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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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At least 271 records · Page 15
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NASA NTRS2000

Examination of a Deep Subsurface Mars Polar Cap Mission to Address Climate History

We have examined the technological readiness of a mission to the Mars north polar area for the science objective of developing a climate history. We argue that the polar regions are scientifically extremely important mission sites from the perspectives of both climate history and astrobiology and that a polar deep subsurface mission would constitute a serious challenge and significant accomplishment. Thus a key question is: What is the technical readiness status of such a mission? Additional information is contained in original extended abstract.

Carsey, F. D.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Geological History of the Tyre Region of Europa: A Regional Perspective on Europan Surface Features and Ice Thickness

Galileo images of the Tyre Macula region of Europa at regional (170 m/pixel) and local (approx. 40 m/pixel) scales allow mapping and understanding of surface processes and landforms. Ridged plains, doublet and complex ridges, shallow pits, domes, "chaos" areas. impact structures, tilted blocks and massifs, and young fracture systems indicate a complex history of surface deformation on Europa. Regional and local morphologies of the Tyre region of Europa suggest that an impactor penetrated through several kilometers of water ice tc a mobile layer below. The surface morphology was initially dominated by formation of ridged plains, followed by development of ridge bands and doublet ridges, with chaos and fracture formation dominating the latter part of the geologic history of the Tyre region. Two distinct types of chaos have been identified which, along with upwarped dome materials, appear to represent a continuum of features (domes-play chaos-knobby chaos) resulting from increasing degree of surface disruption associated with local lithospheric heating and thinning. Local and regional stratigraphic relationships, block heights, and the morphology of the Tyre impact structure suggest the presence of low-viscosity ice or liquid water beneath a thin (severa1 kilometers) surface ice shell at the time of the impact. The very low impact crater density on the surface of Europa suggests that this thin shell has either formed or been thoroughly resurfaced in the very recent past.

Kadel, Steven D.↗
NASA NTRS2003

On the Prospects of Measuring the Cosmic History of Element Synthesis with Future Far-IR/Submillimeter Observatories

To understand the cosmic history of element synthesis it will be important to obtain extinction-free measures of the heavy element contents of high-redshift objects and to chart two monumental events: the collapse of the first metal-free clouds to form stars, and the initial seeding of the universe with dust. The information needed to achieve these objectives is uniquely available in the far-infrared/submillimeter (FIR/SMM) spectral region. Following the Decadal Report and anticipating the development of the Single Aperature Far-IR (SAFIR) telescope capabilities of a large-aperature, background-limited FIR/SMM observatory and an interferometer on a boom, and discuss how such instruments could be used to measure the element synthesis history of the universe.

Leisawitz, David↗
NASA NTRS2003

Buried Impact Basins and the Earliest History of Mars

The "Quasi-Circular Depressions" (QCDs) seen in MOLA data which have little or no visible appearance in image data have been interpreted as buried impact basins on Mars. These have important implications for the age of the lowland crust, what mechanisms could produce the crustal dichotomy, and the existence of crust older than the oldest observed surface units on Mars. A global survey of large QCDs using high resolution MOLA data now available has provided further details of the earliest history of Mars. The lowlands are of Early Noachian age, slightly younger than the buried highlands and definitely older than the exposed highland surface. A depopulation of large visible basins at diameters 800 to 1300 km suggests some global scale event early in martian history, maybe related to the formation of the lowlands and/or the development of Tharsis. A suggested early disappearance of the global magnetic field can be placed within a temporal sequence of formation of the very largest impact basins.

H V Frey↗
NASA NTRS2003

Strain Histories Among Alba and Syria Planum, Mars

The centers work of Anderson et al. (2001) [1] identified two prominent centers in the Tharsis region, Syria Planum and Alba Patera (Stage 2 and Stage 4 respectively). Because of their perceived influence on the geologic and possible paleoclimatic histories of Mars, Mars Orbiter Laser Altimetry (MOLA) along with published stratigraphic and paleotectonic information (including the centers information) were analyzed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to perform a comparative investigation of their strain histories through time. This investigation highlights their similarities and distinctions, including their topographic and morphologic signatures, deformational extent, and intensities and durations of activity.

