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In the 1998 timeframe increasing numbers of proposed space-instrument programs within NASA and the Balistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) were in need of high-reliablility, long-life, low-vibration space cryocoolers.
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The progress on developing models of the radiation environment since the 1960s is reviewed with emphasis on models that can be applied to predicting the performance of microelectronics used in spacecraft and instruments. Space, atmospheric, and ground environments are included. It is shown that models must be adapted continually to account for increased understanding of the dynamics of the radiation environment and the changes in microelectronics technology. The IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference is a vital forum to report model progress to the radiation effects research community.
Spacely is an open-source framework for the post-silicon validation of analog, digital, and mixed-signal ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) which maximizes the reuse of hardware and software, reducing the time taken to achieve meaningful test results. Spacely specifically addresses the needs of small, flexible ASIC design teams commonly found in academia or research institutions which benefit most from sharing the overhead of test stand creation between many unique ASIC designs. Spacely is a set of software, firmware, and design practices. It targets two primary hardware platforms (NI-PXI and Caribou) as well as offering extensible support for bench instruments. Spacely provides a high-level Python interface to all test hardware for accessibility, while also giving more sophisticated teams the opportunity to integrate custom test firmware. The design principles of Spacely are presented in brief. Current documentation is available at https://github.com/SpacelyProject/spacely-docs.
This Edition contains the following reports: GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment; Impact Craters in the Solar System; 1997 Apparition of Comet Hale-Bopp Historical Comet Observations; Baby Stars in Orion Solve Solar System Mystery; The Center of the Galaxy; The First Rock in the Solar System; Fun Times with Cosmic Rays; The Gamma-Ray Burst Next Door; The Genesis Mission: An Overview; The Genesis Solar Wind Sample Return Mission; How to Build a Supermassive Black Hole; Journey to the Center of a Neutron Star; Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion; The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud ; Mapping the Baby Universe; More Hidden Black Hole Dangers; A Polarized Universe; Presolar Grains of Star Dust: Astronomy Studied with Microscopes; Ring Around the Black Hole; Searching Antarctic Ice for Meteorites; The Sun; Astrobiology: The Search for Life in the Universe; Europa and Titan: Oceans in the Outer Solar System?; Rules for Identifying Ancient Life; Inspire ; Remote Sensing; What is the Electromagnetic Spectrum? What is Infrared? How was the Infrared Discovered?; Brief History of Gyroscopes ; Genesis Discovery Mission: Science Canister Processing at JSC; Genesis Solar-Wind Sample Return Mission: The Materials ; ICESat: Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite ICESat: Ice, Cloud, and Land; Elevation Satellite ICESat: Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite ICESat: Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite ICESat: Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite Measuring Temperature Reading; The Optical Telescope ; Space Instruments General Considerations; Damage by Impact: The Case at Meteor Crater, Arizona; Mercury Unveiled; New Data, New Ideas, and Lively Debate about Mercury; Origin of the Earth and Moon; Space Weather: The Invisible Foe; Uranus, Neptune, and the Mountains of the Moon; Dirty Ice on Mars; For a Cup of Water on Mars; Life on Mars?; The Martian Interior; Meteorites from Mars, Rocks from Canada; Organic Compounds in Martian Meteorites May be Terrestrial Contaminants; Bands on Europa;Big Mountain, Big Landslide on Jupiter's Moon, Io; Cratering of the Moon; Europa's Salty Surface; The Europa Scene in the Voyager-Galileo Era; Explosive Volcanic Eruptions on the Moon; Ice on the Bone Dry Moon; Jupiter's Hot, Mushy Moon; The Moon Beyond 2002 ; Phases of the Moon; The Ph-D Project: Manned Expedition to the Moons of Mars; and Possible Life in a Europan Ocean.
The 'precision optical interferometry in space' instrument, or 'POINTS', is an astrometric interferometer design concept which as currently configured possesses a pair of 2-m baselines and four 25-cm telescopes. Fully assembled with its support spacecraft, POINTS would take up one-third of the Space Shuttle cargo bay. For a pair of tenth-magnitude stars about 90 deg apart, POINTS would yield a separation that was uncertain by 5 microarcsecs after 10-min observation. Both instrument design and mission aspects are discussed.
