SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Low cost, photographic process uses surface coating of nickel hypophosphite sensitive to X-rays and electron radiation. Exposed coated surface can be amplified to produce permanent visible image of wide tonal gradation in grays. Coating may be sodium, ammonium, or lithium hypophosphite or sodium phosphite, with nickel supplied in developer.
Observation of X-ray emission from M31 in the 0.5- to 5.0-keV band, using rocket-borne proportional counters. The integrated flux corresponds to (2.2 plus or minus 0.6) x 10 to the 39th ergs/sec at M31, and is confined chiefly to a region coinciding with the optical image of the galaxy. The spectrum has a slope similar to the bright Galactic X-ray sources. The intensity, spectral, and spatial data suggest that the bulk of X-ray emission from M31, and by inference from most normal galaxies, is due to a small group of highly luminous sources, in agreement with the Galactic X-ray luminosity function.
In 1968, Dicke had suggested that multiple-pinhole camera systems would have significant advantages concerning the SNR in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy if the multiple images could be somehow synthesized into a single image. The practical development of an image-synthesis method based on these suggestions is discussed. A formulation of the SNR gain theory which is particularly suited for dealing with the proposal by Dicke is considered. It is found that the SNR gain is by no means uniform in all X-ray astronomy applications.
System was devised for displaying radiographs on television screen and enhancing fine detail in picture. System uses analog-computer circuits to process television signal from low-noise television camera. Enhanced images are displayed in black and white and can be controlled to vary degree of enhancement and magnification of details in either radiographic transparencies or opaque photographs.
The technology transfer application this report describes is the result of a pilot study of image-processing methods applied to the image enhancement, coding, and analysis of arteriograms. Angiography is a subspecialty of radiology that employs the introduction of media with high X-ray absorption into arteries in order to study vessel pathology as well as to infer disease of the organs supplied by the vessel in question.
Description of the hardware and software implementing the system of time-lapse reproduction of images through interactive graphics (TRIIG). The system produces a quality hard copy of processed images in a fast and inexpensive manner. This capability allows for optimal development of processing software through the rapid viewing of many image frames in an interactive mode. Three critical optical devices are used to reproduce an image: an Optronics photo reader/writer, the Adage Graphics Terminal, and Polaroid Type 57 high speed film. Typical sources of digitized images are observation satellites, such as ERTS or Mariner, computer coupled electron microscopes for high-magnification studies, or computer coupled X-ray devices for medical research.
Digital computers correct various distortions in medical and biological photographs. One of the principal methods of computer enhancement involves the use of a two-dimensional digital filter to modify the frequency spectrum of the picture. Another computer processing method is image subtraction.
Glancing-incidence telescope makes observations of distant celestial radiant bodies at wavelengths in the spectral region between 3 and 500 angstroms. The device can be used as a fore-optics system for a laboratory extreme ultraviolet spectrometer, or for the collection or imaging of thermal neutrons.
The current status of X-ray astronomy is surveyed by reviewing observational results and theoretical conclusions gained within the past two years in areas dealing with the quiet-sun, slowly-varying, and burst components of solar X-radiation and with the features of cosmic X-ray sources. Thermal and nonthermal processes responsible for a wide variety of X-ray emission mechanisms in nature are explained, and characteristics of X radiation from specific solar structures are described. Attention is given to the effects of interstellar and intergalactic matter on cosmic X-rays; the properties of galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources; and the specifications of such instruments as gas-filled ionization detectors, proportional counters, Geiger counters, scintillation detectors, photoelectric detectors, polarimeters, collimators, spectrometers, and imaging systems.
Reactions of the silica reinforcement fiber and ablation char of the Apollo heat shield have been investigated by laboratory tests in an arc image furnace (at temperature levels up to 5000 R, pressures up to 0.7 atm, and heat flux similar to reentry) and by an actual reentry test. Microchemical analyses and X-ray diffraction studies have been made to determine the presence of SiC formation in the char. Experimental data and analytical predictions of thermal and density profiles have been compared for the ablation of virgin heat shield and precharred materials to determine the effects of SiC formation on ablation performance. In all analyses, general agreement was found between chemical composition and the thermal predictions for laboratory tests and reentry materials. In all ablated materials, SiC was formed in the front surface of the char. The highest SiC content found was 58% by weight and found in a high-pressure environment. The SiC formed was found to act as a heat sink in the ablation process and can lower the front surface temperature by 300 R.
A fluoroscopic tomography system capable of synthesizing body sections at a number of levels within the body has been developed. The synthesized body sections may lie either in a range of planes parallel to, tilted with respect to, skewed with respect to, or both tilted and skewed with respect to the plane of motion of the X-ray tube target. In addition, body sections can be presented which are contoured to the patient's anatomy. That is to say, they may even encompass such complex surfaces as a quadratic hyperplane. In addition, tomograms of organs in motion can be imaged.
