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Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction eXperiment (ARCSIX)

The Arctic climate system is amidst a transition. Over the last 40 years, the Arctic sea ice pack has transformed from a predominantly thick, multi-year sea ice to a predominantly thin, seasonal sea ice, termed the “New Arctic”. The observed rapid changes in the Arctic sea ice pack are an integral part of the Arctic Amplification phenomenon and represent a response to and a feedback on global climate change. As a result, the role of the Arctic within the global climate system is changing. Substantial uncertainty exists in our understanding of the atmosphere-surface interactions within the Arctic system, limiting our knowledge of the Arctic’s role in the future climate. Advancing our understanding of the Arctic climate system requires (1) measurements of the coupling between radiative processes and sea ice surface properties during summer sea ice melt; (2) measurements of the processes controlling the predominant Arctic cloud regimes and their properties (Fig. 1); and (3) improvements in the ability to monitor Arctic cloud, radiation, and sea ice processes from space. A key challenge is that thin, low clouds that are radiatively important to the Arctic surface energy budget can go undetected (Fig. 1). The Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface-Interaction eXperiment (ARCSIX) is an airborne campaign based at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland from May-August 2024 sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to address these needs. ARCSIX consists of two airborne measurement campaigns taking place in two 3-week intervals during the early and late sea ice melt season: late May through early June and late July through early August, respectively. ARCSIX science is guided by three broad science questions that encapsulate the key influences of radiation-cloud-aerosol-sea ice coupling and a remote sensing and modeling objective: Science Question 1 (Radiation): What is the impact of the predominant summer Arctic cloud types on the radiative surface energy budget? Science Question 2 (Cloud Life Cycle): What processes control the evolution and maintenance of the predominant cloud regimes in the summertime Arctic? Science Question 3 (Sea Ice): How do the two-way interactions between surface properties and atmospheric forcings affect the sea ice evolution? Remote Sensing and Modeling Objective: Enhance our long-term space-based monitoring and predictive capabilities of Arctic sea ice, clouds, and aerosols.

Patrick Taylor↗

NASA NTRS1998

NASA Technology Plan 1998

This NASA Strategic Plan describes an ambitious, exciting vision for the Agency across all its Strategic Enterprises that addresses a series of fundamental questions of science and research. This vision is so challenging that it literally depends on the success of an aggressive, cutting-edge advanced technology development program. The objective of this plan is to describe the NASA-wide technology program in a manner that provides not only the content of ongoing and planned activities, but also the rationale and justification for these activities in the context of NASA's future needs. The scope of this plan is Agencywide, and it includes technology investments to support all major space and aeronautics program areas, but particular emphasis is placed on longer term strategic technology efforts that will have broad impact across the spectrum of NASA activities and perhaps beyond. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of NASA technology programs and to encourage greater participation from outside the Agency. By relating technology goals to anticipated mission needs, we hope to stimulate additional innovative approaches to technology challenges and promote more cooperative programs with partners outside NASA who share common goals. We also believe that this will increase the transfer of NASA-sponsored technology into nonaerospace applications, resulting in an even greater return on the investment in NASA.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2007

Producing a Live HDTV Program from Space

By the year 2000, NASA had flown HDTV camcorders on three Space Shuttle missions: STS-95, STS-93 and STS-99. All three flights of these camcorders were accomplished with cooperation from the Japanese space agency (then known as NASDA and now known as JAXA). The cameras were large broadcast-standard cameras provided by NASDA and flight certified by both NASA and NASDA. The high-definition video shot during these missions was spectacular. Waiting for the return of the tapes to Earth emphasized the next logical step: finding a way to downlink the HDTV live from space. Both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) programs were interested in live HDTV from space, but neither had the resources to fully fund the technology. Technically, downlinking from the ISS was the most effective approach. Only when the Japanese broadcaster NHK and the Japanese space agency expressed interest in covering a Japanese astronaut's journey to the ISS did the project become possible. Together, JAXA and NHK offered equipment, technology, and funding toward the project. In return, NHK asked for a live HDTV downlink during one of its broadcast programs. NASA and the ISS Program sought a US partner to broadcast a live HDTV program and approached the Discovery Channel. The Discovery Channel had proposed a live HDTV project in response to NASA's previous call for offers. The Discovery Channel agreed to provide addItional resources. With the final partner in place, the project was under way. Engineers in the Avionics Systems Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) had already studied the various options for downlinking HDTV from the ISS. They concluded that the easiest way was to compress the HDTV so that the resulting data stream would "look" like a payload data stream. The flight system would consist of a professional HDTV camcorder with live HD-SDI output, an HDTV MPEG-2 encoder, and a packetizer/protocol converter.

