. An additional paper in preparation was based in part on research supported by this grant and in part by a successor grant from NASA's Solid Earth Natural Hazards program. Over the course of this research, we documented measurable uplift of Trident volcano in the Katmai group, conducted a systematic study of the change in phase coherence over time on volcanic surfaces, and measured and modeled the spectacular 1.5 m deflation of Okmok caldera associated with its 1997 eruption. We also generated initial interferograms spanning the 1996 seismic swarm of Akutan volcano; however, during the period covered by this project we were not able to remove topography. That has been done under the subsequent funding and a paper is now in preparation. This report summarizes work done under two separate contracts because both were based on the same proposal to NASA's ADRO (Application Development and Research Opportunity) program. The first year was funded out of a grant from NASA Headquarters and the second and third years out of a grant through Goddard. The work, however, was a continuous three year effort.

Freymueller, Jeff↗

Core and Crustal Geomagnetic Field Modeling Using Oersted and Magsat Data

This grant supplied funding to use Magsat and Oersted magnetic field data to model the magnetic field due to Earth's core and crust. Since the launch of Oersted was significantly delayed and no data were yet available by 5/31/99, the end of the funding period, it is perhaps fortunate that our primary goals were to develop and exploit innovative schemes for modeling the geomagnetic field, including new techniques for minimizing the influence of crustal magnetic fields in core field modelling. We were able to proceed with these efforts independently despite the lack of new observations. The work carried out under this grant has resulted in four peer-reviewed publications, with ongoing work contributing to a fifth in press paper. The research also provided significant contributions to education in PhD theses. Details of the results from this work can be found in the attached copies of the published work.

Constable, Catherine↗

Miniature Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer Array

JPL is funded by Code U to develop a Miniature QMSA for an EVA flight test. The initial intent was to fly an experiment internal to the astronaut suit during a shuttle EVA. Following discussions with JSC the suit application was abandoned in favor of other more urgent needs. The JSC EVA office was particularly interested in hydrazine detection on the astronaut suit. While discussing and exploring the implementation of such an experiment, managers at JSC suggested combining the interests of two JSC groups. The Life Support and Thermal Systems Branch, Crew and Thermal Systems Division has a need for an ammonia detection instrument, while the EVA office has a need for hydrazine detection. The two groups were pursuing separate single-purpose solutions. Instead, the JPL QMSA offers a single instrument solution via a portable instrument to be used by an astronaut on an EVA. Such an instrument would serve both the ammonia leak detection and the hydrazine contamination needs. The need for the QMSA was defined as urgent and targeted for a January 1999 flight. While the original JPL task (as funded by Code U) was for an experiment flight with JPL delivery in October 1998, this task was for a qualified flight instrument with a planned JPL delivery in August 1998. This schedule was very demanding and dictated a fast-tract implementation.

Karmon, D.↗

Immunogenetics of the Elephant Seal

The goals of this cooperative agreement fall into three categories: 1) A basic description of Immunogenetic variation in the northern elephant seal genome; 2) A basic genetic map of the northern elephant seal genome; 3). Microevolutionary forces in the northern elephant seal genome. The results described in this report were acquired using funds from this cooperative agreement together with funds from a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.

Garza, John Carlos↗

New Mission Concepts for Astrophysics Large Area X-Ray Spectroscopy Mission

Work at SAO was performed under the overall direction of Dr. Harvey Tananbaum, the Principal Investigator for the program. Dr. Jay Bookbinder was responsible for day to day program coordination at SAO and liaison with GSFC. Dr. Nicholas E. White served as GSFC Technical Officer for the Grant. The effort was directed at formulating the general characteristics and scientific requirements of the contemplated mission. While funding and therefore effort was limited, nonetheless SAO was involved in a broad range of activities. These activities were defined by our SAO proposal to GSFC that were subsequently accepted and funded by this Grant. The main activities were: Support of mission studies. Support the development of science requirements. and Performance of selected engineering studies and trades. During this period, an integrated GSFC/SAO management team began to form and work together. Jean F. Grady was appointed Project Formulation Manager at GSFC and assumed the overall management direction of the project including coordination of work performed under the grant.

Tananbaum, Harvey↗

Documenting, Understanding, and Predicting the Aggregate Surface Radiation Fluxes for SHEBA

This document serves as a final report for NASA grant NAG5-4903 at Boston University. The report covers the first two years of the three-year project. The third year's funding and tasks have been transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) where the Principal Investigator (J. Key) is now stationed. The new UW grant number is NAG5-8625. Plans for the final project year at UW were detailed in the Request to Transfer document, submitted to NASA in July 1999. This is a group project with the University of Colorado (CU) as the lead institution, where Judith Curry is the Principal Investigator. The overall project is jointly funded by NASA and NSF. The progress reported herein is that specific to Boston University, but no attempt has been made to separate NASA and NSF activities.

