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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 NTRS1993

Real-time attitude determination and gyro calibration

We present results for two real-time filters prototyped for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), and the next generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). Both real and simulated data were used to solve for attitude and gyro biases. These filters promise advantages over single-frame and batch methods for missions like GOES, where startup and transfer-orbit operations require quick knowledge of attitude and gyro biases.

Challa, M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of NASA's RESOURCE (Resource Exploration and Science of OUR Cosmic Environment) Project

The RESOURCE(Resource Exploration and Science of OUR Cosmic Environment) project is supported by NASA’s SSERVI (Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute) and is led by Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Jennifer L. Heldmann and Deputy PIs Dr. Matthew Deans and Dr. Alexander Sehlke at NASA Ames Research Center. RESOURCE is focused on enabling In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) near the sites of robotic and/or human missions to enable sustainable and affordable exploration of the Moon and near-Earth objects (NEOs). This year RESOURCE has supported the development of a summary of the current state of knowledge regarding lunar polar volatiles as well as a comprehensive catalog and analysis of NEOs. RESOURCE is developing advanced mission capabilities to enable rapid, collaborative operations for lunar resource exploration missions. Hardware testing has been conducted to evaluate potential contaminants released during lunar polar regolith heating. Volatiles and particulates are the two sources of contamination that will affect the requirements of a water cleanup system, and RESOURCE research has identified the requirement for filtration prior to electrolysis for ISRU. RESOURCE also supports development of next-generation planetary drilling systems with integrated instrumentation within the drill. RESOURCE is also deeply committed to sustained efforts to engage educators, students, and broadening participation among under represented groups, and has partnered with Howard University in Washington, DC to foster minoritized students’ interest in STEAMD (science, technology, engineering, arts, math, design) careers through direct and virtual experiences with NASA Subject Matter Experts.

Jennifer L Heldmann↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of NASA’s RESOURCE (Resource Exploration and Science of Our Cosmic Environment) Project

The RESOURCE (Resource Exploration and Science of OUR Cosmic Environment) project is supported by NASA’s SSERVI (Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute) and is led by Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Jennifer L. Heldmann and Deputy PI Dr. Alexander Sehlke at NASA Ames Research Center. RESOURCE is focused on enabling In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) near the sites of ro-botic and/or human missions to enable sustainable and affordable exploration of the Moon and near-Earth objects (NEOs).Below we highlight several RESOURCE activities over the past year.

Jennifer L Heldmann↗
NASA NTRS1978

COBE - Explorer of the primeval explosion

The Cosmic Background Explorer satellite will measure the diffuse microwave and infrared emission from the universe over the entire wavelength range from a few microns to 13 mm with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy. It will measure the spectrum and angular distribution of the cosmic background radiation thought to be remnant of the big bang explosion, and it may also detect the radiation produced by the primal stars and galaxies. Furthermore, it will gather a large body of data permitting detailed study of the distribution, spectra, and temperature of the interstellar and interplanetary dust.

Mather, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The phenomenological status of late time phase transition models after cosmic background radiation anisotropy measurements

Some relatively model-independent results for structure formation via late time phase transitions (LTPT) are discussed. In particular, generic LTPT power spectra are presented. The implication of the recent Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) detection of the cosmic background radiation (CBR) anisotropy at large angular scales (greater than or approximately equal to 7 deg) and the tight upper limits from small angular scales (approximately 1 deg) to LTPT models are discussed. Special attention is focused on the observational constraints and possible non-Gaussian signatures of CBR temperature anisotropies from LTPT and other non-Gaussian models. It is shown that while LTPT have been seriously constrained by the recent data, viable models do remain which provide more power on the 100-200 Mpc scales than do more traditional primordial Gaussian density fluctuation models. Tests for such models are presented, including possible anisotropies on angular scales less than 8 min.

Luo, Xiaochun↗
NASA NTRS2007

An Astrosocial Observation: The Nobel Connection to the Space Program

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics was heralded by some in the press as the 'First Nobel Prize for Space Exploration.' Indeed the Nobel Foundation's announcement specifically cited the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite launched by NASA in 1989 as the prime-enabling instrument It elaborated further, 'The COBE results provided increased support for the Big Bang scenario for the origin of the Universe... These measurements also marked the inception of cosmology as a precise science.' NASA also seized this unique moment of fame to honor its favorite son, the first Nobel scientist of the agency, John Mather, of the Goddard Space Flight Center, who shared the honor with Professor G. Smoot of the University of California, the Principal Investigator of the COBE measurement. It is without any dispute that the Nobel Prize is the highest scientific honor and best-known award of admiration and inspiration to the public and educational sectors. Unfortunately in the American culture, youths are mostly exposed to success icons in the sports, entertainment, and business domains. Science icons (of either gender) are largely unknown to them. We sincerely hope that success stories of Nobel scientists will become part of the learning curriculum in the K-16 educational experience. In this paper, we examine the pedigree of a number of Nobel Prizes over the years, and discuss their interactions with, and connections to, the space program. It is advantageous for the context of educational and public outreach to see such connections, because in a number of public surveys, one important customer expectation for the space program is the search for new knowledge, to which the Nobel Prize is a prominent benchmark.

science icons↗
NASA NTRS1989

FIRAS optical alignment and performance during vibration qualification and cryogenic cycling

NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) is designed to investigate the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR), that permeates the universe as a consequence of the Big Bang. This 3 degree Kelvin radiation is a fossil that contains much information about the early universe. The Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS), will investigate the spectral isotropy of this ancient remnant and look for clues as to the subsequent evolution of the universe. The instrument is a cryogenically cooled, modified Michelson interferometer which operates in the 1 cm to 100 micron wavelength range. FIRAS is designed to provide absolute spectral information, therefore, all possible perturbations to the instrument response must be investigated to minimize distortions of the data. This paper discusses the methodology and resultant variations in the instrument performance noted during room temperature, and liquid nitrogen, (LN2) temperature vibration qualification. Reference alignment shifts in critical components such as the instrument wire-grid beamsplitter are correlated to changes in the instrument spectral response.

