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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Research, development and application of noncombustible Beta fiber structures

Beta fiber was selected as the primary material for flexible fibrous structures used in spacecraft and crew systems applications in the Apollo program because it was noncombustible in a 100 percent oxygen atmosphere up to 16.5 psia. It met NASA criteria for outgassing, toxicity, odor, and crew comfort, and possessed sufficient durability to last through the mission. Topics discussed include: study of spacecraft applications; design of Beta fiber textile structures to meet the requirements; selection of surface treatments (finishes, coatings, and printing systems) to impart the required durability and special functional use to the textile structures; development of sewing and fabrication techniques; and testing and evaluation programs, and development of production sources.

Dillon, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Viking heat sterilization - Progress and problems

The Viking Mars landers to be launched in 1975 will carry experiments in biology, planetology, and atmospheric physics. A terminal dry-heat sterilization process using an inert gas was chosen to meet planetary quarantine requirements and preclude contamination of the biology experiment by terrestrial organisms. Deep sterilization is performed at the component level and terminal surface sterilization at the system level. Solutions to certain component problems relating to sterilization are discussed, involving the gyroscope, tape recorder, battery, electronic circuitry, and outgassing. Heat treatment placed special requirements on electronic packaging, including fastener preload monitoring and solder joints. Chemical and physical testing of nonmetallic materials was performed to establish data on their behavior in heat-treatment and vacuum environments. A Thermal Effects Test Model and a Proof Test Capsule were used. It is concluded that a space vehicle can be designed and fabricated to withstand heat sterilization requirements.

Daspit, L. P.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Molecular fluxes from a spacecraft measured with quartz microbalances

A technique has been developed to obtain a characterization of the self-generated environment of a spacecraft and its variation with time, angular position, and distance. The density, pressure, outgassing flux, total weight loss, and other important parameters were obtained from data provided by two mass measuring crystal microbalances, mounted back to back, at a distance of 1 m from the spacecraft equivalent surface. The strongest source appeared to be caused by a material diffusion process which produced a directional density at 1 m distance of about 160 billion molecules per cu cm after 1 h in vacuum and decayed to 1.6 billion molecules per cu cm after 200 h. Self-contamination of the spacecraft was equivalent to that which occurs in a 300-km altitude orbit.

Scialdone, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Performance of solar shields

The loss of the micrometeoroid shield from the Orbital Workshop section of Skylab I, about 63 seconds after lift-off, proved to be the harbinger of a prodigious effort to quickly develop a workable substitute for the carefully tailored passive portion of the thermal-control system. The paper describes the intensive ten-day around-the-clock effort in which numerous potential thermal-shield materials were assessed, and during which period ten specific shield designs were developed and carried through various stages of development and test. Thermal-shield materials data are discussed, including optical, strength, fatigue, outgassing, tackiness, ultraviolet radiation, and material 'memory' properties.

Schwinghamer, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Design of a graphite/epoxy metering truss for the Large Space Telescope

This paper presents the design development of a truss-type structure which utilizes graphite/epoxy as the primary material system. A review is given of an on-going NASA sponsored program to develop a structural assembly which is required to have a very high degree of dimensional stability. Methods of material characterization and selection are given along with property data such as strength, stiffness, outgassing and thermal expansion. Finite element (NASTRAN) analysis will be discussed and deflection plots of the lowest mode frequencies will be presented. Proposed full scale tests: static, dynamic, and thermal/vacuum will be described.

Oken, S.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Hydrogen diffusion and trapping in nickel

An analysis of hydrogen transport in pure polycrystalline nickel foils and rods at 300-550 K shows that both trapping and short-circuit diffusion are present and have small yet significant effects on permeation, evolution, and absorption. Both effects appear to be associated primarily with the dislocation substructure of nickel. Relations describing hydrogen transport in nickel are obtained using the data on deuterium permeation, tritium absorption, and outgassing in pure polycrystalline nickel together with earlier measurements of diffusivity and solubility of hydrogen isotopes.