Key, Jeffrey R.↗

XTE Observations of PSR 1259-63 and a Test of Spin Orbit Coupling in the 4U0115+63 System

During this report period, Mallory Roberts went to GSFC to analyze the data from two minor outbursts, which occurred from 4UO115+63. Unfortunately, the outbursts were not of sufficient duration to do a unique orbital determination (which was the scientific goal of the experiment). As this report is being written, 4UO115+63 is undergoing its first major outburst in four years. We are planning on adding our RXTE PCA data to any public ASM or PCA data that is obtained through the duration of this outburst, and combining it with our BATSE data from 1994 and 1995 outbursts in order to learn something about the orbital evolution in this system. We have formed a collaboration with colleagues at MIT who are working on the ASM data for this outburst. Thus, work on the original data will continue, with no further funding, and we are hopeful that some important questions with regard to the orbital timing will finally be resolved. The PSR 1259-63 data were originally analyzed by Barry Giles, who reported that no pulsations or flux were seen from this source near apastron. Recently, a new background model for low-count rate sources has been developed for the PCA. We intend to use this new background model to reanalyze these data to see if we can improve the upper limit to the flux. This work will also continue with no further funding.

Cominsky, Lynn R.↗

NASA University Program Management Information System

As basic policy, NASA believes that colleges and universities should be encouraged to participate in the nation's space and aeronautics program to the maximum extent practicable. Indeed, universities are considered as partners with government and industry in the nation's aerospace program. NASA:s objective is to have them bring their scientific, engineering, and social research competence to bear on aerospace problems and on the broader social, economic, and international implications of NASA's technical and scientific programs. It is expected that, in so doing, universities will strengthen both their research and their educational capabilities to contribute more effectively to the national well-being. NASA field codes and certain Headquarters program offices provide funds for those activities in universities which contribute to the mission needs of that particular NASA element. Although NASA has no predetermined amount of money to devote to university activities, the effort funded each year is substantial. This annual report is one means of documenting the NASA-university relationship, frequently denoted, collectively, as NASA's University Program. This report is consistent with agency accounting records, as the data is obtained from NASA:s Financial and Contractual Status (FACS) System, operated by the Financial Management Division and the Procurement Office. However, in accordance with interagency agreements, the orientation differs from that required for financial or procurement purposes. Any apparent discrepancies between this report and other NASA procurement or financial reports stem from the selection criteria for the data.* This report was prepared by the Education Division/FE, Office of Human Resources and Education, using a management information system which was modernized during FY 1993.

Source record↗

A Core Program in JIAFS

This paper presents appendices listing and summarizing funding of, and participants in the project, for a final report on A Core Program in JIAFS (Joint Institute for Advancement of Flight Sciences). The objectives of the program were to conduct high-risk innovative research, administer and direct the on-going programs, and appoint additional Graduate Research Scholar Assistants depending on availability of applicants and funds.

Whitesides, John L.↗

{Interball-1 Plasma, Magnetic Field, and Energetic Particle Observations}

Funding from NASA was received in two installments. The first installment supported research using Russian/Czech/Slovak/French Interball-1 plasma, magnetic field, and energetic particles observations in the vicinity of the magnetopause. The second installment provided salary support to review unsolicited proposals to NASA for data recovery and archiving, and also to survey ISTP data provision efforts. Two papers were published under the auspices of the grant. Sibeck et al. reported Interball-1 observations of a wave on the magnetopause with an amplitude in excess of 5 R(sub E), the largest ever reported to date. They attributed the wave to a hot flow anomaly striking the magnetopause and suggested that the hot flow anomaly itself formed during the interaction of an IMF discontinuity with the bow shock. Nemecek et al. used Interball-1's VDP Faraday cup to identify large transient increases in the magnetosheath density. They noted large variations in simultaneous Wind observations of the IMF cone angle, but were unable to establish any relationship between the cone angle variations at Wind and the density variations at Interball-1. Funds from the second installment were used to review over 20 proposals from various researchers in the scientific community who sought NASA support to restore or archive past observations. It also supported a survey of ISTP data provisions which was used as input to a Senior Review of ongoing NASA ISTP programs.

Sibeck, David G.↗