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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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1967

Inertial navigation.

Strapdown and gimballed inertial navigation systems history, engineering progress and current developments

INERTIAL NAVIGATION↗
NASA NTRS1978

Nonlinear analysis and performance evaluation of the Annular Suspension and Pointing System (ASPS)

The Annular Suspension and Pointing System (ASPS) can provide high accurate fine pointing for a variety of solar-, stellar-, and Earth-viewing scientific instruments during space shuttle orbital missions. In this report, a detailed nonlinear mathematical model is developed for the ASPS/Space Shuttle system. The equations are augmented with nonlinear models of components such as magnetic actuators and gimbal torquers. Control systems and payload attitude state estimators are designed in order to obtain satisfactory pointing performance, and statistical pointing performance is predicted in the presence of measurement noise and disturbances.

Joshi, S. M.↗
NASA NTRS1978

The Annular Suspension and Pointing System /ASPS/

The Annular Suspension and Pointing System (ASPS) may be attached to a carrier vehicle for orientation, mechanical isolation, and fine pointing purposes applicable to space experiments. It has subassemblies for both coarse and vernier pointing. A fourteen-degree-of-freedom simulation of the ASPS mounted on a Space Shuttle has yielded initial performance data. The simulation describes: the magnetic actuators, payload sensors, coarse gimbal assemblies, control algorithms, rigid body dynamic models of the payload and Shuttle, and a control system firing model.

Anderson, W. W.↗
NASA NTRS1980

An Imaging Infrared (IIR) seeker using a microprogrammed processor

A recently developed Imaging Infrared Seeker uses a microprogrammed processor to perform gimbal servo control and system interface while performing the seeker functions of automatic target detection, acquisition, and tracking. The automatic detection mode requires up to 80% of the available capability of a high performance microprogrammed processor. Although system complexity was increased significantly, this approach can be cost effective when the basic computation capacity is already available.

Richmond, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Halogen occultation experiment (HALOE) performance verification test procedure

The Performance Verification Test Procedure is given for the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) instrument, which is being developed in house at the Langley Research Center for the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). This procedure is used for comprehensive performance testing of the HALOE instrument which occurs before, during, and after flight environmental tests. The radiometric performance tests include noise, drift, linearity, instantaneous field-of-view, cal wheel gas cell characterization, and self thermal emissions. Pointer/tracker performance tests include sun sensor performance, gimbal performance, control system performance, and boresight alignment. In addition, the instrument is tested functionally in simulated orbit sequences and all command operating modes are exercised. The data analysis required for each test is specified and pass/fail criteria are given where applicable. This test will fully demonstrate the HALOE instrument's ability to achieve science mission requirements. The HALOE instrument is a gas correlation radiometer that measures vertical distribution of eight upper atmospheric constituents: O3, HCl, HF, NO, CH4, H2O, NO2, and CO2.

Mauldin, L. E., III↗
NASA NTRS1995

Design, development and testing of the x-ray timing explorer High Gain Antenna System

The High Gain Antenna System (HGAS), consisting of two High Gain Antenna Deployment Systems (HGADS) and two Antenna Pointing Systems (APS), is used to position two High Gain Antennas (HGA) on the X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE). A similar APS will be used on the upcoming Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). Both XTE and TRMM are NASA in-house satellites. The salient features of the system include the two-axis gimbal and control electronics of the APS and the spring deployment and latch/release mechanisms of the HGADS. This paper describes some of the challenges faced in the design and testing of this system and their resolutions.

Lecha, Javier↗
NASA NTRS2007

Progress in Technology Validation of the Next Ion Propulsion System

The NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion propulsion system has been in advanced technology development under the NASA In-Space Propulsion Technology project. The highest fidelity hardware planned has now been completed by the government/industry team, including a flight prototype model (PM) thruster, an engineering model (EM) power processing unit, EM propellant management assemblies, a breadboard gimbal, and control unit simulators. Subsystem and system level technology validation testing is in progress. To achieve the objective Technology Readiness Level 6, environmental testing is being conducted to qualification levels in ground facilities simulating the space environment. Additional tests have been conducted to characterize the performance range and life capability of the NEXT thruster. This paper presents the status and results of technology validation testing accomplished to date, the validated subsystem and system capabilities, and the plans for completion of this phase of NEXT development.

