SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “low-power”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1990

Vehicle charging effects during electron beam emission from the CHARGE-2 experiment

The CHARGE-2 sounding rocket payload has measured the transient and steady-state charging of a spacecraft in LEO during the emission of a low-power electron beam. The electron beam successfully escaped the emitting spacecraft above 240 km, rather than being degraded by the spacecraft's potentials. These potentials were limited to about half of the 1-kV beam accelerating potential at all latitudes, suggesting that the electron beam was able to escape at altitudes down to 160 km. Electrons created from beam-plasma interactions become increasingly important in the return current below 240 km, and increased with decreasing altitude.

Myers, Neil B.↗

NASA NTRS1989

A quasi-passive CMOS pipeline D/A converter

A novel pipeline digital-to-analog converter configuration, based on switched-capacitor techniques, is described. An n-bit D/A conversion can be implemented by cascading n + 1 unit cells. The device count of the circuit increases linearly, not exponentially, with the conversion accuracy. The new configuration can be pipelined. Hence, the conversion rate can be increased without requiring a higher clock rate. An experimental 10-bit DAC prototype has been fabricated using a 3-micron CMOS process. The results show that high-speed, high-accuracy, and low-power operation can be achieved without special process or postprocess trimming.

Wang, Fong-Jim↗

NASA NTRS1989

A square multiflare horn with 1-megawatt CW power-handling capability

The analysis and low-power testing of a square multiflare horn designed for 1-megawatt CW operation is described. Design considerations for the five-port input section are discussed. The required aperture modes are determined from radiation pattern considerations, and analysis of the multiflare section is carried out using mode matching. Measurements demonstrate that a circularly symmetric beam is produced with relatively low sidelobes.

Hoppe, Dan↗

NASA NTRS1989

A look at the Soviet space nuclear power program

The Soviet Union has been flying nuclear power sources in space since about 1965. For the most part these nuclear power sources have been low-power nuclear reactors using a thermoelectric conversion principle. Recently the Soviet Union has flown two satellites using a higher power reactor that employs a thermionic conversion system. Reentry of two of the earlier reactors on board Cosmos 954 and Cosmos 1402 plus the recent potential accident involving Cosmos 1900 have focused world attention on Soviet usage of space nuclear power. Despite these problems the evidence points toward a continued Soviet usage of nuclear power sources in space.

Inductors↗

NASA NTRS1989

High precision lunar tracking for laser ranging

Laser ranging to lunar surface retroreflectors has provided a valuable source of data for the investigation of the lunar orbit, the earth's orientation in space, general relativity, and many other aspects of solar system dynamics. Due to the moon's relatively large distance, and the requirement to keep the beam from the relatively low-power laser very narrow, acquiring this data type requires very accurate telescope pointing and tracking capabilities. The nominal requirement is to keep the telescope on target within approximately 1 arcsec of its predicted location for at least several minutes. An expansion of this requirement and the methods used to accomplish this high precision pointing are presented. Difficulties encountered and a few future goals of automating the McDonald station are also discussed.

Ricklefs, Randall L.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Ion beam sputtering of in situ superconducting Y-Ba-Cu-O films

Oriented superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 thin films were deposited on yttria stabilized zirconia and SrTiO3 substrates by ion-beam sputtering of a nonstoichiometric oxide target. The films exhibited zero-resistance critical temperatures as high as 83.5 K without post-deposition anneals. Both the deposition rate and the c-lattice parameter data displayed two distinct regimes of dependence on the beam power of the ion source. Low-power sputtering yielded films with large c-dimensions and low Tc. Higher-power sputtering produced a continuous decrease in the c-lattice parameter and increase in critical temperature. Films having the smaller c-lattice parameters were Cu rich. The Cu content of films deposited at beam voltages of 800 V and above increased with increasing beam power.