Anderson, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Discrete X-Ray Source Populations and Star-Formation History in Nearby Galaxies

This program aims in understanding the connection between the discrete X-ray source populations observed in nearby galaxies and the history of star-formation in these galaxies. The ultimate goal is to use this knowledge in order to constrain X-ray binary evolution channels. For this reason although the program is primarily observational it has a significant modeling component. During the first year of this study we focused on the definition of a pilot sample of galaxies with well know star-formation histories. A small part of this sample has already been observed and we performed initial analysis of the data. However, the majority of the objects in our sample either have not been observed at all, or the detection limit of the existing observations is not low enough to probe the bulk of their young X-ray binary populations. For this reason we successfully proposed for additional Chandra observations of three targets in Cycle-5. These observations are currently being performed. The analysis of the (limited) archival data for this sample indicated that the X-ray luminosity functions (XLF) of the discrete sources in these galaxies may not have the same shape as is widely suggested. However, any solid conclusions are hampered by the small number of detected sources. For this reason during the second year of this study, we will try to extend the sample in order to include more objects in each evolutionary stage. In addition we are completing the analysis of the Chandra monitoring observations of the Antennae galaxies. The results from this work, apart from important clues on the nature of the most luminous sources (Ultra-luminous X-ray sources; ULXs) provide evidence that source spectral and/or temporal variability does not significantly affect the shape of their X-ray luminosity functions. This is particularly important for comparisons between the XLFs of different galaxies and comparisons with predictions from theoretical models. Results from this work have been presented in several conferences. Refereed journal papers presenting these conclusions are currently in preparation. An important part of this study is the Chandra survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud, our second nearest star- forming galaxy. So far we have been awarded 5 Chandra observations of the central youngest part of the galaxy. These observations will help to study the very faint end of the young X-ray binary populations which is not possible to probe in more distant objects. Results from this study have been presented in several conferences and two papers are in preparation. In addition during year-2 we are planning of undertaking the task of identifying optical counterparts to the X-ray sources, which will help us to isolate interlopers (sources not associated with the SMC) and classify the X-ray binaries which are found to be associated with the SMC. In the theoretical front, the Star-Track X-ray binary population synthesis code which will be used for the modeling of the X-ray binary populations (led by co-I V. Kalogera and C. Belczynski), is complete. A first test using the XLF of the star-forming galaxy NGC-1569 showed remarkable agreement between the observed and the modeled XLF. These results are presented in an ApJ. Letters paper (Belczynski et al, 2004, 601, 147). During year-2 of this study we are planning of performing a parameter study in order to investigate which parameters are most important for the shape of the XLF. In addition we will perform comparisons with observations of other galaxies from our sample as they become available.

Zezas, Andreas↗
NASA NTRS2004

Erosional History of the Martian Highlands During the Noachian and Hesperian

The environment and erosional history of Mars early in its history has been a subject of debate since the first global imaging from Mariner 9. We present a synthesis that reflects our conclusion that fluvial erosion was widespread and intensive throughout the Noachian, extending into the Hesperian.

Howard, A. D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

EARLY IMPACT MELTING AND SPACE EXPOSURE HISTORY OF THE PAT91501 LCHONDRITE

Collisions probably occurred frequently in the early history of the asteroid belt. Their effects, which should be recorded in meteorites, must have included heating and melting along with shock alteration of mineral textures. Some non-chondritic meteorite types e.g., eucrites and IIE and IAB irons - do indeed give evidence of extensive impact heating more than 3.4 Gyr ago. The ordinary chondrites, in contrast, show little evidence of early impact heating. The Ar-Ar and Rb-Sr ages of ordinary chondrites that experienced intense shock are for the most part relatively young, many less than 1.5 Gyr. The numerous L-chondrites with Ar- Ar ages clustering near 0.5 Gy are a well-known example. One of them, the 105-kg Chico Lchondrite, shows the effects of unusually intense heating. It is approximately 60% impact melt and likely formed as a dyke beneath a large crater when the L-chondrite parent body underwent a very large impact approximately 0.5 Gyr ago. In rare instances, older shock dates are indicated for ordinary chondrites. Dixon et al show early impact resetting of Ar-Ar ages of a few LL-chondrites including MIL 99301 at 4.23 0.03 Gyr, but in none of these stones did shock lead to extensive melting. As of 2003, searches for chondritic melts attributable to early shock had turned up only the Shaw L-chondrite, which has an Ar-Ar age of approximately 4.42 Gyr. PAT91501 is an 8.55-kg L-chondrite containing vesicles and metal-troilite nodules. It is a unique, near-total impact melt, unshocked, depleted in siderophile and chalcophile elements, and contains only approximately 10% relic chondritic material. The authors conclude that PAT91501 crystallized rapidly and from a much more homogeneous melt than did Shaw. They suggest that PAT resembles Chico and likely formed as an impact melt vein within an impact crater. To define the history of PAT, we have determined its Ar-39-Ar-40 age and measured several radioactive and stable nuclides produced during its space exposure to cosmic rays.

