Engineering topics

Zook, H. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Zook, H. A..

At least 37 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS1986

The solar maximum satellite capture cell: Impact features and orbital debris and micrometeoritic projectile materials

The physical properties of impact features observed in the Solar Max main electronics box (MEB) thermal blanket generally suggest an origin by hypervelocity impact. The chemistry of micrometeorite material suggests that a wide variety of projectile materials have survived impact with retention of varying degrees of pristinity. Impact features that contain only spacecraft paint particles are on average smaller than impact features caused by micrometeorite impacts. In case both types of materials co-occur, it is belevied that the impact feature, generally a penetration hole, was caused by a micrometeorite projectile. The typically smaller paint particles were able to penetrate though the hole in the first layer and deposit in the spray pattern on the second layer. It is suggested that paint particles have arrived with a wide range of velocities relative to the Solar Max satellite. Orbiting paint particles are an important fraction of materials in the near-Earth environment. In general, the data from the Solar Max studies are a good calibration for the design of capture cells to be flown in space and on board Space Station. The data also suggest that development of multiple layer capture cells in which the projectile may retain a large degree of pristinity is a feasible goal.

Mckay, D. S.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Precision requirements on cosmic dust trajectory measurements

It has been known for some time that the orbital parameters of certain major meteor streams rather closely match those of presently observed comets. There is therefore a clear parent-daughter orbital relationship between meteoroids in certain streams and the comets that they derived from. For meteoroids in the photographic meteor range, it has been estimated that from 1% to 10% of the meteoroid mass is concentrated into the major streams. However, for the smaller, more numerous meteoroids observed as radar meteors, streams are less intense but there are more of them. Sekanina (1973) has established for the radar meteors that, in addition to comets, some of the parent bodies appear to be asteroids. As noted by Grun et al. (1985), meteoroid lifetimes, due to collisional destruction or Poynting-Robertson (P-R) drag losses, range from 10(5) yr downward to less than 10(3) yr; these meteoroids therefore need to be continuously be replenished by source bodies to maintain the meteoritic complex in some sort of temporal equilibrium. It will be very important to obtain their precise trajectories when meteoroids are collected with a capture apparatus in Earth orbit, as is made apparent with the following logic: a chemical, isotopic, or other analysis of any particular meteoroid constitutes a similarly detailed analysis of a small part of the parent comet or asteroid that is orbitally associated with it. One can, consequently, do rather detailed cometary or asteroid science utilizing only an Earth-orbiting cosmic dust capturing facility.

Zook, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS1986

An inadvertent capture cell for orbital debris and micrometeorites - The main electronics box thermal blanket of the solar maximum satellite

The physical properties of impact features in the Solar Max main electronics box thermal blanket are consistent with hypervelocity impacts of particles in the near-earth space environment. The majority of particles are orbital debris and include spacecraft paints and bismuth-rich particles. At least 30 percent of all impact features are caused by micrometeorites, which include silicates and sulfides. Some micrometeorites survive impact with only minor shock-metamorphic effects or chemical fractionation. Currently calibration experiments are under way to relate flux to particle diameter (or mass).

Rietmeijer, F. J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Collisional balance of the meteoritic complex

The present study has the objective to reevaluate the size distribution of interplanetary meteoroids on the basis of the most recent data, and to analyze the probable nature of the sinks and sources of meteoritic material. The flux of interplanetary meteorites at 1 AU is discussed, taking into account general characteristics, lunar crater distribution, flux curves, spatial densities, and cross-sectional distribution and light scattering. Collisional effects are examined, giving attention to catastrophic collisions, collision rate, and destroyed mass and generated fragments. The effect of radiation pressure on small particles is considered along with the difference between the lunar and interplanetary flux models, collisional evolution at 1 AU, potential sources for large meteoroids, and observational evidence of losses of small micrometeoroids.

Gruen, E.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Hypervelocity impacts on Skylab 4/Apollo windows

The three largest Skylab 4 Command Module windows that were exposed for 84 days to space were optically scanned for impact features as small as 30 microns in diameter. This scanning effort which was carried out at an opptical magnification of 35x, detected features approximately three times smaller than were found in the original 5x scanning effort over the entire window surface. Some 289 features were recorded from the 35x scan for later detailed analyses. Sixty of the largest and most promising features were cored from the windows for SEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) analysis. Twenty-six of the cores contained craters with glassy pits, and of these, fourteen were found to contain strikingly obvious liners coating the interior of the glassy pit. The six largest features cored from the windows do not have a central glassy pit which leaves their previously reported hypervelocity origin in some doubt. The remaining twenty-eight features that were cored from the windows show no clear evidence for a hypervelocity origin and evidence available at this time is insufficient to identify an origin in Earth orbit or as ground damage. The EDS analysis of six of the seven liners that were examined show detectable aluminum in the liner or lip of the glassy pit. The source of aluminum is most probably an Earth orbiting population of aluminum oxide spherules, exhaust from solid rocket motors.

