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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Endoscopic measurements using a panoramic annular lens

The objective of this project was to design, build, demonstrate, and deliver a prototype system for making measurements within cavities. The system was to utilize structured lighting as the means for making measurements and was to rely on a stationary probe, equipped with a unique panoramic annular lens, to capture a cylindrical view of the illuminated cavity. Panoramic images, acquired with a digitizing camera and stored in a desk top computer, were to be linearized and analyzed by mouse-driven interactive software.

Gilbert, John A.↗
NASA NTRS2021

L’Ralph Integration and Testing

This paper describes the plans, flows, key facilities, components and equipment necessary to fully integrate, functionally test, qualify and calibrate the L’Ralph instrument on the Lucy observatory. Lucy is currently in the final design and fabrication phase (phase C) of mission development. It is scheduled to launch out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, in October 2021. Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter, that are thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. Lucy will fly by and carry out remote sensing on six different Trojan asteroids. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. L’Ralph is one of the instruments on Lucy and it is provided by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). L’Ralph is a combined multi-band visible imager (the Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera, MVIC, 0.4-0.85 microns) and wedge-filter infrared spectrometer (Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array, LEISA, 1-3.6 microns). LEISA will allow the team to look for the absorption lines that serve as the fingerprints for different silicates, ices and organics that likely will be on the surface of the Trojan asteroids. MVIC will take color images of the Trojan asteroid targets, and help determine how active they are. This paper will focus on the Integration and Test (I&T) activities for L’Ralph while it is at the NASA GSFC. L’Ralph has two assemblies, the telescope detector assembly (TDA) and main electronics box (MEB). The TDA is a single telescope feeding two focal planes, MVIC and LEISA. L’Ralph integration consists of assembly and alignment of the telescope, electronics box integration, thermal systems integration and the final assembly and testing. This I&T phase will be followed by the L’Ralph calibration and characterization, environmental tests which include electromagnetic interference (EMI)/electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), vibration with sine sweep, acoustics, shock, thermal balance, thermal vacuum, mass properties and center of gravity determination. This paper will briefly discuss L’Ralph shipment and delivery to the spacecraft vendor for observatory level I&T as well as some launch preparation activities.

Spaceflight Instruments↗
NASA NTRS1991

In-flight performance of the Faint Object Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope

An overview of the Faint Object Camera and its performance to date is presented. In particular, the detector's efficiency, the spatial uniformity of response, distortion characteristics, detector and sky background, detector linearity, spectrography, and operation are discussed. The effect of the severe spherical aberration of the telescope's primary mirror on the camera's point spread function is reviewed, as well as the impact it has on the camera's general performance. The scientific implications of the performance and the spherical aberration are outlined, with emphasis on possible remedies for spherical aberration, hardware remedies, and stellar population studies.

Greenfield, P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Optical recognition of statistical patterns

Optical implementation of the Fukunaga-Koontz transform (FKT) and the Least-Squares Linear Mapping Technique (LSLMT) is described. The FKT is a linear transformation which performs image feature extraction for a two-class image classification problem. The LSLMT performs a transform from large dimensional feature space to small dimensional decision space for separating multiple image classes by maximizing the interclass differences while minimizing the intraclass variations. The FKT and the LSLMT were optically implemented by utilizing a coded phase optical processor. The transform was used for classifying birds and fish. After the F-K basis functions were calculated, those most useful for classification were incorporated into a computer generated hologram. The output of the optical processor, consisting of the squared magnitude of the F-K coefficients, was detected by a T.V. camera, digitized, and fed into a micro-computer for classification. A simple linear classifier based on only two F-K coefficients was able to separate the images into two classes, indicating that the F-K transform had chosen good features. Two advantages of optically implementing the FKT and LSLMT are parallel and real time processing.

Lee, S. H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Stereoscopic camera and viewing systems with undistorted depth presentation and reduced or eliminated erroneous acceleration and deceleration perceptions, or with perceptions produced or enhanced for special effects