Bogard, Donald D.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Widespread Layers in Arabia Terra: Implications for Martian Geologic History

Layered rocks in Arabia Terra have been the focus of several recent papers. Studies have focused on the layers found in crater basins located in the southwest portion of the region. However, Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images have identified layered deposits across the region. Terrestrial layered rocks are usually sedimentary, and often deposited in water. Thus extensive layered sequences in Arabia Terra may indicate locations of past, major depositional basins on Mars. Other mechanisms can also create layered rocks, or the appearance of layered rocks, including volcanism (both lava flows and ash falls), wind-blown deposits, and wave-cut terraces at shorelines. By identifying where in the region layers occur, and classifying the layers according to morphology and albedo, past depositional environments may be identified. Arabia Terra is characterized by heavily cratered Noachian plains, as well as a rise from -4000 m in the northwest to 4000 m in the southeast (Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter [MOLA] datum). This slope may have provided a constraint on sediment deposition and thus layer formation. While most of the region is Noachian in age, a significant percentage of the area is identified as Hesperian. Although the history of the Arabia Terra initially seems to be straightforward cratered plains with several younger units atop them analysis of high-resolution imagery may reveal a more complex history.

Venechuk, Elizabeth M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Altitude Wind Tunnel at NASA Glenn Research Center: An Interactive History

When constructed in the Early 1940s, the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) at NASA Glenn Research Center was the nation's only wind tunnel capable of studying full scale engines under realistic flight conditions. It played a significant role in the development of the first U.S. jet engines as well as technologies such as the afterburner and variable-area nozzle. In the late 1950s, the tunnels interior components were removed so that hardware for Project Mercury could be tested in altitude conditions. In 1961, a portion of the tunnel was converted into one of the country's first large vacuum tanks and renamed the Space Power Chamber (SPC). SPC was used extensively throughout the 1960s for the Centaur rocket program. This multimedia piece allows one to interactively learn about the Altitude Wind Tunnel facility. and the research performed there. The piece contains: (1) A chronological history of the AWT from its construction during World War II and the testing of early jet engines, through the Mercury and Centaur programs of the 1960s and up to the final use of the building for the Microwave Systems laboratory. (2) Photographic surveys of the facility in it wind tunnel, vacuum tank and final configurations. (3) Browsable gallery of over 200 captioned photographs and video clips.(4) A nine minute documentary of the AWT produced by NASA in 1961 (5) Links to over 70 reports and publications related to AWT research and the history of the NACA.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2006

Review of Mariana Gosnell's 'ICE: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance'

ICE: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance is a recently published book by Mariana Gosnell about ice. It covers not just the ice that is readily seen, such as sea ice, lake ice, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice cubes, but also ice in the ground, in the atmosphere, inside plants and animals, and in outer space, plus new ice forms being created in scientific laboratories. Gosnell treats the reader to a well-written, easy-going mixture of science, adventure, history, applications, science methods and controversies, and philosophy, all centered in one way or another on ice. The book is 563 pages long and is filled with fascinating anecdotes and details, such as beetles in the Canadian Rockies that can supercool to 60 C below freezing and a lake in Minnesota where each winter typically 65,000 fishing shanties are set up on the lake's ice, many with couches, beds, television sets, and bathrooms. Gosnell also includes many practical suggestions. Among them: When driving on lake ice, keep your windows open, in case your vehicle breaks through the ice and you need to make a rapid exit.

Parkinson, Claire L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Sequence History Update Tool

The Sequence History Update Tool performs Web-based sequence statistics archiving for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Using a single UNIX command, the software takes advantage of sequencing conventions to automatically extract the needed statistics from multiple files. This information is then used to populate a PHP database, which is then seamlessly formatted into a dynamic Web page. This tool replaces a previous tedious and error-prone process of manually editing HTML code to construct a Web-based table. Because the tool manages all of the statistics gathering and file delivery to and from multiple data sources spread across multiple servers, there is also a considerable time and effort savings. With the use of The Sequence History Update Tool what previously took minutes is now done in less than 30 seconds, and now provides a more accurate archival record of the sequence commanding for MRO.

Khanampompan, Teerapat↗
NASA NTRS2009

Lunar History

This section of the workshop describes the history of the moon, and offers explanations for the importance of understanding lunar history for engineers and users of lunar simulants. Included are summaries of the initial impact that is currently in favor as explaining the moon's formation, the crust generation, the creation of craters by impactors, the era of the lunar cataclysm, which some believe effected the evolution of life on earth, the nature of lunar impacts, crater morphology, which includes pictures of lunar craters that show the different types of craters, more recent events include effect of micrometeorites, solar wind, radiation and generation of agglutinates. Also included is a glossary of terms.