Clanton, U. S.↗

NASA NTRS1985

In-situ detection of micron-sized dust particles in near-Earth space

In situ detectors for micron sized dust particles based on the measurement of impact ionization have been flown on several space missions (Pioneer 8/9, HEOS-2 and Helios 1/2). Previous measurements of small dust particles in near-Earth space are reviewed. An instrument is proposed for the measurement of micron sized meteoroids and space debris such as solid rocket exhaust particles from on board an Earth orbiting satellite. The instrument will measure the mass, speed, flight direction and electrical charge of individually impacting debris and meteoritic particles. It is a multicoincidence detector of 1000 sq cm sensitive area and measures particle masses in the range from 10 to the -14th power g to 10 to the -8th power g at an impact speed of 10 km/s. The instrument is lightweight (5 kg), consumes little power (4 watts), and requires a data sampling rate of about 100 bits per second.

Gruen, E.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Modeling

A prediction of the future population of satellites, satellite fragments, and assorted spacecraft debris in Earth orbit can be reliably made only after three conditions are satisfied: (1) the size and spatial distributions of these Earth-orbiting objects are established at some present-day time; (2) the processes of orbital evolution, explosions, hypervelocity impact fragmentation, and atmospheric drag are understood; and (3) a reasonable traffic model for the future launch rate of Earth-orbiting objects is assumed. The theoretician will then take these three quantities as input data and will carry through the necessary mathematica and numerical analyses to project the present-day orbital population into the future.

Zook, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Examination of returned solar-max surfaces for impacting orbital debris and meteoroids

Previous theoretical studies predicted that in certain regions of earth orbit, the man-made earth orbiting debris environment will soon exceed the interplanetary meteoroid environment for sizes smaller than 1 cm. The surfaces returned from the repaired Solar Max Mission (SMM) by STS 41-C on April 12, 1984, offered an excellent opportunity to examine both the debris and meteoroid environments. To date, approximately 0.7 sq. met. of the thermal insulation and 0.05 sq. met of the aluminum louvers have been mapped by optical microscope for crater diameters larger than 40 microns. Craters larger in diameter than about 100 microns found on the initial 75 micron thick Kapton first sheet on the MEB (Main Electronics Box) blanket are actually holes and constitute perforations through that blanket. The following populations have been found to date in impact sites on these blankets: (1) meteoritic material; (2) thermal paint particles; (3) aluminum droplets; and (4) waste particles.

Kessler, D. J.↗

NASA NTRS1985

STS 8 Orbiter mission window pitting and the possible association with the El Chichon eruption of March and April 1982

The possibility that the pitting that occurred in the STS-8 Orbiter windows was caused by dust from the El Chichon volcano eruption in March-April 1982 is considered. The pit density was more than 30/sq cm, most being 2.5-5 microns deep, and showed no evidence of impact melting. An 'alley' of higher incidence of pits in one window coincided with the line of a seam between TPS tiles. The particles causing the sandblasting were concluded to have arrived in parallel and could not be attributed to the ET, SRBs or a dust storm. The sulfuric gas-rich El Chichon plume injected sufficient material into the atmosphere so that the globe was soon encircled. Most of the resulting particulates (480-8400 tons) stayed in the Northern Hemisphere, and H2SO4 and ash concentrations were high during the STS-8 mission. The Orbiter cut through the debris layer at 19.8 km altitude at a 10 deg angle of attack, which matches the particle crater impact angle in the Orbiter windows. Since the passage was at night, larger H2SO4 droplets may have coalesced and formed larger particles on available solid nuclei, thus producing the 20-40 microns cratering observed in the windows.

Cour-Palais, B. G.↗

NASA NTRS1985

The interplanetary micrometeoroid flux and lunar primary and secondary microcraters

It is proposed that considerable care is required to properly interpret either spacecraft in situ data or lunar crater data as well as near-earth data; in the case of the former, complications may arise which may be attributed to secondary lunar ejecta impacts, in the latter, they may result from impacting earth-orbiting debris. Experimental evidence suggests that most impact pits on lunar rocks with pit diameters smaller than 7 micrometers have been generated by lunar secondary ejecta impacts and not by primary meteoroid impacts. It is also found that lunar crater production rates are more accurate when deduced from meteoroid space experiments and not from solar flare track ages. It is concluded that in so far as all of the above qualifications are taken into account, a self-consistent meteoroid flux versus mass distribution is obtained.

Zook, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Selection effects against small comets

Everhart's (1967) formulation is used to determine the correlation between the probability of discovering a comet and the size of its nuclear radius. The analysis is concentrated on comets that are not more than two or three hundred meters in diameter; hence, heliocentric variations in cometary brightness can be neglected. The effect of cometary physical decay is also considered, and a strong observational bias against the detection of small active comets is found. The following three factors are involved: (1) small comets must pass closer to the earth than large comets in order to be detected, (2) the resulting higher angular velocity for nearby comets leads to a decrease in the time available to discover a small comet, and (3) small comets physically decay and vanish faster than do large comets.