Methods for providing stereoscopic image presentation and stereoscopic configurations using stereoscopic viewing systems having converged or parallel cameras may be set up to reduce or eliminate erroneously perceived accelerations and decelerations by proper selection of parameters, such as an image magnification factor, q, and intercamera distance, 2w. For converged cameras, q is selected to be equal to Ve - qwl = 0, where V is the camera distance, e is half the interocular distance of an observer, w is half the intercamera distance, and l is the actual distance from the first nodal point of each camera to the convergence point, and for parallel cameras, q is selected to be equal to e/w. While converged cameras cannot be set up to provide fully undistorted three-dimensional views, they can be set up to provide a linear relationship between real and apparent depth and thus minimize erroneously perceived accelerations and decelerations for three sagittal planes, x = -w, x = 0, and x = +w which are indicated to the observer. Parallel cameras can be set up to provide fully undistorted three-dimensional views by controlling the location of the observer and by magnification and shifting of left and right images. In addition, the teachings of this disclosure can be used to provide methods of stereoscopic image presentation and stereoscopic camera configurations to produce a nonlinear relation between perceived and real depth, and erroneously produce or enhance perceived accelerations and decelerations in order to provide special effects for entertainment, training, or educational purposes.

Diner, Daniel B.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Orion Optical Navigation Progress Toward Exploration: Mission 1

Optical navigation of human spacecraft was proposed on Gemini and implemented successfully on Apollo as a means of autonomously operating the vehicle in the event of lost communication with controllers on Earth. It shares a history with the "method of lunar distances" that was used in the 18th century and gained some notoriety after its use by Captain James Cook during his 1768 Pacific voyage of the HMS Endeavor. The Orion emergency return system utilizing optical navigation has matured in design over the last several years, and is currently undergoing the final implementation and test phase in preparation for Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) in 2019. The software development is being worked as a Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) project delivered as an application within the Core Flight Software of the Orion camera controller module. The mathematical formulation behind the initial ellipse fit in the image processing is detailed in Christian. The non-linear least squares refinement then follows the technique of Mortari as an estimation process of the planetary limb using the sigmoid function. The Orion optical navigation system uses a body fixed camera, a decision that was driven by mass and mechanism constraints. The general concept of operations involves a 2-hour pass once every 24 hours, with passes specifically placed before all maneuvers to supply accurate navigation information to guidance and targeting. The pass lengths are limited by thermal constraints on the vehicle since the OpNav attitude generally deviates from the thermally stable tail-to-sun attitude maintained during the rest of the orbit coast phase. Calibration is scheduled prior to every pass due to the unknown nature of thermal effects on the lens distortion and the mounting platform deformations between the camera and star trackers. The calibration technique is described in detail by Christian, et al. and simultaneously estimates the Brown-Conrady coefficients and the Star Tracker/Camera interlock angles. Accurate attitude information is provided by the star trackers during each pass. Figure 1 shows the various phases of lunar return navigation when the vehicle is in autonomous operation with lost ground communication. The midcourse maneuvers are placed to control the entry interface conditions to the desired corridor for safe landing. The general form of optical navigation on Orion is where still images of the Moon or Earth are processed to find the apparent angular diameter and centroid in the camera focal plane. This raw data is transformed into range and bearing angle measurements using planetary data and precise star tracker inertial attitude. The measurements are then sent to the main flight computer's Kalman filter to update the onboard state vector. The images are, of course, collected over an arc to converge the state and estimate velocity. The same basic technique was used by Apollo to satisfy loss-of-comm, but Apollo used manual crew sightings with a vehicle-integral sextant instead of autonomously processing optical imagery. The software development is past its Critical Design Review, and is progressing through test and certification for human rating. In support of this, a hardware-in-the-loop test rig was developed in the Johnson Space Center Electro-Optics Lab to exercise the OpNav system prior to integrated testing on the Orion vehicle. Figure 2 shows the rig, which the test team has dubbed OCILOT (Orion Camera In the Loop Optical Testbed). Analysis performed to date shows a delivery that satisfies an allowable entry corridor as shown in Figure 3.

Holt, Greg N.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Determination of dynamic corrections to point coordinates of photographs obtained by the Zond 6 and Zond 8 spacecraft

The linear and angular motions of the Zond 6 and Zond 8 spacecraft imaging camera during the exposure cause displacements of the optical image points. In the case of instantaneous exposure of each individual point and the nonsimultaneous exposure of the complete frame, this leads to finite geometric shifts of the points without causing blurring of the photographic image. Therefore, when measuring the resulting photographic pictures, the problem arises of reducing the picture point positions to a common instant of time. This reduction is performed by means of dynamic corrections to the measured picture point coordinates. These corrections are found by using formulas of dynamic photogrammetry. Their use with the Zond space probe photographs is described.