Louthan, M. R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1974

The interaction of hydrogen with Taurus-Littrow orange soil

A description is given of outgassing and gas interaction studies conducted with Taurus-Littrow orange soil. Scanning electron microscopy studies and X-ray emission spectra investigations are also considered. Data for the adjacent gray soil are included and compared with the results obtained for the orange soil. It is found that differences obtained for the two gases are not related to the nature of the gases evolved but only to the amounts of the gas.

Cadenhead, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Ultrasonic attenuation - Q measurements on 70215,29

Ultrasonic attenuation measurements have been made on an aluminum alloy, obsidian, and rock samples including lunar sample 70215,29. The measurement technique is based on a combination of the pulse transmission method and the forced resonance method. The technique is designed to explore the problem of defining experimentally, the Q of a medium or sample in which mode conversion may occur. If modes are coupled, the measured attenuation is strongly dependent on individual modes of vibration, and a range of Q-factors may be measured over various resonances or from various portions of a transient signal. On 70215,29, measurements were made over a period of a month while the sample outgassed in hard varuum. During this period, the highest measured Q of this sample increased from a few hundred into the range of 1000-1300.

Warren, N.↗
NASA NTRS1975

The influence of man in space observations

The paper evaluates the Skylab missions from the viewpoint of to what extent the presence of men may have been a detriment to scientific observations, either through their movements or through contamination of the spacecraft and instruments. The stability of the instrument canister within the Apollo Telescope Mount was secured by the Experiment Pointing Control System. Angular stability was specified to be within plus or minus 2.5 arc seconds, and was found to be less than 2 arc seconds during normal crew activity. No astronomical observations were reported as being degraded by crew movements. Instrumentation was installed to measure rates of contaminant particle deposition on optical surfaces. Clouds were formed from particles originating in outgassing from vehicle surface materials and from vent apertures. The Coronograph Contamination Measurement Instrument was used to measure the brightness of the induced cloud surrounding Skylab. Preliminary analysis shows no significant degradation of photographic data attributable to contamination.

Hanes, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

He 584 A airglow emission from Venus - Mariner 10 observations

Observations were made across the bright limb of Venus by the ultraviolet spectrometer on Mariner 10 as the spacecraft flew by this planet on February 5, 1974. The altitude variation of the brightness of 584-A emission is interpreted with respect to the helium distribution in the atmosphere. Resonance scattering of solar radiation is considered as the source of this emission. The comparison of model calculations with the data shows that the observed altitude profile is consistent with a He density of about 2 million/cu cm at 145-km altitude and with an exospheric temperature of the order of 375 K. If the major loss of helium is by solar-wind scavenging only, the present helium content on Venus can be maintained by an outgassing rate of about 200,000 per sq cm per sec from the planet crust. By using these neutral helium measurements, it is found that the He(+) ion density in the outer ionosphere would be of the order of 200/cu cm.

Kumar, S.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Mercury's helium exosphere

A model He exosphere of Mercury is developed whose source derives from accretion of the small fraction of solar-wind He(++) that is captured by the magnetosphere and absorbed at the planetary surface. The model is based on a lunar analogy whereby the surface is saturated with He. Surface and radial density distributions are derived, and the dayside concentration is determined by requiring that the limb intensity at 584 A equals the observed intensity. To maintain the He exosphere, it is found that only a fraction of the solar-wind He(++) flux intercepted by the magnetosphere need be captured. This corresponds to a total accretion rate of 6.8 by 10 to the 22nd power He(++) ions per sec at the surface, which also represents the upper limit to the total outgassing rate of He from the interior.