Space instruments for remote sensing, of the types used for astrophysics and solar-terrestrial physics among many disciplines, will grow to larger physical sizes in the future. The zero-g space environment does not inherently restrict such growth, because relatively lightweight structures can be used. Active servo control of the structures can greatly increase their size for a given mass. The Pinhole/Occulter Facility, a candidate Space Station attached payload, offers an example: it will achieve 0.2 arc s resolution by use of a 50-m baseline for coded-aperture telescopes for hard X-ray and gamma-ray imagers.
Four NASA Phase B centers (NASA-Johnson, NASA-Marshall, NASA-Goddard, and NASA-Lewis) are responsible for construction, assembly, servicing, habitat, and other particular tasks and functions of the Space Station. The project has been joined by the aerospace programs of Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency, ensuring technological and financial support, and cooperative use by the participants. Some of the future uses of the Space Station include biomedical research and applications; experiments in solar-terrestrial physics and astronomy; building, maintenance, and launching of space instruments and planetary missions; manufacturing and processing of materials that call for the conditions of microgravity and weightlessness; supporting communication operations; and improving earth and atmospheric observations. The political significance of the Space Station as a symbol of leadership and of friendly cooperation is noted.
SEPAC (Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators) flew on Spacelab 1 (SL 1) in November and December 1983. SEPAC is a joint U.S.-Japan investigation of the interaction of electron, plasma, and neutral beams with the ionosphere, atmosphere and magnetosphere. It is scheduled to fly again on Atlas 1 in August 1990. On SL 1, SEPAC used an electron accelerator, a plasma accelerator, and neutral gas source as active elements and an array of diagnostics to investigate the interactions. For Atlas 1, the plasma accelerator will be replaced by a plasma contactor and charge collection devices to improve vehicle charging meutralization. This paper describes the SEPAC instrumentation in detail for the SL 1 and Atlas 1 flights and includes a bibliography of SEPAC papers.
The international space science community had recognized the importance of space weather more than a decade ago, which resulted in a number of international collaborative activities such as the Climate and Weather of the Sun Earth System (CAWSES) by SCOSTEP and the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI). The ISWI program is a continuation of the successful International Heliophysical Year (IHY) program. These programs have brought scientists together to tackle the scientific issues behind space weather. In addition to the vast array of space instruments, ground based instruments have been deployed, which not only filled voids in data coverage, but also inducted young scientists from developing countries into the scientific community. This paper presents a summary of CAWSES and ISWI activities that promote space weather science via complementary approaches in international scientific collaborations. capacity building. and public outreach.
The international solar-terrestrial physics community had recognized the importance of space weather more than a decade ago, which resulted in a number of international collaborative activities such as the Climate and Weather of the Sun Earth System (CAWSES) by the Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP). The CAWSES program is the current major scientific program of SCOSTEP that will continue until the end of the year 2013. The CAWSES program has brought scientists from all over the world together to tackle the scientific issues behind the Sun-Earth connected system and explore ways of helping the human society. In addition to the vast array of space instruments, ground based instruments have been deployed, which not only filled voids in data coverage, but also inducted young scientists from developing countries into the scientific community. This paper presents a summary of CAWSES and other SCOSTEP activities that promote space weather science via complementary approaches in international scientific collaborations, capacity building, and public outreach.
Research concerning the development of pressure instrumentation for the space shuttle main engine is reported. The following specific topics were addressed: (1) transducer design and materials, (2) silicon piezoresistor characterization at cryogenic temperatures, (3) chip mounting characterization, and (4) frequency response optimization.