Grubbs, Rodney↗

NASA NTRS1978

Ground winds for Kennedy Space Center, Florida (1978 version)

Ground level runway wind statistics are presented for the Kennedy Space Center, Florida area. Crosswind, headwind, tailwind, and headwind reversal percentage frequencies are given with respect to month and hour for the Kennedy Space Center Space Shuttle runway. This document supersedes NASA CR-128995 and should be used in place of it.

Johnson, D. L.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Airborne radar and radiometer experiment for quantitative remote measurements of rain

An aircraft experiment has been conducted with a dual-frequency (10 GHz and 35 GHz) radar/radiometer system and an 18-GHz radiometer to test various rain-rate retrieval algorithms from space. In the experiment, which took place in the fall of 1988 at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, VA, both stratiform and convective storms were observed. A ground-based radar and rain gauges were also used to obtain truth data. An external radar calibration is made with rain gauge data, thereby enabling quantitative reflectivity measurements. Comparisons between path attenuations derived from the surface return and from the radar reflectivity profile are made to test the feasibility of a technique to estimate the raindrop size distribution from simultaneous radar and path-attenuation measurements.

Kozu, Toshiaki↗

NASA NTRS1991

Lunar transit telescope lander design

The Program Development group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has been involved in studying the feasibility of placing a 16 meter telescope on the lunar surface to scan the skies using visible/ Ultraviolet/ Infrared light frequencies. The precursor telescope is now called the TRANSIT LUNAR TELESCOPE (LTT). The Program Development Group at Marshall Space Flight Center has been given the task of developing the basic concepts and providing a feasibility study on building such a telescope. The telescope should be simple with minimum weight and volume to fit into one of the available launch vehicles. The preliminary launch date is set for 2005. A study was done to determine the launch vehicle to be used to deliver the telescope to the lunar surface. The TITAN IV/Centaur system was chosen. The engineering challenge was to design the largest possible telescope to fit into the TITAN IV/Centaur launch system. The telescope will be comprised of the primary, secondary and tertiary mirrors and their supporting system in addition to the lander that will land the telescope on the lunar surface and will also serve as the telescope's base. The lunar lander should be designed integrally with the telescope in order to minimize its weight, thus allowing more weight for the telescope and its support components. The objective of this study were to design a lander that meets all the constraints of the launching system. The basic constraints of the TITAN IV/Centaur system are given.

Omar, Husam A.↗

NASA NTRS1991

LDEF Interplanetary Dust Experiment - Techniques for identification and study of long-lived orbital debris clouds

The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) is a 12-sided, 4.3-m-diameter, 9.1-m-long cylinder designed and built by NASA Langley to carry experiments for extended periods in space. The LDEF was first placed in orbit by the Shuttle Challenger on 7 April 1984 and recovered by the Shuttle Columbia in January 1990, only days before it was expected to burn up in the earth's atmosphere. The Interplanetary Dust Experiment (IDE) was designed to detect impacts of extra-terrestrial particles and orbital debris. The IDE detectors (which covered about 1 sq m of the surface of LDEF) were sensitive to particles ranging in size from about 0.2 to 100 microns. Data were recorded for 11.5 months before the supply of magnetic tape was exhausted. Examination of the LDEF IDE dataset shows that impacts often occurred in 'bursts', during which numerous impacts occurred in a short time (typically 3-5 min) at a rate much greater than the average impact rate. In several cases, such events reoccurred each time the LDEF returned to the same point in its orbit. Such multi-orbit event sequences were found to extend for as many as 25 or more orbits.

