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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 775 records · Page 43
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

Miniature Free-Flying Magnetometer Utilizing System-On-A-Chip Technology

Four Free-Flying Magnetometers (FFMs), developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the Enstrophy mission, were successfully deployed from the payload of a sounding rocket launched from Poker Flats, Alaska on February 11, 1999. The FFMs functioned successfully by synchronously measuring the vector magnetic field at 4 points separate from the payload and at relative distances up to 3 km, and communicated their data, in bursts, to the ground. This is the first time synchronized in-situ multipoint measurements of the Earth's magnetic field utilizing miniature spin-stabilized "sensorcraft" have been performed. The data they provided have enabled, for the first time, the direct measure of field-aligned current density and are enabling new science by determining the fine-scale structure of the currents in the Earth's ionosphere involved in the production of aurora. These proof-of-concept "hockey puck" (80 mm diameter, 38 mm height, 250 gram mass) FFMs were built using off-the-shelf commercial, industrial, and military grade surface-mount electronic components. Radiation-hard electronics was not required for the Enstrophy mission's short sub-orbital flight. The successful design, implementation, and flight demonstration of this 1st generation FFM design has provided a solid base for further development of a 2nd generation FFM design for planetary science applications. A reliable ultra-miniature radiation-hard 2nd-generation FFM utilizing System-On-A-Chip (SOAC) technologies is proposed. This design would be targeted for long-term planetary missions to investigate magnetospheric field configurations in regions having small-scale structure and to separate spatial and temporal variations. A fleet of short-lived (expendable) FFMs would be deployed into a targeted region to gather multiprobe vector magnetic field data. The FFMs would be ejected from a parent spacecraft at a speed of a few m/sec and would cover spatial volumes of order tens of kilometers for times of order one hour. The parent spacecraft would carry a sufficient number of FFMs for multiple deployments. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Eyre, F. B.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Heliophysics: The New Science of the Sun-Solar System Connection. Recommended Roadmap for Science and Technology 2005-2035

This is a Roadmap to understanding the environment of our Earth, from its life-sustaining Sun out past the frontiers of the solar system. A collection of spacecraft now patrols this space, revealing not a placid star and isolated planets, but an immense, dynamic, interconnected system within which our home planet is embedded and through which space explorers must journey. These spacecraft already form a great observatory with which the Heliophysics program can study the Sun, the heliosphere, the Earth, and other planetary environments as elements of a system--one that contains dynamic space weather and evolves in response to solar, planetary, and interstellar variability. NASA continually evolves the Heliophysics Great Observatory by adding new missions and instruments in order to answer the challenging questions confronting us now and in the future as humans explore the solar system. The three heliophysics science objectives: opening the frontier to space environment prediction; understanding the nature of our home in space, and safeguarding the journey of exploration, require sustained research programs that depend on combining new data, theory, analysis, simulation, and modeling. Our program pursues a deeper understanding of the fundamental physical processes that underlie the exotic phenomena of space.

Heliophysics↗
NASA NTRS2019

Planetary Boundary Layer Height from AIRS and MERRA-2 Products at NASA GES DISC, and Insights from Data Intercomparison

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is the hyperspectral infrared sounder onboard NASA's Aqua satellite, launched in 2002. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), in collaboration with NASA Sounder Team at JPL, provides processing, archiving, and distribution services for NASA sounders: the Aqua AIRS mission and the subsequent Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) mission. The Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) Height is a new variable added in the AIRS Version 6 support product. It is derived based on gradients of the retrieved atmospheric thermodynamic profile, and gives the pressure at the top of PBL over the ocean. The GES DISC also provides services for the second Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) product generated by the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) data assimilation system. The monthly PBL Height variable has been available in the Giovanni system, which is a Web-based application developed by the GES DISC providing a simple and intuitive way to visualize, analyze, and access vast amounts of Earth science remote sensing data. In this work, we will present the monthly PBL Height data from AIRS and MERRA-2 and the services to support data intercomparison, such as access, plotting, subsetting, re-gridding, and generation of a multi-year monthly mean. We will also show intercomparison results, and evaluate whether (over the ocean) AIRS can observe PBL features similar to the reanalysis product at monthly and longer-term scales.

AIRS↗
NASA NTRS1991

Earth and atmospheric remote sensing; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Apr. 2-4, 1991

The papers presented in this volume address the technical aspects of earth and atmospheric remote sensing. Topics discussed include spaceborne and ground-based applications of laser remote sensing, advanced applications of lasers in remote sensing, laser ranging applications, data analysis and systems for biospheric processes, measurements for biospheric processes, and remote sensing for geology and geophysics. Papers are presented on a space-qualified laser transmitter for lidar applications, solid state lasers for planetary exploration, automated band selection for multispectral meteorological applications, aerospace remote sensing of natural water organics, and remote sensing of volcanic ash hazards to aircraft.

