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At least 145 records · Page 8
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NASA NTRS1994

The overlapping plates method applied to CCD observations of 243 Ida

The overlapping plates method has been applied to crossing-point Charge Coupled Device (CCD) observations of minor planet 243 Ida to produce absolute position measurements precise to better than 0.1 sec and differential position measurements precise to better than 0.06 sec. Although these observations numbered only 17 out of the 520 that produced the final ground-based Ida ephemeris for the Galileo spacecraft flyby, their inclusion decreased Ida's downtrack error from 78 to 60 km and its out-of-plane error from 58 to 44 km.

Owen, W. M., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Real Gas: CFD Prediction Methodology Flow Physics for Entry Capsule Mission Scenarios

Mission and concept studies for space exploration are described for the purpose of identifying flow physics for entry capsule mission scenarios. These studies are a necessary precursor to the development and application of CFD prediction methodology for capsule aerothermodynamics. The scope of missions considered includes manned and unmanned cislunar missions, missions to the minor planets, and missions to the major planets and other celestial objects in the solar system.

Deiwert, George S.↗
NASA NTRS1997

New Research by CCD Scanning for Comets and Asteroids

Spacewatch was begun in 1980; its purpose is to explore the various populations of small objects within the solar system. Spacewatch provides data for studies of comets and asteroids, finds potential targets for space missions, and provides information on the environmental problem of possible impacts. Moving objects are discovered by scanning the sky with charge-coupled devices (CCDS) on the 0.9-meter Spacewatch Telescope of the University of Arizona on Kitt Peak. Each Spacewatch scan consists of three drift scan passes over an area of sky using a CCD filtered to a bandpass of 0.5-1.0 pm (approximately V+R+I with peak sensitivity at 0.7 pm). The effective exposure time for each pass is 143 seconds multiplied by the secant of the declination. The area covered by each scan is 32 arcminutes in declination by about 28 minutes of time in right ascension. The image scale is 1.05 arcseconds per pixel. Three passes take about 1.5 hours to complete and show motions of individual objects over a one hour time baseline. The limiting magnitude is about 21.5 in single scans. CCD scanning was developed by Spacewatch in the early 1980s, with improvements still being made - particularly by bringing a new 1.8-m Spacewatch Telescope on line. In the meantime, we have been finding some 30,000 new asteroids per year and applying their statistics to the study of the collisional history of the solar system. Spacewatch had found a total of 150 Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAS) and 8 new comets, and had recovered one lost comet (P/Spitaler in 1993). Spacewatch is also efficient in recovery of known comets and has detected and reported positions for more than 137,000 asteroids, mostly new ones in the main belt, including more than 10,882 asteroids designated by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).

Gehrels, Tom↗
NASA NTRS1997

New Research by CCD Scanning for Comets and Asteroids

The purpose of Spacewatch is to explore the various populations of small objects within the solar system. Spacewatch provides data for studies of comets and asteroids, finds potential targets for space missions, and provides information on the environmental problem of possible impacts. Moving objects are discovered by scanning the sky with charge-coupled devices (CCDs) on the 0.9-meter Spacewatch Telescope of the University of Arizona on Kitt Peak. Each Spacewatch scan consists of three drift scan passes over an area of sky using a CCD filtered to a bandpass of 0.5-1.0 microns (approximately V+R+I with peak sensitivity at 0.7 micron). The effective exposure time for each pass is 143 seconds multiplied by the secant of the declination. We have been finding some 30,000 new asteroids per year and applying their statistics to the study of the collisional history of the solar system. As of the end of the observing run of Nov. 1997, Spacewatch had found a total of 153 Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and 8 new comets since the project began in the 1980s, and had recovered one lost comet. The total number of NEAs found by Spacewatch big enough to be hazardous if they were to impact the Earth is 36. Spacewatch is also efficient in recovery of known comets and has detected and reported positions for more than 137,000 asteroids, mostly new ones in the main belt, including more than 16,000 asteroids designated by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).

Gehrels, Tom↗
NASA NTRS1998

Observations of Spacecraft Targets, Unusual Asteroids, and Targets of Opportunity

Obtain physical and astrometric observations of: (1) spacecraft targets to support mission operations; (2) known asteroids with unusual orbits to help determine their origin; and (3) newly discovered minor planets (including both asteroids and comets) that represent a particular opportunity to add significant new knowledge of the Solar System.