In the continuing endeavor to detect evidence of ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in the solar neighborhood, instrument technologies now exist that allow the formation of a scientific method to carry out a search for interstellar robotic probes of possible extraterrestrial origin. The range of currently observable probe features/manifestations will be shown and how they influence search space, instrument selection and deployment. Autonomous instrument platforms (i.e. robotic observatories) to search for anomalous energy signatures can be designed and assembled using Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. The COTS approach to observatory design provides an economical, flexible and robust path toward collecting reliable data. The present variety of COTS instruments permits the necessary observational sensitivity , bandwidth and embedded processing speed to establish a nearby robotic probe detection envelope. A survey of these instrument technologies will be presented and how they can be applied to the challenge of collecting enough scientific data on anomalous observational phenomena to determine whether or not a robotic probe was detected
As space instruments become ubiquitous along with advancing capabilities, one of the central challenge is to provide more efficient communication links, between the control center and the instrument or between a cluster of satellites or instruments. Similarly, high-data rate communications between a mother ship and a lander is highly desirable not only for navigation but for science data as well. THz communications systems present a number of advantages in implementing efficient data-links between various scenarios for space applications. This review article will discuss some of the recent advances in solid-state coherent sources that has now made it possible to design and implement THz communication systems specifically for space applications. An example architecture at 240 GHz has been suggested as it is now possible to achieve >100 mW of output power at 240 GHz. With highly sensitive and linear heterodyne mixers, such a system could potentially provide higher data rate capability than in use today.
As space instruments become ubiquitous along with advancing capabilities, one of the central challenge is to provide more efficient communication links, between the control center and the instrument or between a cluster of satellites or instruments. Similarly, high-data rate communications between a mother ship and a lander is highly desirable not only for navigation but for science data as well. THz communications systems present a number of advantages in implementing efficient data-links between various scenarios for space applications. This review article will discuss some of the recent advances in solid-state coherent sources that has now made it possible to design and implement THz communication systems specifically for space applications. An example architecture at 240 GHz has been suggested as it is now possible to achieve >100 mW of output power at 240 GHz. With highly sensitive and linear heterodyne mixers, such a system could potentially provide higher data rate capability than in use today.
Studies of the atmospheres of our solar system's planets including our own require a comprehensive set of observations, relying on instruments on spacecraft, aircraft, balloons, and on the surface. These instrument systems perform one or both of the following: 1) provide information leading to a basic understanding of the relationship between atmospheric systems and processes, and 2) serve as calibration references for satellite instrument validation. Laboratory personnel define requirements, conceive concepts, and develop instrument systems for spaceflight missions, and for balloon, aircraft, and ground-based observations. Balloon and airborne platforms facilitate regional measurements of precipitation, cloud systems, and ozone from high-altitude vantage points, but still within the atmosphere. Such platforms serve as stepping-stones in the development of space instruments. Satellites provide nearly global coverage of the Earth with spatial resolutions and repetition rates that vary from system to system. The products of atmospheric remote sensing are invaluable for research associated with water vapor, ozone, trace gases, aerosol particles, clouds, precipitation, and the radiative and dynamic processes that affect the climate of the Earth. These parameters also provide the basic information needed to develop models of global atmospheric processes and weather and climate prediction. Laboratory scientists also participate in the design of data processing algorithms, calibration techniques, and the data processing systems.
The objectives, functions, and organization of the Deep Space Network are summarized. The deep space instrumentation facility, the ground communications facility, and the network control system are described. Other areas reported include: Helios Mission support, DSN support of the Mariner Mars 1971 extended mission, Mariner Venus/Mercury 1973 mission support, Viking mission support, radio science, tracking and ground-based navigation, network control and data processing, and deep space stations.
The programs recommended address the most significant questions that confront contemporary astronomy and fall into three general categories: prerequisites for research initiatives, including instrumentation and detectors, theory and data analysis, computational facilities, laboratory astrophysics, and technical support at ground-based observatories; programs including an Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, a Very-Long Baseline Array, a Technology Telescope and a Large Deployable Reflector; and programs for study and development, including X-ray observatories in space, instruments for the detection of gravitational waves from astronomical objects, and long duration spaceflights of infrared telescopes. Estimated costs of these programs are provided.