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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 73 records · Page 4

Navier-Stokes Simulation of a Heavy Lift Slowed-Rotor Compound Helicopter Configuration

Time accurate numerical simulations were performed using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow solver OVERFLOW for a heavy lift, slowed-rotor, compound helicopter configuration, tested at the NASA Langley 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel. The primary purpose of these simulations is to provide support for the development of a large field of view Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) flow measurement technique supported by the Subsonic Rotary Wing (SRW) project under the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics program. These simulations provide a better understanding of the rotor and body wake flows and helped to define PIV measurement locations as well as requirements for validation of flow solver codes. The large field PIV system can measure the three-dimensional velocity flow field in a 0.914m by 1.83m plane. PIV measurements were performed upstream and downstream of the vertical tail section and are compared to simulation results. The simulations are also used to better understand the tunnel wall and body/rotor support effects by comparing simulations with and without tunnel floor/ceiling walls and supports. Comparisons are also made to the experimental force and moment data for the body and rotor.

Allan, Brian G.↗

Measuring Cosmic Expansion and Large Scale Structure with Destiny

Destiny is a simple, direct, low cost mission to determine the properties of dark energy by obtaining a cosmologically deep supernova (SN) type Ia Hubble diagram and by measuring the large-scale mass power spectrum over time. Its science instrument is a 1.65m space telescope, featuring a near-infrared survey camera/spectrometer with a large field of view. During its first two years, Destiny will detect, observe, and characterize 23000 SN Ia events over the redshift interval 0.4 lo00 square degrees to measure the large-scale mass power spectrum. The combination of surveys is much more powerful than either technique on its own, and will have over an order of magnitude greater sensitivity than will be provided by ongoing ground-based projects.

Benford, Dominic J.↗

The LOFT Mission Concept - A Status Update

The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) is a mission concept which was proposed to ESA as M3 and M4 candidate in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument and the uniquely large field of view of its wide field monitor, LOFT will be able to study the behaviour of matter in extreme conditions such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions close to black holes and neutron stars and the supra-nuclear densities in the interiors of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, is greater than 8m2 effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolution, 1 degree collimated field of view) and a Wide Field Monitor (WFM, 2-50 keV, 4 steradian field of view, 1 arcmin source location accuracy, 300 eV spectral resolution). The WFM is equipped with an on-board system for bright events (e.g., GRB) localization. The trigger time and position of these events are broadcast to the ground within 30 s from discovery. In this paper we present the current technical and programmatic status of the mission.

Silicon detectors↗

Three-dimensional imaging of X-ray and gamma-ray objects in real time

A simple device is described that is capable of providing real-time 3-D viewing of extended X-ray and gamma-ray objects. The visible-light images produced by the device are not merely stereoscopic, i.e., one perspective, but possess both horizontal and vertical parallax with a reasonably large field of view.

Yin, L. I.↗

Freeform three-mirror anastigmatic large-aperture telescope and receiver optics for CMB-S4

CMB-S4, the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) observatory, will provide detailed maps of the CMB at millimeter wavelengths to dramatically advance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. CMB-S4 will deploy large and small aperture telescopes with hundreds of thousands of detectors to observe the CMB at arcminute and degree resolutions at millimeter wavelengths. Inflationary science benefits from a deep delensing survey at arcminute resolutions capable of observing a large field of view at millimeter wavelengths. This kind of survey acts as a complement to a degree angular resolution survey. The delensing survey requires a nearly uniform distribution of cameras per frequency band across the focal plane. We present a large-throughput, large-aperture (5-meter diameter) freeform three-mirror anastigmatic telescope and an array of 85 cameras for CMB observations at arcminute resolutions, which meets the needs of the delensing survey of CMB-S4. A detailed prescription of this three-mirror telescope and cameras is provided, with a series of numerical calculations that indicate expected optical performance and mechanical tolerance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Compensation for Spherical Geometric and Absorption Effects on Lower Thermospheric Emission Intensities Derived from High Earth Orbit Images