Tholen, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Spacewatch Survey of the Solar System

The purpose of the Spacewatch project is to explore the various populations of small objects throughout the solar system. Statistics on all classes of small bodies are needed to infer their physical and dynamical evolution. More Earth Approachers need to be found to assess the impact hazard. (We have adopted the term "Earth Approacher", EA, to include all those asteroids, nuclei of extinct short period comets, and short period comets that can approach close to Earth. The adjective "near" carries potential confusion, as we have found in communicating with the media, that the objects are always near Earth, following it like a cloud.) Persistent and voluminous accumulation of astrometry of incidentally observed main belt asteroids MBAs will eventually permit the Minor Planet Center (MPQ to determine the orbits of large numbers (tens of thousands) of asteroids. Such a large body of information will ultimately allow better resolution of orbit classes and the determinations of luminosity functions of the various classes, Comet and asteroid recoveries are essential services to planetary astronomy. Statistics of objects in the outer solar system (Centaurs, scattered-disk objects, and Trans-Neptunian Objects; TNOs) ultimately will tell part of the story of solar system evolution. Spacewatch led the development of sky surveying by electronic means and has acted as a responsible interface to the media and general public on this discipline and on the issue of the hazard from impacts by asteroids and comets.

McMillan, Robert S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

IRAS Low Resolution Spectra of Asteroids

Optical/near-infrared studies of asteroids are based on reflected sunlight and surface albedo variations create broad spectral features, suggestive of families of materials. There is a significant literature on these features, but there is very little work in the thermal infrared that directly probes the materials emitting on the surfaces of asteroids. We have searched for and extracted 534 thermal spectra of 245 asteroids from the original Dutch (Groningen) archive of spectra observed by the IRAS Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS). We find that, in general, the observed shapes of the spectral continua are inconsistent with that predicted by the standard thermal model used by IRAS. Thermal models such as proposed by Harris (1998) and Harris et al.(1998) for the near-earth asteroids with the "beaming parameter" in the range of 1.0 to 1.2 best represent the observed spectral shapes. This implies that the IRAS Minor Planet Survey (IMPS, Tedesco, 1992) and the Supplementary IMPS (SIMPS, Tedesco, et al., 2002) derived asteroid diameters are systematically underestimated, and the albedos are overestimated. We have tentatively identified several spectral features that appear to be diagnostic of at least families of materials. The variation of spectral features with taxonomic class hints that thermal infrared spectra can be a valuable tool for taxonomic classification of asteroids.

Cohen, Martin↗
NASA NTRS1999

TAOS: Taiwan-American Occultation Survey of Comet-Sized Objects in the Kuiper Belt

Several dozen minor planets with radii greater than 100 km have been detected beyond Neptune using large telescopes. The TAOS project is to measure directly the number of these KBOs (Kuiper Belt Objects) down to the typical size of cometary nuclei (a few km) and out as far as approximately 100 AU from the Sun. Because of their large distance, small sizes and presumed low albedos, these target objects are extremely faint. Three 50 cm wide field robotic telescopes with 2048 x 2048 CCD cameras will be deployed along a 7 km east-west baseline in or near Jade Mountain National Park in Taiwan. They will monitor approximately 3000 stars for occultations by KBOs in a coincidence mode, so that the sequence and timing of the three separate blinkings can be used to distinguish real events from false alarms. Follow-up imaging observations using large telescopes will yield albedos and orbits for some of the larger objects detected by TAOS. A fourth telescope on a north-south spur to refine the size information on occulting GABON is also being contemplated.

Lissauer, Jack↗
NASA NTRS2003

Preservation and Enhancement of the Spacewatch Data Archives

In March of 1998, the asteroid 1997 XF11 was announced to be potentially hazardous after being tracked over 90 days. A potential two year wait for confirming observations was shortened to under 24 hours because of the existence of archived photographic prediscovery images. Spacewatch was a pioneer in using CCD scanning and possesses a valuable digital archive of its scans. Unfortunately these data are aging on magnetic tape and will soon be lost. Since 1990, the Spacewatch project gathered some 1.5 Terabytes of scan data covering roughly 75,000 degrees of sky to a limiting magnitude of V = 21.5. The data have not yet been mined for all of their asteroids for scientific studies and orbit determination. Spacewatch's real-time motion detection program MODP was constrained by the computers of the era to use simplified image processing algorithms at a reduced efficiency. Jedicke and Herron estimated MODP's efficiency at finding asteroids to be approximately 60 percent to V=18 and improving somewhat thereafter. This lead to a substantial bias correction in their analyses. Larsen has developed a MODP replacement capable in excess of 90 percent efficiency in the same range and able to push a magnitude fainter in completeness. We propose a program of post-processing and re-archiving Spacewatch data. Our scans would be transferred from tape to CD-ROMs and converted to FITS images -- establishing a consistent data format and media for both past and future Spacewatch observations. Larsen's MODP replacement would mine these data for previously undetected motions, which would be made available to the Minor Planet Center and our ongoing asteroid population studies. A searchable observation record would be made generally available for prediscovery work. We estimate the net asteroid yield of this proposal is equivalent to three full years of Spacewatch operations.