Kiselev, V. V.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Quantifying Residual Stresses by Means of Thermoelastic Stress Analysis

This study focused on the application of the Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) technique as a tool for assessing the residual stress state of structures. TSA is based on the fact that materials experience small temperature changes when compressed or expanded. When a structure is cyclically loaded, a surface temperature profile results which correlates to the surface stresses. The cyclic surface temperature is measured with an infrared camera. Traditionally, the amplitude of a TSA signal was theoretically defined to be linearly dependent on the cyclic stress amplitude. Recent studies have established that the temperature response is also dependent on the cyclic mean stress (i.e., the static stress state of the structure). In a previous study by the authors, it was shown that mean stresses significantly influenced the TSA results for titanium- and nickel-based alloys. This study continued the effort of accurate direct measurements of the mean stress effect by implementing various experimental modifications. In addition, a more in-depth analysis was conducted which involved analyzing the second harmonic of the temperature response. By obtaining the amplitudes of the first and second harmonics, the stress amplitude and the mean stress at a given point on a structure subjected to a cyclic load can be simultaneously obtained. The experimental results showed good agreement with the theoretical predictions for both the first and second harmonics of the temperature response. As a result, confidence was achieved concerning the ability to simultaneously obtain values for the static stress state as well as the cyclic stress amplitude of structures subjected to cyclic loads using the TSA technique. With continued research, it is now feasible to establish a protocol that would enable the monitoring of residual stresses in structures utilizing TSA.

Gyekenyesi, Andrew L.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Performance Characterization of the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) CCD Cameras

The Chromospheric Lyman‐Alpha Spectro‐Polarimeter (CLASP) is a sounding rocket instrument which is currently being developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The goal of this instrument is to observe and detect the Hanle effect in the scattered Lyman‐Alpha UV (121.6nm) light emitted by the Sun's Chromosphere to make measurements of the magnetic field in this region. In order to make accurate measurements of this effect, the performance characteristics of the three on‐board charge‐coupled devices (CCDs) must meet certain requirements. These characteristics include: quantum efficiency, gain, dark current, noise, and linearity. Each of these must meet predetermined requirements in order to achieve satisfactory performance for the mission. The cameras must be able to operate with a gain of no greater than 2 e(-)/DN, a noise level less than 25e(−), a dark current level which is less than 10e(−)/pixel/s, and a residual nonlinearity of less than 1%. Determining these characteristics involves performing a series of tests with each of the cameras in a high vacuum environment. Here we present the methods and results of each of these performance tests for the CLASP flight cameras.

Joiner, Reyann↗
NASA NTRS2003

EVA Robotic Assistant Project: Platform Attitude Prediction

The Robotic Systems Technology Branch is currently working on the development of an EVA Robotic Assistant under the sponsorship of the Surface Systems Thrust of the NASA Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP). This will be a mobile robot that can follow a field geologist during planetary surface exploration, carry his tools and the samples that he collects, and provide video coverage of his activity. Prior experiments have shown that for such a robot to be useful it must be able to follow the geologist at walking speed over any terrain of interest. Geologically interesting terrain tends to be rough rather than smooth. The commercial mobile robot that was recently purchased as an initial testbed for the EVA Robotic Assistant Project, an ATRV Jr., is capable of faster than walking speed outside but it has no suspension. Its wheels with inflated rubber tires are attached to axles that are connected directly to the robot body. Any angular motion of the robot produced by driving over rough terrain will directly affect the pointing of the on-board stereo cameras. The resulting image motion is expected to make tracking of the geologist more difficult. This will either require the tracker to search a larger part of the image to find the target from frame to frame or to search mechanically in pan and tilt whenever the image motion is large enough to put the target outside the image in the next frame. This project consists of the design and implementation of a Kalman filter that combines the output of the angular rate sensors and linear accelerometers on the robot to estimate the motion of the robot base. The motion of the stereo camera pair mounted on the robot that results from this motion as the robot drives over rough terrain is then straightforward to compute. The estimates may then be used, for example, to command the robot s on-board pan-tilt unit to compensate for the camera motion induced by the base movement. This has been accomplished in two ways: first, a standalone head stabilizer has been implemented and second, the estimates have been used to influence the search algorithm of the stereo tracking algorithm. Studies of the image motion of a tracked object indicate that the image motion of objects is suppressed while the robot crossing rough terrain. This work expands the range of speed and surface roughness over which the robot should be able to track and follow a field geologist and accept arm gesture commands from the geologist.