Remote sensing of the atmosphere from high earth orbit is very attractive due to the large field of view obtained and a true global perspective. This viewpoint is complicated by earth curvature effects so that slant path enhancement and absorption effects, small from low earth orbit, become dominant even at small nadir view angles. The effect is further complicated by the large range of local times and solar zenith angles in a single image leading to a modulation of the image intensity by a significant portion of the diurnal height variation of the absorbing layer. The latter effect is significant in particular for mesospheric, stratospheric and auroral emissions due to their depth in the atmosphere. As a particular case, the emissions from atomic oxygen (130.4 and 135.6 nm) and molecular nitrogen (two LBH bands, LBHS from 140 to 160 nm and LBHL from 160 to 180 nm) as viewed from the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) are examined. The LBH emissions are of particular interest since LBHS has significant 02 absorption while LBHL does not, In the case of auroral emissions this differential absorption, well examined in the nadir, gives information about the height of the emission and therefore the energy of the precipitating particles. Using simulations of the viewing geometry and images from the UVI we examine these effects and obtain correction factors to adjust to the nadir case with a significant improvement of the derived characteristic energy. There is a surprisingly large effect on the images from the 02 diurnal layer height changes. An empirical compensation to the nadir case is explored based on the local nadir and local zenith angles for each portion of the image. These compensations are demonstrated as applied to the above emissions in both auroral and dayglow images and compared to models. The extension of these findings to other instruments, emissions and spectral regions is examined.

Swift, W.↗

Beam Combination for Stellar Imager and its Application to Full-Aperture Imaging

Stellar Imager (SI) will be a Space-Based telescope consisting of 20 to 30 separated apertures. It is designed for UV/Optical imaging of stellar surfaces and asteroseismology. This report describes details of an alternative optical design for the beam combiner, dubbed the Spatial Frequency Remapper (SFR). It sacrifices the large field of view of the Fizeau combiner. In return, spectral resolution is obtained with a diffraction grating rather than an array of energy-resolving detectors. The SFR design works in principle and has been implemented with MIRC at CHARA for a small number of apertures. Here, we show the number of optical surfaces can be reduced and the concept scales gracefully to the large number of apertures needed for Stellar Imager. We also describe a potential application of this spatial frequency remapping to improved imaging with filled aperture systems. For filled-aperture imaging, the SFR becomes the core of an improved aperture masking system. To date, aperture-masking has produced the best images with ground-based telescopes but at the expense of low sensitivity due to short exposures and discarding most of the light collected by the telescope. This design eliminates the light-loss problem previously claimed to be inherent in all aperture-masking designs. We also argue that at least in principle, the short-integration time limit can also be overcome. With these improvements, it becomes an ideal camera for TPF-C; since it can form speckle-free images in the presence of wavefront errors, it should significantly relax the stability requirements of the current designs.

Mozurkewich, D.↗

Cryogenic Pupil Alignment Test Architecture for Aberrated Pupil Images

A document describes cryogenic test architecture for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) integrated science instrument module (ISIM). The ISIM element primarily consists of a mechanical metering structure, three science instruments, and a fine guidance sensor. One of the critical optomechanical alignments is the co-registration of the optical telescope element (OTE) exit pupil with the entrance pupils of the ISIM instruments. The test architecture has been developed to verify that the ISIM element will be properly aligned with the nominal OTE exit pupil when the two elements come together. The architecture measures three of the most critical pupil degrees-of-freedom during optical testing of the ISIM element. The pupil measurement scheme makes use of specularly reflective pupil alignment references located inside the JWST instruments, ground support equipment that contains a pupil imaging module, an OTE simulator, and pupil viewing channels in two of the JWST flight instruments. Pupil alignment references (PARs) are introduced into the instrument, and their reflections are checked using the instrument's mirrors. After the pupil imaging module (PIM) captures a reflected PAR image, the image will be analyzed to determine the relative alignment offset. The instrument pupil alignment preferences are specularly reflective mirrors with non-reflective fiducials, which makes the test architecture feasible. The instrument channels have fairly large fields of view, allowing PAR tip/tilt tolerances on the order of 0.5deg.

Bos, Brent↗

Scene simulation for passive IR systems

The development of large mosaic detector arrays will allow for the construction of staring long wave infrared (LWIR) sensors which can observe large fields of view instantaneously and continuously. In order to evaluate and exercise these new systems, it will be necessary to provide simulated scenes of many moving targets against an infrared clutter background. Researchers are currently developing a projector/screen system. This system is comprised of a mechanical scanner, a diffuse screen, and a miniature blackbody. A prototype of the mechanical scanner, which is comprised of four independently driven scanners, has been designed, fabricated, and evaluated under room and cryogenic vacuum conditions. A large diffuse screen has been constructed and tested for structural integrity under cryogenic/vacuum thermal cycling. Construction techniques have been developed for the fabrication of miniature high-temperature blackbody sources. Finally, a concept has been developed to use this miniature blackbody to produce a spectrally tailorable source.