Benson, Scott W.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Technology Readiness of the NEXT Ion Propulsion System

The NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion propulsion system has been in advanced technology development under the NASA In-Space Propulsion Technology project. The highest fidelity hardware planned has now been completed by the government/industry team, including: a flight prototype model (PM) thruster, an engineering model (EM) power processing unit, EM propellant management assemblies, a breadboard gimbal, and control unit simulators. Subsystem and system level technology validation testing is in progress. To achieve the objective Technology Readiness Level 6, environmental testing is being conducted to qualification levels in ground facilities simulating the space environment. Additional tests have been conducted to characterize the performance range and life capability of the NEXT thruster. This paper presents the status and results of technology validation testing accomplished to date, the validated subsystem and system capabilities, and the plans for completion of this phase of NEXT development. The next round of competed planetary science mission announcements of opportunity, and directed mission decisions, are anticipated to occur in 2008 and 2009. Progress to date, and the success of on-going technology validation, indicate that the NEXT ion propulsion system will be a primary candidate for mission consideration in these upcoming opportunities.

Benson, Scott W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gimbal Bearing Friction in the SLS Core Stage Thrust Vector Control System

The Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system is comprised of eight mechanical feedback Shuttle heritage Type III TVC actuators that vector the four Shuttle heritage RS-25 engines about a Shuttle heritage gimbal block/bearing. The MSFC Controls community has long regarded gimbal friction to be a negligible effect on the overall control of gimbaled RS-25 engines. This is corroborated by Space Shuttle test and flight data that does not appear to show degraded effects, nor limit cycling at the end of the shuttle flight. For this reason, friction was not expected to be a driving factor of performance and control of the reused RS-25 engines aboard the SLS. However, after test data showed a large shift in frequency behavior and a highly damped step-response in the time series, there was further investigation into what could have caused this behavior. Heritage friction models used in previous gimbal and ball bearings were evaluated such as Coulomb, Dahl and LuGre, but the single degree of freedom friction models alone were not enough to explain the behavior and shifts seen in the test data. This paper presents the additional findings and modeling efforts regarding friction on the RS-25 engines. Using the Two Actuator Operational Simulation (TAOS), the difference from modeling separate friction degrees of freedom to coupled degrees of freedom was investigated to deduce the effects of one axis’s movement on the other. Next, due to the vibration environment, a modified LuGre model has been proposed that adds an additional term to decrease the friction coefficient at low engine velocity amplitudes. Lastly, the addition of the stiffness in each half of the gimbal bearing has increased modeling fidelity by also adding the effect on the gimbal bearing bending in compliance to both the friction torque on the surface of the gimbal bearing and the actuator force that is forcing the engine in a specified direction. Through these effects, the time and frequency domain behavior seen in test can be characterized accurately.

Friction↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gimbal Bearing Friction in the SLS Core Stage Thrust Vector Control System

The Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system is comprised of eight mechanical feedback Shuttle heritage Type III TVC actuators that vector the four Shuttle heritage RS-25 engines about a Shuttle heritage gimbal block/bearing. The MSFC Controls community has long regarded gimbal friction to be a negligible effect on the overall control of gimbaled RS-25 engines. This is corroborated by Space Shuttle test and flight data that does not appear to show degraded effects, nor limit cycling at the end of the shuttle flight. For this reason, friction was not expected to be a driving factor of performance and control of the reused RS-25 engines aboard the SLS. However, after test data showed a large shift in frequency behavior and a highly damped step-response in the time series, there was further investigation into what could have caused this behavior. Heritage friction models used in previous gimbal and ball bearings were evaluated such as Coulomb, Dahl and LuGre, but the single degree of freedom friction models alone were not enough to explain the behavior and shifts seen in the test data. This paper presents the additional findings and modeling efforts regarding friction on the RS-25 engines. Using the Two Actuator Operational Simulation (TAOS), the difference from modeling separate friction degrees of freedom to coupled degrees of freedom was investigated to deduce the effects of one axis’s movement on the other. Next, due to the vibration environment, a modified LuGre model has been proposed that adds an additional term to decrease the friction coefficient at low engine velocity amplitudes. Lastly, the addition of the stiffness in each half of the gimbal bearing has increased modeling fidelity by also adding the effect on the gimbal bearing bending in compliance to both the friction torque on the surface of the gimbal bearing and the actuator force that is forcing the engine in a specified direction. Through these effects, the time and frequency domain behavior seen in test can be characterized accurately.

Friction↗