Curran, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Planets around pulsars - Implications for planetary formation

Data on planets around pulsars are summarized, and different models intended to explain the formation mechanism are described. Both theoretical and observational evidence suggest that very special circumstances are required for the formation of planetary systems around pulsars, namely, the prior presence of a millisecond pulsar with a close binary companion, probably a low mass main-sequence star. It is concluded that the discovery of two planets around PSR 1257+12 is important for better understanding the problems of dynamics and stellar evolution. The process of planetary formation should be learned through intensive studies of the properties of disks near young objects and application of techniques for detection of planets around main-sequence solar-type stars.

Bodenheimer, Peter↗
NASA NTRS1998

South-North and radial traverses through the interplanetary dust cloud

Identical in situ dust detectors are flown on board the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft. They record impacts of micrometeoroids in the ecliptic plane at heliocentric distances from 0.7 to 5.4 AU and in a plane almost perpendicular to the ecliptic from -79 deg to +79 deg ecliptic latitude. The combination of both Ulysses and Galileo measurements yield information about the radial and latitudinal distributions of micron and sub-micron sized dust in the solar system. Two types of dust particles were found to dominate the dust flux in interplanetary space: (1) Interplanetary micrometeoroids covering a wide mass range from 10(exp -16) to 10(exp -6) gr are mostly recorded inside 3 AU, and at latitudes below 30 deg; and (2) Interstellar grains with masses between 10(exp -14) and 10(exp -12) gr have been positively identified outside 3 AU near the ecliptic plane and outside 1.8 AU at high ecliptic latitudes (> 50 deg). Interstellar grains move on hyperbolic trajectories through the planetary system and constitute the dominant dust flux (1.5 x 10(exp -4)/ sq m sec) in the outer solar system and at high ecliptic latitudes. In order to compare and analyze the Galileo and Ulysses data sets, a new model is developed based on Divine's (1993) "Five populations of interplanetary meteoroids" model. By using this model, which takes into account the measured velocities and the effect of radiation pressure on small particles, we define four populations of meteoroids on elliptical orbits plus one population on hyperbolic orbits that all can fit the micrometeoroid flux observed by Galileo and Ulysses.

Gruen, E.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Information Systems for NASA's Aeronautics and Space Enterprises

The aerospace industry is being challenged to reduce costs and development time as well as utilize new technologies to improve product performance. Information technology (IT) is the key to providing revolutionary solutions to the challenges posed by the increasing complexity of NASA's aeronautics and space missions and the sophisticated nature of the systems that enable them. The NASA Ames vision is to develop technologies enabling the information age, expanding the frontiers of knowledge for aeronautics and space, improving America's competitive position, and inspiring future generations. Ames' missions to accomplish that vision include: 1) performing research to support the American aviation community through the unique integration of computation, experimentation, simulation and flight testing, 2) studying the health of our planet, understanding living systems in space and the origins of the universe, developing technologies for space flight, and 3) to research, develop and deliver information technologies and applications. Information technology may be defined as the use of advance computing systems to generate data, analyze data, transform data into knowledge and to use as an aid in the decision-making process. The knowledge from transformed data can be displayed in visual, virtual and multimedia environments. The decision-making process can be fully autonomous or aided by a cognitive processes, i.e., computational aids designed to leverage human capacities. IT Systems can learn as they go, developing the capability to make decisions or aid the decision making process on the basis of experiences gained using limited data inputs. In the future, information systems will be used to aid space mission synthesis, virtual aerospace system design, aid damaged aircraft during landing, perform robotic surgery, and monitor the health and status of spacecraft and planetary probes. NASA Ames through the Center of Excellence for Information Technology Office is leading the effort in pursuit of revolutionary, IT-based approaches to satisfying NASA's aeronautics and space requirements. The objective of the effort is to incorporate information technologies within each of the Agency's four Enterprises, i.e., Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology, Earth, Science, Human Exploration and Development of Space and Space Sciences. The end results of these efforts for Enterprise programs and projects should be reduced cost, enhanced mission capability and expedited mission completion.

Kutler, Paul↗
NASA NTRS2013

Marshall Team Complete Testing for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer

Dr. Huu Trinh and his team with the Propulsion Systems and Test Departments at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. successfully complete a simulated cold-flow test series on the propulsion system used for the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is leading NASA s work on the development of the LADEE spacecraft, and the Marshall center is the program office for the project. The spacecraft, scheduled for launch this fall, will orbit the Moon and gather information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface of the Moon, and collect samples of lunar dust. A thorough understanding of these characteristics will address long-standing unknowns, and help scientists understand other planetary bodies as well. The test team at the Marshall center conducted the cold flow test to identify how the fluid flows through the propulsion system feed lines, especially during critical operation modes. The test data will be used to assist the LADEE team in identifying any potential flow issues in the propulsion system, and allow them to address and correct them in advance of the launch.