Nickels, Kevin M.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Thermoelastic Stress Analysis: An NDE Tool for the Residual Stress Assessment of Metallic Alloys

During manufacturing, certain propulsion components that will be used in a cyclic fatigue environment are fabricated to contain compressive residual stresses on their surfaces because these stresses inhibit the nucleation of cracks. Overloads and elevated temperature excursions cause the induced residual stresses to dissipate while the component is still in service, lowering its resistance to crack initiation. Research at the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field has focused on employing the Thermoelastic Stress Analysis technique (TSA, also recognized as SPATE: Stress Pattern Analysis by Thermal Emission) as a tool for monitoring the residual stress state of propulsion components. TSA is based on the fact that materials experience small temperature changes when they are compressed or expanded. When a structure is cyclically loaded (i.e., cyclically compressed and expanded), the resulting surface-temperature profile correlates to the stress state of the structure s surface. The surface-temperature variations resulting from a cyclic load are measured with an infrared camera. Traditionally, the temperature amplitude of a TSA signal has been theoretically defined to be linearly dependent on the cyclic stress amplitude. As a result, the temperature amplitude resulting from an applied cyclic stress was assumed to be independent of the cyclic mean stress.

Gyekenyesi, Andrew L.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Strain Dependence of Photoluminescense of Individual Carbon Nanotubes

We have investigated strain dependence of photoluminescense (PL) spectra of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT). Nanotubes were sparsely dispersed in a thin PMMA film applied to acrylic bar, and strained in both compression and extension by bending this bar in either direction in a homebuilt four-point bending rig. The average surface strain was measured with high accuracy by a resistive strain gage applied on top of the film. The near infrared imaging and spectroscopy were performed on the inverted microscope equipped with high numerical aperture reflective objective lens and InGaAs CCD cameras. PL was excited with a diode laser at either 658, 730 or 785 nm, linearly polarized in the direction of the strain. We were able to measure (n,m) types and orientation of individual nanotubes with respect to strain direction and strain dependence of their PL maxima. It was found that PL peak shifts with respect to the values measured in SDS micelles are a sum of three components. First, a small environmental shift due to difference in the dielectric constant of the surrounding media, that is constant and independent of the nanotube type. Second, shift due to isotropic compression of the film during drying. Third, shifts produced by the uniaxial loading of the film in the experiment. Second and third shifts follow expression based on the first-order expansion of the TB hamiltonian. Their magnitude is proportional to the nanotube chiral angle and strain, and direction is determined by the nanotube quantum number. PL strain dependence measured for a number of various nanotube types allows to estimate TB carbon-carbon transfer integral.

Nikolaev, Pavel N.↗
NASA NTRS2007

NASA Tech Briefs, October 2007

Topics covered include; Wirelessly Interrogated Position or Displacement Sensors; Ka-Band Radar Terminal Descent Sensor; Metal/Metal Oxide Differential Electrode pH Sensors; Improved Sensing Coils for SQUIDs; Inductive Linear-Position Sensor/Limit-Sensor Units; Hilbert-Curve Fractal Antenna With Radiation- Pattern Diversity; Single-Camera Panoramic-Imaging Systems; Interface Electronic Circuitry for an Electronic Tongue; Inexpensive Clock for Displaying Planetary or Sidereal Time; Efficient Switching Arrangement for (N + 1)/N Redundancy; Lightweight Reflectarray Antenna for 7.115 and 32 GHz; Opto-Electronic Oscillator Using Suppressed Phase Modulation; Alternative Controller for a Fiber-Optic Switch; Strong, Lightweight, Porous Materials; Nanowicks; Lightweight Thermal Protection System for Atmospheric Entry; Rapid and Quiet Drill; Hydrogen Peroxide Concentrator; MMIC Amplifiers for 90 to 130 GHz; Robot Would Climb Steep Terrain; Measuring Dynamic Transfer Functions of Cavitating Pumps; Advanced Resistive Exercise Device; Rapid Engineering of Three-Dimensional, Multicellular Tissues With Polymeric Scaffolds; Resonant Tunneling Spin Pump; Enhancing Spin Filters by Use of Bulk Inversion Asymmetry; Optical Magnetometer Incorporating Photonic Crystals; WGM-Resonator/Tapered-Waveguide White-Light Sensor Optics; Raman-Suppressing Coupling for Optical Parametric Oscillator; CO2-Reduction Primary Cell for Use on Venus; Cold Atom Source Containing Multiple Magneto- Optical Traps; POD Model Reconstruction for Gray-Box Fault Detection; System for Estimating Horizontal Velocity During Descent; Software Framework for Peer Data-Management Services; Autogen Version 2.0; Tracking-Data-Conversion Tool; NASA Enterprise Visual Analysis; Advanced Reference Counting Pointers for Better Performance; C Namelist Facility; and Efficient Mosaicking of Spitzer Space Telescope Images.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1982