Holt, J. D.↗

Determination of the masses of elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies with AXAF

The procedures to be used in the determination of the mass and mass distribution of elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies, using spatially resolved X-ray spectra of galaxies and clusters of galaxies to be obtained by the imaging spectrometers on AXAF, are described. The procedures utilize the unique AXAF features of large band width, large field of view, high angular resolution, long exposure times, and the availability of sophisticated AXAF instrumentation. The techniques described involve the measurement of the surface brightness and temperature profiles of the hot gas trapped in the potential wells of these systems. Then, by using the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, which relates the total mass inside a given radius to the size, absolute temperature, density gradient, and temperature profile, it will be possible to infer the mass distribution in these objects to large physical scales.

Mushotzky, Richard F.↗

The Capabilities of the GLAST Large Area Telescope for Blazar Variability Studies

One of the more notable features of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on GLAST is its extremely large field of view, which covers more than 20% of the sky at any instant. In survey mode the LAT will be rocked about the orbital plane to provide coverage of the entire gamma-ray sky above 20 MeV every three hours. This will be the default observing mode for the first year of operations and is likely to be the dominant observing mode throughout the rest of the mission. Thus the LAT will provide long, evenly sampled, gamma-ray lightcurves for a large number of sources. In this talk we describe the nature and quality of the data that will be provided by the LAT and use simulated lightcurves to illustrate some of the scientific questions that can be addressed with LAT observations.

McEnery, Julie↗

The Capabilities of the GLAST LAT for Blazar Variability Studies

One of the more notable features of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on GLAST is its extremely large field of view, which covers more than 20% of the sky at any instant. In survey mode the LAT will be rocked about the orbital plane to provide coverage of the entire gamma-ray sky above 20 MeV every three hours. This will be the default observing mode for the first year of operations and is likely to be the dominant observing mode throughout the rest of the mission. Thus the LAT will provide long, evenly sampled, gamma-ray lightcurves for a large number of sources. In this talk we describe the nature and quality of the data that will be provided by the LAT and use simulated lightcurves to illustrate some of the scientific questions that can be addressed with LAT observations.

McEnery, Julie↗

Affordable and Lightweight High-Resolution X-ray Optics for Astronomical Missions

Future x-ray astronomical missions require x-ray mirror assemblies that provide both high angular resolution and large photon collecting area. In addition, as x-ray astronomy undertakes more sensitive sky surveys, a large field of view is becoming increasingly important as well. Since implementation of these requirements must be carried out in broad political and economical contexts, any technology that meets these performance requirements must also be financially affordable and can be implemented on a reasonable schedule. In this paper we report on progress of an x-ray optics development program that has been designed to address all of these requirements. The program adopts the segmented optical design, thereby is capable of making both small and large mirror assemblies for missions of any size. This program has five technical elements: (1) fabrication of mirror substrates, (2) coating, (3) alignment, (4) bonding, and (5) mirror module systems engineering and testing. In the past year we have made progress in each of these five areas, advancing the angular resolution of mirror modules from 10.8 arc-seconds half-power diameter reported (HPD) a year ago to 8.3 arc-seconds now. These mirror modules have been subjected to and passed all environmental tests, including vibration, acoustic, and thermal vacuum. As such this technology is ready for implementing a mission that requires a 10-arc-second mirror assembly. Further development in the next two years would make it ready for a mission requiring a 5-arc-second mirror assembly. We expect that, by the end of this decade, this technology would enable the x-ray astrophysical community to compete effectively for a major x-ray mission in the 2020s that would require one or more 1-arc-second mirror assemblies for imaging, spectroscopic, timing, and survey studies.

glass slumping↗

System Developed for Bulk Flow Imaging of a Two-Phase Fluid in a Cylindrical Couette

The Microgravity Observation of Bubble Interactions (MOBI) experiment is working to better understand the physics of gas-liquid suspensions. To study such suspensions, researchers generate bubbles in a large cylindrical flow channel. Then, they use various types of instrumentation, including video imaging, to study the bubbly suspension. Scientists will need a camera view of the majority of the gas-liquid suspension inside of the couette in order to gather the information needed from the MOBI experiment. This will provide the scientists with a qualitative picture of the flow that may indicate flow instabilities or imperfect axial mixing inside the couette. These requirements pose a significant challenge because the imaging and lighting system must be confined to a very tight space since the space available on the International Space Station experiment racks is very limited. In addition, because of the large field of view needed and the detail needed to see the gas-liquid suspension behavior in the image, a digital video camera with high resolution (1024 by 1024 pixels) had to be used. Although the high-resolution camera will provide scientists with the image quality they need, it left little space on the experiment rack for the lighting system. Many configurations were considered for the lighting system, including front-lighting and back-lighting, but because of mechanical design limitations with the couette, back-lighting was not an option.