Singer, S. F.↗

NASA NTRS1992

ASRM Process Development in Aqueous Cleaning

Viewgraphs are included on process development in aqueous cleaning which is taking place at the Aerojet Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) Division under a NASA Marshall Space and Flight Center contract for design, development, test, and evaluation of the ASRM including new production facilities. The ASRM will utilize aqueous cleaning in several manufacturing process steps to clean case segments, nozzle metal components, and igniter closures. ASRM manufacturing process development is underway, including agent selection, agent characterization, subscale process optimization, bonding verification, and scale-up validation. Process parameters are currently being tested for optimization utilizing a Taguci Matrix, including agent concentration, cleaning solution temperature, agitation and immersion time, rinse water amount and temperature, and use/non-use of drying air. Based on results of process development testing to date, several observations are offered: aqueous cleaning appears effective for steels and SermeTel-coated metals in ASRM processing; aqueous cleaning agents may stain and/or attack bare aluminum metals to various extents; aqueous cleaning appears unsuitable for thermal sprayed aluminum-coated steel; aqueous cleaning appears to adequately remove a wide range of contaminants from flat metal surfaces, but supplementary assistance may be needed to remove clumps of tenacious contaminants embedded in holes, etc.; and hot rinse water appears to be beneficial to aid in drying of bare steel and retarding oxidation rate.

Swisher, Bill↗

NASA NTRS1992

Lunar transit telescope lander design

Omar, Husam A.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Geometry and gravity influences on strength capability

Strength, defined as the capability of an individual to produce an external force, is one of the most important determining characteristics of human performance. Knowledge of strength capabilities of a group of individuals can be applied to designing equipment and workplaces, planning procedures and tasks, and training individuals. In the manned space program, with the high risk and cost associated with spaceflight, information pertaining to human performance is important to ensuring mission success and safety. Knowledge of individual's strength capabilities in weightlessness is of interest within many areas of NASA, including workplace design, tool development, and mission planning. The weightless environment of space places the human body in a completely different context. Astronauts perform a variety of manual tasks while in orbit. Their ability to perform these tasks is partly determined by their strength capability as demanded by that particular task. Thus, an important step in task planning, development, and evaluation is to determine the ability of the humans performing it. This can be accomplished by utilizing quantitative techniques to develop a database of human strength capabilities in weightlessness. Furthermore, if strength characteristics are known, equipment and tools can be built to optimize the operators' performance. This study examined strength in performing a simple task, specifically, using a tool to apply a torque to a fixture.

Poliner, Jeffrey↗

NASA NTRS1997

Proceedings of the Workshop on the Scientific Applications of Clocks in Space

The Workshop on Scientific Applications of Clocks in space was held to bring together scientists and technologists interested in applications of ultrastable clocks for test of fundamental theories, and for other science investigations. Time and frequency are the most precisely determined of all physical parameters, and thus are the required tools for performing the most sensitive tests of physical theories. Space affords the opportunity to make measurement, parameters inaccessible on Earth, and enables some of the most original and sensitive tests of fundamental theories. In the past few years, new developments in clock technologies have pointed to the opportunity for flying ultrastable clocks in support of science investigations of space missions. This development coincides with the new NASA paradigm for space flights, which relies on frequent, low-cost missions in place of the traditional infrequent and high-cost missions. The heightened interest in clocks in space is further advanced by new theoretical developments in various fields. For example, recent developments in certain Grand Unified Theory formalisms have vastly increased interest in fundamental tests of gravitation physics with clocks. The workshop included sessions on all related science including relativity and gravitational physics, cosmology, orbital dynamics, radio science, geodynamics, and GPS science and others, as well as a session on advanced clock technology.