Hagopian, John G.↗
NASA NTRS2015

IYL Blog: Astronomers travel in time and space with light

As an astronomer, I use light to travel through the universe, and to look back in time to when the universe was young. So do you! All of us see things as they were when the light was emitted, not as they are now. The farthest thing you can easily see without a telescope is the Andromeda Nebula, which is a galaxy like the Milky Way, about 2.5 million light years away. You see it as it was 2.5 million years ago, and we really don't know what it looks like today; the disk will have rotated a bit, new stars will have been born, there could have been all kinds of exploding stars, and the black hole in the middle could be lighting up. People may be skeptical of the Big Bang theory, even though we have a TV show named for it, but we (I should say Penzias and Wilson) measured its heat radiation 51 years ago at Bell Telephone Labs in New Jersey. Their discovery marks the beginning of the era of cosmology as a measurement science rather than speculation. Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize in 1978 for their finding, which had been predicted in 1948 by Alpher and Herman. By the way, heat radiation is just another form of light - we call it radiation because we can't see it, but it's exactly the same phenomenon of electromagnetic waves, and the only difference is the wavelength. In the old days of analog television, if you tuned your TV in between channels, about 1% of the snow that you could see came from the Big Bang. So when we look at the heat radiation of the early universe, we really are gazing right at what seems to us a cosmic fireball, which surrounds us completely. It's a bit of an illusion; if you can imagine what astronomers in other galaxies would see, they would also feel surrounded by the fireball, and they would also think they were in the middle. So from a mathematical version of imagination, we conclude that there is no observable center and no edge of our universe, and that the heat of the fireball fills the entire universe uniformly. Astronomers are also using light to find out whether we are alone in the universe. The Kepler observatory showed that thousands of stars blink a little when their orbiting planets pass between us and them, and other observatories use light to measure the wobble of stars as their planets pull on them. Eventually, we will find out whether planets like Earth have atmospheres like Earth's too - with water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, and other gases that would be evidence of photosynthetic life. I think in a few decades we will have evidence that some planets do have life, and it will be done using light for remote chemical analysis. Also, astronomers at the SETI project are using light (long wavelength light we can pick up with radio telescopes) to look for signals from intelligent civilizations. That's a harder project because we don't know what to look for. But if we wanted to send signals all the way across the Milky Way, we could do it with laser beams, and if somebody over there knew what to look for, he or she could decode the message. On with the search! Dr. John C. Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist and is the Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. His research centers on infrared astronomy and cosmology. With the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team, he showed that the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum within 50 parts per million, confirming the expanding universe model (aka the Big Bang Theory) to extraordinary accuracy, and initiating the study of cosmology as a precision science. The COBE team also made the first map of the hot and cold spots in the background radiation. The COBE maps have been confirmed and improved by two succeeding space missions, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP, built by GSFC with Princeton University), and the Planck mission built by ESA. Based on these maps, astronomers have now developed a "standard model" of cosmology and have built detailed numerical simulations that begin to match Hubble observations, and require the existence of both "dark matter" and "dark energy", neither of which has been detected or deduced in laboratory experiments. Dr. Mather is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics (2006) with George Smoot, for the COBE work, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2007). He is a member of many professional societies including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Mather is now working with teams and committees to develop plans for a future great telescope capable of observing signs of life on planets orbiting other stars.

telescopes↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE): A Nulling Polarimeter for Cosmic Microwave Background Observations

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) is a concept for an Explorer-class mission to measure the gravity-wave signature of primordial inflation through its distinctive imprint on the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background. The instrument consists of a polarizing Michelson interferometer configured as a nulling polarimeter to measure the difference spectrum between orthogonal linear polarizations from two co-aligned beams. Either input can view the sky or a temperature-controlled absolute reference blackbody calibrator. Rhe proposed instrument can map the absolute intensity and linear polarization (Stokes I, Q, and U parameters) over the full sky in 400 spectral channels spanning 2.5 decades in frequency from 30 GHz to 6 THz (1 cm to 50 micron wavelength). Multi-moded optics provide background-limited sensitivity using only 4 detectors, while the highly symmetric design and multiple signal modulations provide robust rejection of potential systematic errors. The principal science goal is the detection and characterization of linear polarization from an inflationary epoch in the early universe, with tensor-to-scalar ratio r < 10..3 at 5 standard deviations. The rich PIXIE data set can also constrain physical processes ranging from Big Bang cosmology to the nature of the first stars to physical conditions within the interstellar medium of the Galaxy.

Kogut, Alan J.↗