Swofford, Philip↗
NASA NTRS2013

Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy Using WFC3: WASP-12b, WASP-17b, and WASP-19b

We report an analysis of transit spectroscopy of the extrasolar planets WASP-12 b, WASP-17 b, and WASP-19 b using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We analyze the data for a single transit for each planet using a strategy similar, in certain aspects, to the techniques used by Berta et al., but we extend their methodology to allow us to correct for channel- or wavelength-dependent instrumental effects by utilizing the band-integrated time series and measurements of the drift of the spectrum on the detector over time. We achieve almost photon-limited results for individual spectral bins, but the uncertainties in the transit depth for the band-integrated data are exacerbated by the uneven sampling of the light curve imposed by the orbital phasing of HST's observations. Our final transit spectra for all three objects are consistent with the presence of a broad absorption feature at 1.4 microns most likely due to water. However, the amplitude of the absorption is less than that expected based on previous observations with Spitzer, possibly due to hazes absorbing in the NIR or non-solar compositions. The degeneracy of models with different compositions and temperature structures combined with the low amplitude of any features in the data preclude our ability to place unambiguous constraints on the atmospheric composition without additional observations with WFC3 to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and/or a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis. Key words: planetary systems - techniques: photometric - techniques: spectroscopic

HST↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Doppler Lidar for Precision Landing on Planetary Bodies with and without Atmosphere

Global Positioning System (GPS) is commonly used in terrestrial navigation for vehicle position and velocity knowledge. In the absence of a GPS signal, past landing missions to planetary bodies primarily relied on radar to provide the necessary data to execute descent and landing maneuvers. We have developed a coherent Doppler lidar, called Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL), that offers several critical advantages com-pared to radar, including significantly higher precision with reduced size, mass, and power.

Doppler lidar↗
NASA NTRS1993

Conceptual communications system design in the 25.25-27.5 and 37.0-40.5 GHz frequency bands

Future space applications are likely to rely heavily on Ka-band frequencies (20-40 GHz) for communications traffic. Many space research activities are now conducted using S-band and X-band frequencies, which are becoming congested and require a degree of pre-coordination. In addition to providing relief from frequency congestion, Ka-band technologies offer potential size, weight, and power savings when compared to lower frequency bands. The use of the 37.0-37.5 and 40.0-40.5 GHz bands for future planetary missions was recently approved at the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-92). WARC-92 also allocated the band 25.25-27.5 GHz to the Intersatellite Service on a primary basis to accommodate Data Relay Satellite return link requirements. Intersatellite links are defined to be between artificial satellites and thus a communication link with the surface of a planetary body, such as the moon, and a relay satellite orbiting that body are not permitted in this frequency band. This report provides information about preliminary communications system concepts for forward and return links for earth-Mars and earth-lunar links using the 37.0-37.5 (return link) and 40.0-40.5 (forward link) GHz frequency bands. In this study we concentrate primarily on a conceptual system for communications between earth and a single lunar surface terminal (LST), and between earth and a single Mars surface terminal (MST). Due to large space losses, these links have the most stringent link requirements for an overall interplanetary system. The earth ground station is assumed to be the Deep Space Network (DSN) using either 34 meter or 70 meter antennas. We also develop preliminary communications concepts for a space-to-space system operating at near 26 GHz. Space-to-space applications can encompass a variety of operating conditions, and we consider several 'typical' scenarios described in more detail later in this report. Among these scenarios are vehicle-to-vehicle communications, vehicle-to-geosyncronous satellite (GEO) communications, and GEO-to-GEO communications. Additional details about both the interplanetary and space-to-space communications systems are provided in an 'expanded' final report which has been submitted to the Tracking and Communications Division (TCD) at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Thompson, Michael W.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Atmospheric Environments for Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL)