Maleki, Lute↗

NASA NTRS2002

The space place: multifarious merchandise for omnifarious folks

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

outreach strategy↗

NASA NTRS2000

The Mars Sample Return Project

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) Project is underway. A 2003 mission to be launched on a Delta III Class vehicle and a 2005 mission launched on an Ariane 5 will culminate in carefully selected Mars samples arriving on Earth in 2008. NASA is the lead agency and will provide the Mars landed elements, namely, landers, rovers, and Mars ascent vehicles (MAVs). The French Space Agency CNES is the largest international partner and will provide for the joint NASA/CNES 2005 Mission the Ariane 5 launch and the Earth Return Mars Orbiter that will capture the sample canisters from the Mars parking orbits the MAVs place them in. The sample canisters will be returned to Earth aboard the CNES Orbiter in the Earth Entry Vehicles provided by NASA. Other national space agencies are also expected to participate in substantial roles. Italy is planning to provide a drill that will operate from the Landers to provide subsurface samples. Other experiments in addition to the MSR payload will also be carried on the Landers. This paper will present the current status of the design of the MSR missions and flight articles. c 2000 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

International Cooperation↗

NASA NTRS2018

USA Space Debris Environment, Operations, and Research Updates

Space Missions in 2017 Earth Satellite Population Collision Avoidance Maneuvers Post mission Disposal of U.S.A. Spacecraft Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and the Space Debris Sensor (SDS) A total of 86 space launches placed more than 400 spacecraft into Earth orbits during 2017, following the trend of increase over the past decade NASA has established conjunction assessment processes for its human spaceflight and uncrewed spacecraft to avoid accidental collisions with objects tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network - NASA also assists other U.S. government spacecraft owners with conjunction assessments and subsequent maneuvers The ISS has conducted 25 debris collision avoidance maneuvers since 1999 - None in 2016-2017, but an ISS visiting vehicle had one collision avoidance maneuver in 2017 During 2017 NASA executed or assisted in the execution of 21 collision avoidance maneuvers by uncrewed spacecraft - Four maneuvers were conducted to avoid debris from Fengyun-1C - Two maneuvers were conducted to avoid debris from the collision of Cosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 - One maneuver was conducted to avoid the ISS NASA has established conjunction assessment processes for its human spaceflight and uncrewed spacecraft to avoid accidental collisions with objects tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network - NASA also assists other U.S. government spacecraft owners with conjunction assessments and subsequent maneuvers The ISS has conducted 25 debris collision avoidance maneuvers since 1999 - None in 2016-2017, but an ISS visiting vehicle had one collision avoidance maneuver in 2017 During 2017 NASA executed or assisted in the execution of 21 collision avoidance maneuvers by uncrewed spacecraft - Four maneuvers were conducted to avoid debris from Fengyun-1C - Two maneuvers were conducted to avoid debris from the collision of Cosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 The 2014-15 NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) study on the micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) assessment for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) provided the following findings - Millimeter-sized orbital debris pose the highest penetration risk to most operational spacecraft in LEO - The most effective means to collect direct measurement data on millimetersized debris above 600 km altitude is to conduct in situ measurements - There is currently no in situ data on such small debris above 600 km altitude Since the orbital debris population follows a power-law size distribution, there are many more millimeter-sized debris than the large tracked objects - Current conjunction assessments and collision avoidance maneuvers against the tracked objects (which are typically 10 cm and larger) only address a small fraction (<1%) of the mission-ending risk from orbital debris To address the millimeter-sized debris data gap above 600 km, NASA has recently developed an innovative in situ measurement instrument - the Space Debris Sensor (SDS) - One maneuver was conducted to avoid the ISS

Liou, J.-C.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Engineering Innovations for Exploration Challenges

This slide presentation reviews some of the engineering innovations requirements for the challenges of space exploration which NASA has and will be involved in. It reviews some significant successes in space transportation, exploration and science accomplished during 2009, and it reviews some of the places that are available for exploration in the near term and the specific missions that NASA has assigned to Marshall. It also reviews the project lifecycle management model, that is designed to reduce undefined, but known, risks. It also demonstrates the sustainable long-term program of block upgrades that contribute to long-term success of programs.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Applications of tethers in space: A review of workshop recommendations