Larsen, Jeffrey A.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Evidence for Partial Melting in Reflectance Spectra of 433 Eros

The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft returned near-IR spectra of asteroid 433 Eros at spatial resolutions ranging from 2.5 to 100's km during its year-long orbital mission in 2000. Assuming modified Gaussian absorption bands represent the reflectance spectrum between 0.8-2.5 m we fit the average of all geometrically corrected spectra acquired by the near-IR spectrometer (NIS) with seven absorption bands. Interpretation of the absorption bands in terms of olivine and pyroxene minerals indicates that the surface of Eros contains olivine and two pyroxenes with compositions that are indicative of a partially melted assemblage. This partial melting must have occurred when the asteroid was part of a larger minor planet, prior to break up into its current elongated and irregular shape.

McFadden, L. A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

An High Resolution Near-Earth Objects Population Enabling Next-Generation Search Strategies

Over the past decade, the dedicated search for kilometer-size near-Earth objects (NEOs), potentially hazardous objects (PHOs), and potential Earth impactors has led to a boost in the rate of discoveries of these objects. The catalog of known NEOs is the fundamental ingredient used to develop a model for the NEOs population, either by assessing and correcting for the observational bias (Jedicke et al., 2002), or by evaluating the migration rates from the NEOs source regions (Bottke et al., 2002). The modeled NEOs population is a necessary tool used to track the progress in the search of large NEOs (Jedicke et al., 2003) and to try to predict the distribution of the ones still undiscovered, as well as to study the sky distribution of potential Earth impactors (Chesley & Spahr, 2004). We present a method to model the NEOs population in all six orbital elements, on a finely grained grid, allowing us the design and test of targeted and optimized search strategies. This method relies on the observational data routinely reported to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) and by other active NEO surveys over the past decade, to determine on a nightly basis the efficiency in detecting moving objects as a function of observable quantities including apparent magnitude, rate of motion, airmass, and galactic latitude. The cumulative detection probability is then be computed for objects within a small range in orbital elements and absolute magnitude, and the comparison with the number of know NEOs within the same range allows us to model the population. When propagated to the present epoch and projected on the sky plane, this provides the distribution of the missing large NEOs, PHOs, and potential impactors.

Tricaico, Pasquale↗
NASA NTRS2012

Finding Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Destinations for Human Exploration: Implications for Astrobiology

The current number of known potential NEA targets for HSF is limited to those objects whose orbital characteristics are similar to that of the Earth. This is due to the projected capabilities of the exploration systems currently under consideration and development at NASA. However, NEAs with such orbital characteristics often have viewing geometries that place them at low solar elongations and thus are difficult to detect from the vicinity of Earth. While ongoing ground-based surveys and data archives maintained by the NEO Program Observation Program Office and the Minor Planet Center (MPC) have provided a solid basis upon which to build, a more complete catalog of the NEO population is required to inform a robust and sustainable HSF exploration program. Since all the present NEO observing assets are currently confined to the vicinity of the Earth, additional effort must be made to provide capabilities for detection of additional HSF targets via assets beyond Earth orbit. A space-based NEO survey telescope located beyond the vicinity of the Earth, has considerable implications for planetary science and astrobiology. Such a telescope will provide foundational knowledge of our Solar System small body population and detect targets of interest for both the HSF and scientific communities. Data from this asset will yield basic characterization data on the NEOs observed (i.e., albedo, size determination, potential for volatiles and organics, etc.) and help down select targets for future HSF missions. Ideally, the most attractive targets from both HSF and astrobiology perspectives are those NEAs that may contain organic and volatile materials, and which could be effectively sampled at a variety of locations and depths. Presented here is an overview of four space-based survey concepts; any one of which after just a few years of operation will discover many highly accessible NEO targets suitable for robotic and human exploration. Such a space-based survey mission will reveal incredible returns for several disciplines including: exploration, in situ resource utilization, planetary defense, and science. Of particular, interest to the scientific

Landis, Rob↗
NASA NTRS2013

The Meteoroid Environment and Spacecraft

Difference between a meteoroid and asteroid? center dot It's all a matter of size, but there is no formal limit on the size of the biggest meteoroid or smallest asteroid. center dot Generally anything bigger than 10 meters in diameter is considered an asteroid. center dot However, the currently accepted process is that if it is detected in space and given a designation by the Minor Planet Center, it is an asteroid, no matter how big - example: 2008 TC3 is listed as an asteroid, despite being only 2 meters in diameter. Dynamical studies (e.g. Wiegert & Vaubaillon, 2008) indicate that - Helion sources originate mainly from Jupiter family comets (JFCs) - Apex sources from retrograde Halley family comets (HFCs) and long period comets. - Toroidal sources from prograde HFCs? center dot >90% of meteoroids in inner Solar System come from comets. Three main sources - Photographic (Super‐Schmidt) - Specular Radar center dot (Harvard Radio Meteor Project (HRMP) center dot CMOR center dot AMOR - HPLA center dot ALTAIR center dot Jicamarca center dot Arecibo center dot Photographic have lower number statistics and unique biases - Nighttime only - approx. V3.5 dependence on light production - Detection sensitivity is function of angular velocity center dot Radar has different biases - Ionization production also steep function of velocity (V3.5‐4) - Initial trail radius, finite velocity and diffusion attenuation center dot HPLA biases - Still controversy over how much and what sort of biases may or may not be present.