Using NASA facilities in space (OSO-7) and on the ground (Goddard multi-channel spectrophotometer at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico) an active region has been mapped. By combining these ultraviolet, X-ray, and visible data, a physical picture of this structured region was constructed from the photosphere to the corona, corresponding to temperature regimes from 4500 K to 4,000,000 K. The morphology of the active region was studied by comparing grey-shaded images in which fine details stand out more clearly than in the contour plots. One result of the study is that gross similarities persist from the low photosphere up to high in the transition region, while some changes occur in the corona.
The contrast sensitivity of the radiographic amplifiers, both the storage type and nonstorage type, their absolute sensitivity, and the reproducibility of fabrication were investigated. The required 2-2T quality level was reached with the radiographic storage screen. The sensitivity threshold was 100 to 200 mR with 45 to 100 kV filtered X-rays. The quality level of the radiographic amplifier screen (without storage) was 4-4T; for a 6 mm (0.25 in.) thick aluminum specimen, a 1 mm (0.040 in.) diameter hole in a 0.25 mm (0.010 in.) thick penetrameter was detected. Its sensitivity threshold was 2 to 6 mR/min. The developed radiographic screens are applicable for uses in nondestructive testing.
The testing is reported of a polished Kanigen coated beryllium mirror in a soft X-ray telescope to be flown on a Skylark sounding rocket. This test involved inserting the telescope in a 220 foot long vacuum line and taking photographs of an X-ray resolution source. These photographs were then used to evaluate the performance of the telescope mirror as a function of distance from the focal plane and the angular distance off the telescope axis. A second test was made in which a point source was used to study the imaging characteristics by means of a pinhole and proportional counter placed in the telescope focal plane. A third test was conducted using a position sensitive detector. The efficiency and resolution was increased by polishing.
Members from industry and federal agencies of the United States have developed a collaborating group focused on improving the understanding of the atomization processes common to gas turbine engines. The group is aimed on providing high quality data using x-ray diagnostics in the internal geometry and the near-field dense spray as well as optical diagnostics in the visible spectrum, downstream of the nozzle. This paper reports results from one of the two non-proprietary injectors designs from the group: the primary-secondary injector. In particular, we characterize the spray from only the primary, pressure-swirl atomizing circuit using water through the nozzle. We observed Sauter mean diameter decreased with increased water pressure drop across the nozzle. SMD was also collected at three axial distances and showed decreased size with distance from the nozzle. Planar laser sheet droplet scattering provided qualitative assessment of the spray. Higher water pressure drops provided better atomization than lower pressure drops. The addition of swirling air flow through the injector alleviates and improves the atomization quality, particularly at the lower water pressure drops.
A scatter-hole X-ray camera has been designed and flown in a rocket to measure solar X radiation. Its distinguishing feature is that many single pin-hole images are allowed to overlap - a multiplexing approach that saves space, gives practical signal-to-fog ratio, and requires special object reconstruction techniques. It was possible to reconstruct the appearance of the dominant source of solar emission on the day of rocket flight with better than one arc minute resolution. The coronal X-ray region had the same general shape and intensity distribution as the associated calcium K-line region.
A computer program is used to evaluate a 25.4 cm X-ray telescope at a field angle of 20 minutes of arc by geometrical analysis. The object is regarded as a point source of electromagnetic radiation, and the optical surfaces are treated as boundary conditions in the solution of the electromagnetic wave propagation equation. The electric field distribution is then determined in the region of the image and the intensity distribution inferred. A comparison of wave analysis results and photographs taken through the telescope shows excellent agreement.
Papers on Raman and soft X-ray spectroscopy of lunar glasses and electron microscopy of lunar fines are presented. Individual particles of glasses from Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 15 samples were analyzed separately. Silicon emission shifts vary between parent rock types and can be interpreted as a range of Si-O distances from 1.612 to 1.637 A. Aluminum emission shifts relate to the amount of 4- and 6-coordinated Al in the glass. Raman spectra show broadened bands. Certain bands recur in many specimens and relate to the main normative minerals for the glass bulk composition, olivine, pyroxene, and anorthite. Quantitative size and shape analyses were carried out on six Apollo 14 and 15 samples of fines by computer evaluation of scanning electron microspace images. For the size range of 0.50 to 30 micron diameter, the distributions are log-normal on a number count basis. Aspect ratios range from 0.1 to 1.0 with an average value of about 0.6. The aspect ratios and a shape complexity factor vary only slightly among the samples.