Zook, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Optical detection of large meteoroids in space

CCD sensors placed across the focal plane of large Schmidt telescopes have great potential for detecting and measuring the very low flux in space of meteoroids with diameters larger than 1 meter. With the Palomar 'Big Schmidt', a detection rate of 1.4 per hour is obtained for meteoroids between 0.6 and 200 meters in diameter. For the Baker-Nunn 'Satellite Tracking Camera', the corresponding rate is about 0.8 per hour. The key to obtaining such high detection rates derives from approximately setting the sensor integration time equal to the time it takes a meteoroid to cross a pixel field of view. This minimizes signal to noise problems and is accomplished, in practice, by multiple summing of short integration time data records to obtain data records of longer effective integration times.

Zook, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Mass input into and output from the meteoritic complex

The consequences which arise from the mutual collisions occurring between interplanetary meteoroids, the Poynting-Robertson (PR) effect and the radiation pressure ejection of small meteoroids are examined. The size distribution and flux of micrometeoroids at 1 AU are derived and the dependence of spatial density on distance from the sun is established. The following conclusions are made: (1) the lifetimes of meteoroids with masses approximately greater than 0.00001 g are dominated by catastrophic collisions; (2) after bering crushed by collisions, 70 to 85 percent of this mass will be in the form of zodiacal light particles (with masses in the range of 10 to the -10th g to 10 to the -5th g) which will in part be transported by the PR effect towards the sun where they will evaporate; (3) the 15 to 30 percent of the collisional fragments which have masses approximately less than 10 to the -10th g will, for the most part, be injected into hyperbolic orbits by radiation pressure.

Gruen, E.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Analysis of micrometeorite material captured by the solar max satellite

A Solar Maximum satellite was retrieved and repaired after being subjected for four years and 55 days to impacts by micrometeorites and Earth-orbiting space debris. The chemical variety and physical condition of particles associated with two particular impact structures in the insulation blanket of the main electronics box are studied. A scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X ray analyzer was used to determine morphology and chemistry of impacted areas and associated particles. Some details are discussed.

Schramm, L. S.↗

NASA NTRS1985

A preliminary report on the study of the impact sites and particles of the solar maximum satellite thermal blanket

A preliminary study of the work on examination of the impact pits in, or penetrations through, the thermal blankets of the Solar Maximum Satellite is presented. The three largest pieces of the thermal blanket were optically scanned with a total surface area of about one half square meter. Over 1500 impact sites of all sizes, including 432 impacts larger than 40 microns in diameter, have been documented. Craters larger in diameter than about 100 microns found on the 75 micron thick Kapton first sheet of the main electronics box blanket are actually holes and constitute perforations through the blanket. A summary of the impact pit population that were found is given. The chemical study of these craters is only in the initial stages, with only about 250 chemical spectra of particles observed in or around impact pits or in the debris pattern being recorded.

Zook, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS1983

The ISPM dust experiment

The ISPM Dust Experiment observes particulate matter with masses between 10 to the minus 19th power and 10 to the minus 10th power kg in the solar system; investigates its physical and dynamical properties as a function of ecliptic latitude and heliocentric distance; and studies its interaction with solar radiation, the solar wind, and the interplanetary magnetic field. Measurement of the three dimensional spatial distribution of cosmic dust particles and their dynamics allows the relative significance of their probable sources (comets, asteroids and interstellar dust) to be determined. An instrument that measures the mass, speed, flight direction and electric charge of individual dust particles is used. It is a multicoincidence detector with a sensitivity 100,000 times higher than that of previous experiments. The instrument weighs 3.750 kg, consumes 2.0 W, and has a normal data transmission rate of 8 bit/sec in spacecraft tracking mode.

Gruen, E.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Dynamics of micrometeoroids

The spatial and orbital distributions of meteoroids of mass less than 10 to the -8 g are discussed. Pioneer 8 and 9, HEOS-2 and Helios 1 observations of the smallest meteoroids leaving the solar system in hyperbolic orbits due to radiation pressure (beta particles), intermediate mass particles arriving from the heliocentric spacecraft apex direction (alpha meteoroids) and the largest micrometeoroids observed with no preferred directionality (sporadic meteoroids) are reviewed, and evidence for the three groups of dynamically different micrometeoroids in lunar microcrater statistics is indicated. The collisional model of the origin of dust particles from the dispersion of sporadic meteoroids of cometary origin due to the Poynting-Robertson effect and collisions is then applied to account for the dynamics of the beta and alpha micrometeoroids.

Gruen, G.↗

NASA NTRS1980

On lunar evidence for a possible large increase in solar flare activity approximately 2 x 10 to the 4th years ago

Data from lunar materials which may be interpreted as suggesting an increase in solar cosmic ray activity approximately 20,000 years ago is examined. The evidence includes the iron track within pit data of Hartung and Storzer (1974), the lunar whole rock pit and track data, lunar C-14 radioactivity data, lunar Ni-59 radioactivity data, the impact pit and iron track data of Morrison and Zinner (1975, 1977) and the lunar thermoluminescence data. While numerous explanations are possible for each set of data, it is shown that the first four data sets may be explained by a past increase in solar cosmic ray activity, and the remaining data sets are not necessarily incompatible with solar activity a factor of 20 to 40 times higher than at present for several thousand years prior to about 20,000 years ago.

Zook, H. A.↗