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Barometric pressure, gas composition, toxicity, and thermal exchange of spacecraft cabin atmospheres are discussed. Effects of gravitation, acceleration, weightlessness, noise, and vibration on human behavior and performance during space flight are also described.
The SR-1 Freedom mission aims to demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) and deliver the Skyfall helicopter payload to Mars. Repurposing the existing Gateway Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) spacecraft and combining it with a 20 kWe-class nuclear power module (NPM) presents a variety of thermal architecture challenges. These include unprecedented waste heat rejection requirements, integration with a spacecraft bus originally designed for a different mission profile, and novel packaging constraints. This presentation will describe the simplified concept of operations as it relates to on-orbit thermal environments, early-phase architecture trades and supporting analyses, and planned forward work. We will also discuss our strategy for integrated thermal modeling of the complete spacecraft and examples of interface challenges necessitated by this ambitious effort.
The Microbial Air Sampler was used on mission days 1, 7, and 13 in the Spacelab during STS-50/USML-1. Microbial air samples were collected using two types of media strips containing agar (Rose Bengal for yeast and molds, TSA for bacteria). The bacterial level found on day 1 was lower than experienced on previous Spacelab missions. A high level of fungi was present on day 1, however subsequent samples on days 7 and 13 did not indicate fungal growth. Bacterial growth was also minimized in this microgravity environment as the mission progressed. No pathogenic microorganisms were isolated, and the health risk from airborne microbes was minimal throughout the mission.
Experimental and computational fluid dynamic activities in rocket propulsion were discussed. The workshop was an open meeting of government, industry, and academia. A broad number of topics were discussed including computational fluid dynamic methodology, liquid and solid rocket propulsion, turbomachinery, combustion, heat transfer, and grid generation.
The Space Programs Summary is a six-volume, bimonthly publication that documents the current project activities and supporting research and advanced development efforts conducted or managed by JPL for the NASA space exploration programs.
Experiments on rotational bifurcation of liquid drops, in which the drops were levitated and spun using acoustic fields in a low-gravity environment, were conducted during the first United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-1) Space Shuttle flight. The experiments have successfully resolved the discrepancies existing between the previous experimental results and the theoretical predictions. In the case of a spherical drop, for which theory exists, the results agree well with the predictions. In the case of flattened drops, the experiments have established a family of curves, with the spherical drop as the limiting case.
The Surveyor Project planned and conducted seven unmanned lunar missions for which spacecraft were launched between May 1966 and January 1968. Each of the spacecraft was successfully launched with the then newly developed Atlas/Centaur vehicle which utilized for the first time a high-specific-impulse, liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fueled stage. Five of the spacecraft successfully soft-landed and returned a great quantity of engineering and scientific data on extensive postlanding operations, accomplishing all mission and project objectives. Four of the spacecraft soft-landed at selected mare sites to provide data which were required to support the Apollo Program. The final spacecraft was then successfully used for scientific investigation of a contrasting site in the rugged lunar highlands. Surveyor was a fully attitude-stabilized spacecraft designed to receive and execute a wide variety of earth commands, as well as to perform certain automatic functions including the critical terminal-descent and soft-landing sequences. Significant new and advanced subsystems that were developed and/or used in combination to enable Surveyor to execute the complex terminal phase of flight were: (1) a solid-propellant main retro motor, (2) throttlable liquid-propellant vernier engines (also used for midcourse velocity correction), (3) highly sensitive velocity- and altitude-sensing radars, and (4) an automatic closed-loop guidance and control system. The first Surveyor spacecraft carried a survey television camera which, together with other engineering instrumentation, obtained in-flight and postlanding data. The complement of instruments carried on later missions included various combinations of the following additional devices: (1) a soil mechanics/surface sampler instrument for picking, digging, and handling lunar surface material; (2) an alpha scattering instrument for performing a chemical analysis of the lunar surface material; and (3) magnets attached to the spacecraft for determining magnetic properties of the soil.