Edmunson, Jennifer E.↗
NASA NTRS2009

How Did the Universe Make People? A Brief History of the Universe from the Beginning to the End

Astronomers are beginning to know the easy part: How did the Big Bang make stars and galaxies and the chemical elements? How did solar systems form and evolve? How did the Earth and the Moon form, and how did water and carbon come to the Earth? Geologists are piecing together the history of the Earth, and biologists are coming to know the history and process of life from the earliest times. But is our planet the only life-supporting place in the universe, or are there many? Astronomers are working on that too. I will tell the story of the discovery of the Big Bang by Edwin Hubble, and how the primordial heat radiation tells the details of that universal explosion. I will tell how the James Webb Space Telescope will extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope to ever greater distances, will look inside dust clouds to see stars being born today, will measure planets around other stars, and examine the dwarf planets in the outer Solar System. I will show concepts for great new space telescopes to follow the JWST and how they could use future moon rockets to hunt for signs of life on planets around other stars.

Mather, John C.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Pointing History Engine for the Spitzer Space Telescope

The Pointing History Engine (PHE) is a computer program that provides mathematical transformations needed to reconstruct, from downlinked telemetry data, the attitude of the Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) as a function of time. The PHE also serves as an example for development of similar pointing reconstruction software for future space telescopes. The transformations implemented in the PHE take account of the unique geometry of the Spitzer telescope-pointing chain, including all data on relative alignments of components, and all information available from attitude-determination instruments. The PHE makes it possible to coordinate attitude data with observational data acquired at the same time, so that any observed astronomical object can be located for future reference and re-observation. The PHE is implemented as a subroutine used in conjunction with telemetry-formatting services of the Mission Image Processing Laboratory of NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to generate the Boresight Pointing History File (BPHF). The BPHF is an archival database designed to serve as Spitzer s primary astronomical reference documenting where the telescope was pointed at any time during its mission.

Bayard, David↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Fifteen-Year Attitude History of the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 Radiator and Collection Efficiencies for Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris

An examination of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2) radiator assembly was conducted at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) during the summer of 2009. Immediately apparent was a distinct biasing of the largest 45 impact features towards one side of the radiator, in contrast to an approximately uniform distribution of smaller impacts. Such a distribution may be a consequence of the HST s attitude history and pointing requirements for the cold radiator, or of environmental effects, such as an anisotropic distribution of the responsible population in that size regime. Understanding the size-dependent spatial distribution of impact features is essential to the general analysis of these features. We have obtained from GSFC a 15 minute temporal resolution record of the state vector (Earth Centered Inertial position and velocity) and HST attitude, consisting of the orientation of the velocity and HST-sun vectors in HST body coordinates. This paper reviews the actual state vector and attitude history of the radiator in the context of the randomly tumbling plate assumption and assesses the statistical likelihood (or collection efficiency) of the radiator for the micrometeoroid and orbital debris environments. The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center s Meteoroid Environment Model is used to assess the micrometeoroid component. The NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM) is used to model the orbital debris component. Modeling results are compared with observations of the impact feature spatial distribution, and the relative contribution of each environmental component are examined in detail.

Anz-Meador, Phillip D.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Geologic Map of the Snegurochka Planitia Quadrangle (V-1): Implications for Tectonic and Volcanic History of the North Polar Region of Venus

Geologic mapping of Snegurochka Planitia (V-1) reveals a complex stratigraphy of tectonic and volcanic features that can provide insight into the geologic history of Venus and Archean Earth [1,2], including 1) episodes of both localized crustal uplift and mantle downwelling, 2) shifts from local to regional volcanic activity, and 3) a shift back to local volcanic activity. We present our progress in mapping the spatial and stratigraphic relationships of material units and our initial interpretations of the tectonic and volcanic history of the region surrounding the north pole of Venus

Hurwitz, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Pulling Marbles from a Bag: Deducing the Regional Impact History of the SPA Basin from Impact-Melt Rocks

The South Pole Aitken (SPA) basin is the stratigraphically oldest identifiable lunar basin and is therefore one of the most important targets for absolute age-dating to help understand whether ancient lunar bombardment history smoothly declined or was punctuated by a cataclysm. A feasible near-term approach to this problem is to robotically collect a sample from near the center of the basin, where vertical and lateral mixing provided by post-basin impacts ensures that such a sample will be composed of small rock fragments from SPA itself, from local impact craters, and from faraway giant basins. The range of ages, intermediate spikes in the age distribution, and the oldest ages are all part of the definition of the absolute age and impact history recorded within the SPA basin.

Cohen, Barbara A.↗