Hartle, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Lunar sample analysis

Room temperature internal friction (Q sup-1) values of the 0.00002-0.00003 range were achieved with lunar rock 70215,85 by thorough outgassing procedures in ultrahigh vacuum. Results are presented on the temperature dependence of Q sup -1 as measured in the range 25 C to 600 C along with some data on the change in Q sup -1 with pressure in ultrahigh vacuum. The temperature dependence shows the existence of an internal friction peak at around 200 C followed at high temperatures by an extensive region with flat Q sup -1 (approximately 0.001); the work at ultrahigh vacuum shows decreases in the internal friction with decreases in ambient pressure even in the range 10 to the -8 to 10 to the -10 power torr.

Tittmann, B. R.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Spacecraft self-contamination due to back-scattering of outgas products

The back-scattering of outgas contamination near an orbiting spacecraft due to intermolecular collisions was analyzed. Analytical tools were developed for making reasonably accurate quantitative estimates of the outgas contamination return flux, given a knowledge of the pertinent spacecraft and orbit conditions. Two basic collision mechanisms were considered: (1) collisions involving only outgas molecules (self-scattering) and (2) collisions between outgas molecules and molecules in the ambient atmosphere (ambient-scattering). For simplicity, the geometry was idealized to a uniformly outgassing sphere and to a disk oriented normal to the freestream. The method of solution involved an integration of an approximation of the Boltzmann kinetic equation known as the BGK (or Krook) model equation. Results were obtained in the form of simple equations relating outgas return flux to spacecraft and orbit parameters. Results were compared with previous analyses based on more simplistic models of the collision processes.

Robertson, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Results of an analytical study of spacecraft deposition contamination by internal reflection spectroscopy

Outgassing, deposition, and desorption kinetics of silicone compounds, are examined as examples of optical surface contaminants of spacecraft windows. Their behavior in a space environment after exposure to ultraviolet radiation is also examined. The use of internal reflection spectroscopy is shown to provide a viable means of real-time, in-situ identification of contaminants of orbiting spacecraft. The instrumental techniques are proposed as the basis of further investigations and the development of flight hardware.

Mookherji, T.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Theories of the origin and nature of the universe

The origin of life on earth is seen arising as a natural consequence of a long series of physical and chemical processes taking place in association with evolution of the universe. The present theory is that any premordial earth atmosphere, resulting from accumulation from the primitive solar nebula, was probably swept away by the very intensive T Tauri stage of the solar wind. Subsequently, the present atmosphere and oceans of the earth were outgassed from the interior. Biochemical components of the gases were mainly water vapor and carbon dioxide.

A. G. W. Cameron↗
NASA NTRS1976

Heterogeneous reaction of ozone with aluminum oxide

Rates and collision efficiencies for ozone decomposition on aluminum oxide surfaces were determined. Samples were characterized by BET surface area, X-ray diffraction, particle size, and chemical analysis. Collision efficiencies were found to be between 2 times 10 to the -10 power and 2 times 10 to the -9 power. This is many orders of magnitude below the value of 0.000001 to 0.00001 needed for appreciable long-term ozone loss in the stratosphere. An activation energy of 7.2 kcal/mole was found for the heterogeneous reaction between -40 C and 40 C. Effects of pore diffusion, outgassing and treatment of the aluminum oxide with several chemical species were also investigated.

Keyser, L. F.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Molecular beam mass spectrometer development

An analytical model, based on the kinetics theory of a drifting Maxwellian gas is used to determine the nonequilibrium molecular density distribution within a hemispherical shell open aft with its axis parallel to its velocity. The concept of a molecular shield in terrestrial orbit above 200 km is also analyzed using the kinetic theory of a drifting Maxwellian gas. Data are presented for the components of the gas density within the shield due to the free stream atmosphere, outgassing from the shield and enclosed experiments, and atmospheric gas scattered off a shield orbiter system. A description is given of a FORTRAN program for computating the three dimensional transition flow regime past the space shuttle orbiter that employs the Monte Carlo simulation method to model real flow by some thousands of simulated molecules.

Brock, F. J.↗