The Pad Abort (PA-1) system includes the Launch Abort System (LAS) and the Command Module (CM). The PA-1 abort flight test will launch from the White Sands Missile Range. Prior to the ignition, the vehicle will be resting, without restraints, on a short support structure. The Launch Abort Motor will ignite and burn for less than 5 seconds before a 20 second coast. Then the LAS will separate from the CM and the CM will descend via parachute to a soil landing. The static firing of the Abort Motor (ST-1) for PA-1 Launch Vehicle resulted in unexpected higher levels that superseded the environment predictions and all the design and test loads of all subassemblies and components. A rapid project was put in place to develop the flight environments, loads and associated uncertainties for the Verification Load Cycle (VLC) of PA-1. An acoustic test and shaker test of the CM were planned and executed in support of the developments of damping and transfer functions. Instead of using the traditional structure-borne envelops, the actual ST-1 pressures and forces were used to develop the internal accelerations. The PA-1 motor was cooled to 60 Deg F using thermal conditioning to reduce the thrust profile. The plumes of the abort motor were studied to determine if the airborne environments would be reduced. The combination of all items, noted above, allowed a reduction in loads for VLC.
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An AGARD Colloquium on 'Progress in Tactical Rocket Propulsion' was held at La Jolla, California, on April 22 and 23, 1965. The unclassified papers, or unclassified versions of classified papers, presented at this meeting form the contents of the present AGARD conference proceedings, which has been identified by a new title that reflects more properly the scope of the remaining technical papers. The articles contained in this volume represent significant evaluations of the status of solid-propellant, liquid-propellant and hybrid-propellant rocket development. Together with the reviews, they should provide a useful reference source for research workers and students alike.
Using the existing inviscid theories, an attempt is made to explain the centering of the oscillating liquid shell. Experiments on liquid shells and liquid-core compound drops were conducted using acoustic levitation, in a low-gravity environment during a Space Shuttle flight. It was observed that their inner and outer interfaces became concentric when excited into capillary oscillations. Using the existing inviscid theories, and attempt is made to explain the centering of the oscillating liquid shell. It is concluded that viscosity needs to be considered in order to provide a realistic description of the centering process.
The Orion 1 spacecraft is a three-axis stabilized geostationary earth orbiting commercial communications satellite which was launched on November 29, 1994 aboard an Atlas II launch vehicle. The power subsystem is a dual bus, dual battery semi-regulated system with one 78 Ampere-hour nickel-hydrogen battery per bus. The batteries were built and tested by Eagle Picher Industries, Inc., of Joplin, MO and were integrated into the spacecraft by its manufacturer, Matra Marconi Space UK Ltd. This paper presents the results obtained during the first four in-orbit reconditioning cycles and compares the battery performance to ground test data. In addition, the on-station battery management strategy and implementation constraints are described. Battery performance has been nominal throughout each reconditioning cycle and subsequent eclipse season.
This publication contains the presentations from the Third Space Processing Symposium. These papers cover the results of Materials Processing Experiments conducted on NASA's SKYLAB flights and several related research activities for Materials Processing in Space beyond SKYLAB. Contents consist of the Welcoming Address by Dr. Rocco Petrone, Director, Marshall Space Flight Center; Introduction to Space Processing by Dr. Mathias P. Siebel, Director, Process Engineering Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center; thirty-eight papers; and the closing presentation titled Projected Future Space Processing Activities by Dr. James H. Bredt, Office of Applications, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Keynote Address was presented by Mr. Charles W. Mathews, Office of Applications, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) received a request to develop an analysis model based on both frequency response and wave propagation analyses for predicting shock response spectrum (SRS) on composite materials subjected to pyroshock loading. The model would account for near-field environment (approximately 9 inches from the source) dominated by direct wave propagation, mid-field environment (approximately 2 feet from the source) characterized by wave propagation and structural resonances, and far-field environment dominated by lower frequency bending waves in the structure. This document contains appendices to the Volume I report.
This symposium is the fourth in a series on the plasma sheath. The first three were held in Boston, Massachusetts, and were sponsored by the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories. The papers included in the symposium cover theoretical and experimental results of research and flight tests of many different specific aspects of the general problem of plasma sheath degradation of reentry vehicle electromagnetic systems. Only the newer advances and more recent developments in the field are included in the Fourth Plasma Sheath Symposium, with no particular attempt being made to review the general background and history of the problem or to cover those aspects discussed in the previous symposia. Flight data from both NASA and DOD programs are included.