Scientific measurements of atmospheric properties have been made by a wide variety of planetary flyby missions, orbiters, and landers. Although landers can make in-situ observations of near-surface atmospheric conditions (and can collect atmospheric data during their entry phase), the vast majority of data on planetary atmospheres has been collected by remote sensing techniques from flyby and orbiter spacecraft (and to some extent by Earth-based remote sensing). Many of these remote sensing observations (made over a variety of spectral ranges), consist of vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature as a function of atmospheric pressure level. While these measurements are of great interest to atmospheric scientists and modelers of planetary atmospheres, the primary interest for engineers designing entry descent and landing (EDL) systems is information about atmospheric density as a function of geometric altitude. Fortunately, as described in in this paper, it is possible to use a combination of the gas-law relation and the hydrostatic balance relation to convert temperature-versus-pressure, scientific observations into density-versus-altitude data for use in engineering applications. The following section provides a brief introduction to atmospheric thermodynamics, as well as constituents, and winds for EDL. It also gives methodology for using atmospheric information to do "back-of-the-envelope" calculations of various EDL aeroheating parameters, including peak deceleration rate ("g-load"), peak convective heat rate. and total heat load on EDL spacecraft thermal protection systems. Brief information is also provided about atmospheric variations and perturbations for EDL guidance and control issues, and atmospheric issues for EDL parachute systems. Subsequent sections give details of the atmospheric environments for five destinations for possible EDL missions: Venus. Earth. Mars, Saturn, and Titan. Specific atmospheric information is provided for these destinations, and example results are presented for the "back-of-the-envelope" calculations mentioned above.

Justus, Carl G.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Atmospheric Visibility Monitoring for planetary optical communications

The Atmospheric Visibility Monitoring project endeavors to improve current atmospheric models and generate visibility statistics relevant to prospective earth-satellite optical communications systems. Three autonomous observatories are being used to measure atmospheric conditions on the basis of observed starlight; these data will yield clear-sky and transmission statistics for three sites with high clear-sky probabilities. Ground-based data will be compared with satellite imagery to determine the correlation between satellite data and ground-based observations.

Cowles, Kelly↗
NASA NTRS1991

Naming the newly found landforms on Venus

The mapping of Venus is unique in the history of cartigraphy; never has so much territory been discovered and mapped in so short a period of time. Therefore, in the interest of international scientific communication, there is a unique urgency to the development of a system of names for surface features on Venus. The process began with the naming of features seen on radar images taken from Earth and continued through mapping expeditions of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. However, the Magellan Mission resolves features twenty-five times smaller than those mapped previously, and its radar data will cover an area nearly equivalent to that of the continents and the sea-floors of the Earth combined. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was charged with the formal endorsement of names of features on the planets. Proposed names are collected, approved, and applied through the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and its task groups, prior to IAU approval by the IAU General Assembly. Names approved by the WGPSN and its task groups, prior to final approval may be used on published maps and articles, provided that their provisional nature is stipulated. The IAU has established themes for the names to be used on each of the planets; names of historical and mythological women are used on Venus. Names of political entities and those identified with active religions are not acceptable, and a person must have been deceased for three years or more to be considered. Any interested person may propose a name for consideration by the IAU.

Batson, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Constraining the Movement of the Spiral Features and the Locations of Planetary Bodies Within the AB Aur System

We present a new analysis of multi-epoch, H-band, scattered light images of the AB Aur system. We use a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to simultaneously model the systems spectral energy distribution (SED) and H-band polarized intensity (PI) imagery. We find that a disk-dominated model, as opposed to one that is envelope dominated, can plausibly reproduce AB Aurs SED and near-IR imagery. This is consistent with previous modeling attempts presented in the literature and supports the idea that at least a subset of AB Aurs spirals originate within the disk. In light of this, we also analyzed the movement of spiral structures in multi-epoch H-band total light and PI imagery of the disk. We detect no significant rotation or change in spatial location of the spiral structures in these data, which span a 5.8-year baseline. If such structures are caused by disk planet interactions, the lack of observed rotation constrains the location of the orbit of planetary perturbers to be 47 au.

AB Aur system↗
DOE OSTI2021

Stellar Activity Manifesting at a One-year Alias Explains Barnard b as a False Positive

Barnard’s star is among the most studied stars given its proximity to the Sun. It is often considered the radial velocity (RV) standard for fully convective stars due to its RV stability and equatorial decl. Recently, an Msin i=3.3M{sub ⊕} super-Earth planet candidate with a 233 day orbital period was announced by Ribas et al. New observations from the near-infrared Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) Doppler spectrometer do not show this planetary signal. We ran a suite of experiments on both the original data and a combined original + HPF data set. These experiments include model comparisons, periodogram analyses, and sampling sensitivity, all of which show the signal at the proposed period of 233 days is transitory in nature. The power in the signal is largely contained within 211 RVs that were taken within a 1000 day span of observing. Our preferred model of the system is one that features stellar activity without a planet. We propose that the candidate planetary signal is an alias of the 145 day rotation period. This result highlights the challenge of analyzing long-term, quasi-periodic activity signals over multiyear and multi-instrument observing campaigns.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