Juergens, Jeffrey R.↗

Bridging Scales to Model Reactive Diffusive Transport in Porous Media

Published by ECS. Two novel scale-bridging algorithms to model reaction-diffusion transport in porous media are presented. The algorithms are based on direct numerical simulations and couple the information of a micro-scale model, which accounts for the large field of view provided by micro X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT), and a nano-scale model, which locally resolves transport in the fine structure extracted from nano X-ray CT. The micro-scale model is discretized in the through-plane direction into a 1D grid, where effective properties and internal boundaries are determined based on the results from the nano-scale model. The validated algorithms are used to examine transport of oxygen in precious group metal-free electrodes considering both zero- and first-order kinetics. Unlike conventional methods, the results show that the effective diffusivity is not a passive property but increases in regions where the reaction-rate coefficient is large. The proposed algorithms account for the multiscale coupling of reaction-diffusion transport and material microstructure, thus improving the predictions compared to conventional methods.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Super-resolution image display using diffractive decoders

High-resolution image projection over a large field of view (FOV) is hindered by the restricted space-bandwidth product (SBP) of wavefront modulators. We report a deep learning–enabled diffractive display based on a jointly trained pair of an electronic encoder and a diffractive decoder to synthesize/project super-resolved images using low-resolution wavefront modulators. The digital encoder rapidly preprocesses the high-resolution images so that their spatial information is encoded into low-resolution patterns, projected via a low SBP wavefront modulator. The diffractive decoder processes these low-resolution patterns using transmissive layers structured using deep learning to all-optically synthesize/project super-resolved images at its output FOV. This diffractive image display can achieve a super-resolution factor of ~4, increasing the SBP by ~16-fold. We experimentally validate its success using 3D-printed diffractive decoders that operate at the terahertz spectrum. This diffractive image decoder can be scaled to operate at visible wavelengths and used to design large SBP displays that are compact, low power, and computationally efficient.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

SOAR TESS Survey. I. Sculpting of TESS Planetary Systems by Stellar Companions

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is finding transiting planet candidates around bright, nearby stars across the entire sky. The large field of view, however, results in low spatial resolution; therefore, multiple stars contribute to almost every TESS light curve. High angular resolution imaging can detect the previously unknown companions to planetary candidate hosts that dilute the transit depths, lead to host star ambiguity, and, in some cases, are the source of false-positive transit signals. We use speckle imaging on the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope to search for companions to 542 TESS planet candidate hosts in the southern sky. We provide correction factors for the 117 systems with resolved companions due to photometric contamination. The contamination in TESS due to close binaries is similar to that found in surveys of Kepler planet candidates. For the solar-type population, we find a deep deficit of close binary systems with projected stellar separations less than 100 au among planet candidate hosts (44 observed binaries compared to 124 expected based on field binary statistics). The close binary suppression among TESS planet candidate hosts is similar to that seen for the more distant Kepler population. We also find a large surplus of TESS planet candidates in wide binary systems detected in both SOAR and Gaia DR2 (119 observed binaries compared to 77 expected). These wide binaries almost exclusively host giant planets, however, suggesting that orbital migration caused by perturbations from the stellar companion may lead to planet–planet scattering and suppress the population of small planets in wide binaries. Both trends are also apparent in the M dwarf planet candidate hosts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

BatAnalysis - A Comprehensive Python Pipeline for Swift BAT Survey Analysis

The Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is a coded-aperture gamma-ray instrument with a large field of view that primarily operates in survey mode when it is not triggering on transient events. The survey data consist of 80- channel detector plane histograms that accumulate photon counts over periods of at least 5 minutes. These histograms are processed on the ground and are used to produce the survey data set between 14 and 195 keV. Survey data comprise >90% of all BAT data by volume and allow for the tracking of long-term light curves and spectral properties of cataloged and uncataloged hard X-ray sources. Until now, the survey data set has not been used to its full potential due to the complexity associated with its analysis and the lack of easily usable pipelines. Here, we introduce the BatAnalysis Python package, a wrapper for HEASoftpy, which provides a modern, opensource pipeline to process and analyze BAT survey data. BatAnalysis allows members of the community to use BAT survey data in more advanced analyses of astrophysical sources, including pulsars, pulsar wind nebula, active galactic nuclei, and other known/unknown transient events that may be detected in the hard X-ray band. We outline the steps taken by the Python code and exemplify its usefulness and accuracy by analyzing survey data of the Crab Nebula, NGC 2992, and a previously uncataloged MAXI transient. The BatAnalysis package allows for ~18 yr of BAT survey data to be used in a systematic way to study a large variety of astrophysical sources.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