New two-dimensional photon camera

A photon-sensitive camera, applicable to speckle imaging of astronomical sources, high-resolution spectroscopy of faint galaxies in a crossed-dispersion spectrograph, or narrow-band direct imaging of galaxies, is presented. The camera is shown to supply 8-bit by 8-bit photon positions (256 x 256 pixels) for as many as 10 to the 6th photons/sec with a maximum linear resolution of approximately 10 microns. The sequence of photon positions is recorded digitally with a VHS-format video tape recorder or formed into an immediate image via a microcomputer. The four basic elements of the camera are described in detail: a high-gain image intensifier with fast-decay output phosphor, a glass-prism optical-beam splitter, a set of Gray-coded masks, and a photomultiplier tube for each mask. The characteristics of the camera are compared to those of other photon cameras.

Papaliolios, C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

An extended-source spatial acquisition process based on maximum likelihood criterion for planetary optical communications

This paper describes an extended-source spatial acquisition process based on the maximum likelihood criterion for interplanetary optical communications. The objective is to use the sun-lit Earth image as a receiver beacon and point the transmitter laser to the Earth-based receiver to establish a communication path. The process assumes the existence of a reference image. The uncertainties between the reference image and the received image are modeled as additive white Gaussian disturbances. It has been shown that the optimal spatial acquisition requires solving two nonlinear equations to estimate the coordinates of the transceiver from the received camera image in the transformed domain. The optimal solution can be obtained iteratively by solving two linear equations. Numerical results using a sample sun-lit Earth as a reference image demonstrate that sub-pixel resolutions can be achieved in a high disturbance environment. Spatial resolution is quantified by Cramer-Rao lower bounds.

Yan, Tsun-Yee↗
NASA NTRS2019

Dependence of DOLP on Coronal Electron Temperature, Speed, and Structure

The degree of linear polarization (DOLP) is an important measure of the fraction of the total K-coronal brightness due to Thomson scattering of photospheric brightness off the coronal electrons that is linearly polarized. However, the corona is also brightened by the F-coronal brightness due to scattering of photospheric brightness off everything else in the corona except the electrons, which remains totally unpolarized at least up to a coronal height of 5 R. As a result, to measure the DOLP, the F- and K-coronal brightness need to be separated by taking three consecutive images by turning a linear polarizer through three well-defined angles or with a single image using a polarization camera. In this regard, the theoretically computed DOLP would be a helpful tool to compare with the experimentally measured DOLP on the real corona in order to estimate how well the F-coronal brightness is removed from the total coronal brightness to isolate the K-coronal brightness. This is important because the K-coronal brightness ratios at (410.3 nm/390.0 nm) and (423.3 nm/398.7 nm) can be used to generate maps of electron temperature and speed, respectively, and the individual K-coronal brightness at all four wavelengths can be used independently to generate maps of the electron density in the corona. In this article, for a spherically symmetric model (SSM) corona with assumed temperatures of 1.0 MK and 2.0 MK and radial flow speeds of 0.0 km/s and 250.0 km/ s for the coronal electrons, we have computed the wavelength-dependent DOLP from 370.0 nm to 470.0 nm in intervals of 1.0 nm, and for a spherically asymmetric model (SAM) corona containing a simulation of the Bastille Day coronal mass ejection, streamers, and quiet areas, we have generated maps of DOLP at the four wavelengths 390.0, 398.7, 410.3, and 423.3 nm. Finally, we have used these theoretically computed models of DOLP to compare with the experimentally measured DOLP.

Reginald, Nelson↗
NASA NTRS1996

Apparatus Tests Peeling Of Bonded Rubbery Material

Instrumented hydraulic constrained blister-peel apparatus obtains data on degree of bonding between specimen of rubbery material and rigid plate. Growth of blister tracked by video camera, digital clock, pressure transducer, and piston-displacement sensor. Cylinder pressure controlled by hydraulic actuator system. Linear variable-differential transformer (LVDT) and float provide second, independent measure of change in blister volume used as more precise volume feedback in low-growth-rate test.

Crook, Russell A.↗