Cooke, William J.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Dawn's Exploration of Vesta

The Dawn spacecraft will reach Vesta in mid-2011 and begin a comprehensive geological and geophysical characterization to investigate the geologic history, interior structure, and evolution of this minor planet in the Main Asteroid Belts [1]. Analysis of the suite of basaltic achondrite howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) meteorites, linked spectrally to Vesta, indicate that Vesta undwent igneous differentiation and has a metallic core. As such, Vesta represents a diminutive end-member of the differentiated terrestrial planets.

protoplanet↗
NASA NTRS2017

PHYS: Division of Physical Chemistry 258 - Properties and Origins of Cometary and Asteroidal Organic Matter Delivered to the Early Earth

Comets and asteroids may have contributed much of the Earth's water and organic matter. The Earth accretes approximately 4x10(exp 7) Kg of dust and meteorites from these sources every year. The least altered meteorites contain complex assemblages of organic compounds and abundant hydrated minerals. These carbonaceous chondrite meteorites probably derive from asteroids that underwent hydrothermal processing within the first few million years after their accretion. Meteorite organics show isotopic and chemical signatures of low-T ion-molecule and grain-surface chemistry and photolysis of icy grains that occurred in cold molecular clouds and the outer protoplanetary disk. These signatures have been overprinted by aqueously mediated chemistry in asteroid parent bodies, forming amino acids and other prebiotic molecules. Comets are much richer in organic matter but it is less well characterized. Comet dust collected in the stratosphere shows larger H and N isotopic anomalies than most meteorites, suggesting better preservation of primordial organics. Rosetta studies of comet 67P coma dust find complex organic matter that may be related to the macromolecular material that dominates the organic inventory of primitive meteorites. The exogenous organic material accreting on Earth throughout its history is made up of thousands of molecular species formed in diverse processes ranging from circumstellar outflows to chemistry at near absolute zero in dark cloud cores and the formative environment within minor planets. NASA and JAXA are currently flying sample return missions to primitive, potentially organic-rich asteroids. The OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 missions will map their target asteroids, Bennu and Ryugu, in detail and return regolith samples to Earth. Laboratory analyses of these pristine asteroid samples will provide unprecedented views of asteroidal organic matter relatively free of terrestrial contamination within well determined geological context. Studies of extraterrestrial materials and returned samples are essential to understand the origins of Solar System organic material and the roles of comets and asteroids to providing the starting materials for the emergence of life.

Messenger, Scott↗
NASA NTRS2003

Impacts and evolution: future prospects

The discipline of astrobiology includes the dynamics of biological evolution. One of the major ways that the cosmos influences life is through the catastrophic environmental disruptions caused when comets and asteroids collide with a planet. We now recognize that such impacts have caused mass extinctions and played a major role in determining the evolution of life on Earth. The time-averaged impact flux as a function of projectile energy can be derived from lunar cratering statistics as well as the current population of near Earth asteroids (NEAs). Effects of impacts of various energies can be modeled, using data from historic impacts [such as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) impactor 65 million years ago] and the observed 1994 bombardment of Jupiter by fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. It is of particular interest to find from such models that the terrestrial environment is highly vulnerable to perturbation from impacts, so that even such a small event as the KT impact (by a projectile 10-15 km in diameter) can lead to a mass extinction. Similar considerations allow us to model the effects of still smaller (and much more likely) impacts, down to the size of the asteroid that exploded over Tunguska in 1908 (energy approximately 10 megatons). Combining the impact flux with estimates of environmental and ecological effects reveals that the greatest contemporary hazard is associated with impactors near 1 million megatons in energy (approximately 2 km in diameter for an asteroid). The current impact hazard is significant relative to other natural hazards, and arguments can be developed to illuminate a variety of public policy issues. The first priority in any plan for defense against impactors is to survey the population of Earth-crossing NEAs and project their orbits forward in time. This is the purpose of the Spaceguard Survey, which has already found more than half of the NEAs >1 km in diameter. If there is an NEA on a collision course with Earth, it can be discovered and the impact predicted with decades or more of warning. It is then possible to consider how to deflect or disrupt the NEA. Unlike other natural hazards, the impact risk can be largely eliminated, given sufficient advanced knowledge to take action against the threatening projectile.

Directed Molecular Evolution↗