Well-organized and structured efforts of considerable magnitude involving NASA, industry, and academia have explored and defined the engineering and technological requirements of the use of tethers in space and have discovered their broad range of operational and economic benefits. The results of these efforts have produced a family of extremely promising candidate applications. The extensive efforts now in progress are gaining momentum and a series of flight demonstrations are being planned and can be expected to take place in a few years. This report provides an analysis and a review of NASA's second major workshop on Applications of Tethers in Space held in October 15 to 17, 1985, in Venice, Italy. It provides a summary of an up-to-date assessment and recommendations by the NASA Tether Applications in Space Program Planning Group, consisting of representatives of seven NASA Centers and responsible for tether applications program planning implementation as recommended by the workshop panels.

Vontiesenhausen, G.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Space Act Agreement Maker (SAAM) With Electronic Routing System (ERouter) Developed

Members of the Commercial Technology Office at the NASA Glenn Research Center have developed an exciting new tool that greatly reduces the lead time in creating and routing Space Act Agreements. The Space Act Agreement Maker (SAAM) is an e-government Web-based system that automates the initial drafting of Space Act Agreements by technical and program personnel. SAAM also is used for editing and will be used later for maintaining electronic copies of all Space Act Agreements. During the initial drafting, the software prompts NASA personnel proposing an agreement to answer questions regarding the agreement. On the basis of the answers, the software selects from a matrix of NASA standard clauses to produce a first draft of the agreement. The draft agreement and information submitted by the NASA personnel are electronically routed to Glenn s Commercial Technology Office for review and, where necessary, editing. The final version of the agreement, along with any supporting documentation, is then routed for electronic concurrence/approval to the necessary internal review participants using the electronic routing system (e-router). SAAM was developed cooperatively by Glenn s Commercial Technology Office and Glenn s Office of Chief Counsel. Currently, SAAM is being evaluated by the NASA Headquarters General Counsel Office for use at all NASA centers. This system allows for the effective processing of Space Act Agreements for NASA s internal and external customers. Document control is maintained by a database. With SAAM s electronic routing, review times can be reduced significantly, allowing Glenn to more rapidly establish partnerships with industry. Prior to the creation of SAAM, it took several hours to draft a Space Act Agreement. With SAAM in place, the document can be written in about 30 min. Using the e-router also saves time in determining where the agreement is in the routing process. The document can be tracked easily, and delays can be avoided. Important research with industry partners can commence quickly after preliminary discussions have been held. The development of these products is in line with the expanding e-government initiative that is part of the Presidential Management Agenda. By using this product, NASA researchers can secure greater support from industry and academia partners. The Space Act Agreement Maker has been very well received at NASA Headquarters and at some of the other NASA centers as well. We anticipate that the NASA Ames Research Center will have the system in place very soon, and that some of the other centers will use SAAM in the near future. The General Counsel s office at NASA Headquarters has encouraged the Glenn team to develop a similar system for processing patent licenses. Find out more about Glenn's Technology Transfer & Partnership Office http://technology.grc.nasa.gov/.

Stauber, Laurel J.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Science and Applications Space Platforms - A NASA overview

An overview of past, present, and future activities relating to space platforms is presented, with emphasis placed on implementation of the initial platform. It is noted that the challenge at present is to define an initial system that can accommodate high priority science, that possesses the capability of doing multi-discipline science, and that demonstrates on-orbit servicing and payload exchange through use of the Shuttle. The evolution of the Science and Applications Space Platform (SASP), which will provide significantly more time on-orbit for instrument operations without increasing Space Shuttle orbiter time on-orbit, is traced. The importance of completing all required activities to support a new start for the SASP in fiscal year 1983 is stressed. While the initial SASP will support only a limited set of investigations, the program will evolve by replication, upgrading, or the development of new systems to support a broader and generally more demanding set of system requirements.

De Sanctis, C. E.↗