Klein, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Recurrence in truncated Boussinesq models for nonlinear waves in shallow water

The rapid spatial recurrence of weakly nonlinear and weakly dispersive progressive shallow-water waves is examined using a numerical integration technique on the discretized and truncated form of the Boussinesq equations. This study primarily examines recurrence in wave fields with Ursell number O(1) and characterizes the sensitivity of recurrence to initial spectral shape and number of allowed frequency modes. It is shown that the rapid spatial recurrence is not an inherent property of the considered Boussinesq systems for evolution distances of 10-50 wavelengths. The main result of the study is that highly truncated Boussinesq models of resonant shallow-water ocean surface gravity waves predict rapid multiple recurrence cycles, but that this is an artifact dependent on the number of allowed modes. For initial conditions consisting of essentially all energy concentrated in a single mode, damping of the recurrence cycles increases as the number of low-power background modes increases. When more than 32 modes are allowed, the recurrence behavior is relatively insensitive to the number of allowed modes.

Elgar, Steve↗

NASA NTRS1990

Qualification and life testing of a flight design hydrazine arcjet system

This paper describes the design and the requirements of a low-power hydrazine arc jet system and presents the results of tests on the system's performance, vibration, and lifetime. The system consists of an arcjet, catalyst bed, power control unit, and interconnecting power cable. Operating at 1.4 kW input power, the system provides a minimum of 450 sec mission average specific impulse, yielding greater than a 100 kg propellant savings over standard monopropellant or bipropellant systems used on communication satellites.

Knowles, S. C.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Resistor Extends Life Of Battery In Clocked CMOS Circuit

Addition of fixed resistor between battery and clocked complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) circuit reduces current drawn from battery. Basic idea to minimize current drawn from battery by operating CMOS circuit at lowest possible current consistent with use of simple, fixed off-the-shelf components. Prolongs lives of batteries in such low-power CMOS circuits as watches and calculators.

Wells, George H., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Unbalanced Rotating Masses For Scanning

Unbalanced rotating masses low-cost, low-power, lightweight means of generating scanning torques for scientific instruments. Imparts variety of scanning patterns; continuous circular, back-and-forth linear, and, with aid of indexing mechanism, raster. Scanning rate determined by sizes of moment arms and rotational velocities. System of unbalanced rotating masses proposed for scanning gimbaled sensors that observe Sun from balloon-borne gondola. Two unbalanced masses move sensor aim in circular pattern around center of the Sun.

Polites, Michael E.↗

NASA NTRS1990

On-Orbit Compressor Technology Program

A synopsis of the On-Orbit Compressor Technology Program is presented. The objective is the exploration of compressor technology applicable for use by the Space Station Fluid Management System, Space Station Propulsion System, and related on-orbit fluid transfer systems. The approach is to extend the current state-of-the-art in natural gas compressor technology to the unique requirements of high-pressure, low-flow, small, light, and low-power devices for on-orbit applications. This technology is adapted to seven on-orbit conceptual designs and one prototype is developed and tested.

Deffenbaugh, Danny M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Optical measurement of unducted fan blade deflections

A nonintrusive optical method for measuring unducted fan (or propeller) blade deflections is described and evaluated. The measurement does not depend on blade surface reflectivity. Deflection of a point at the leading edge and a point at the trailing edge in a plane nearly perpendicular to the pitch axis is obtained with a single light beam generated by a low-power, helium-neon laser. Quantitative analyses are performed from taped signals on a digital computer. Averaging techniques are employed to reduce random errors. Measured static deflections from a series of high-speed wind tunnel tests of a counterrotating unducted fan model are compared with available, predicted deflections, which are also used to evaluate systematic errors.

Kurkov, A. P.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Data compression for Eos on-board SAR processor

A lightweight, low-power, real-time data compressor design for the Earth Observing System (Eos) onboard synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processor is presented. The implementation is based on VLSI design of a pipelined binary tree-searched vector quantizer (VQ), utilizing space-qualifiable 1.25-micron CMOS technology. The implementation exploits VLSI system design principles such as the modularity, regular data flow, simple interconnection, localized communication, simple global control, and parallel/pipelined processing. The overall system requires 30 chips with only one VLSI processing element design. The total weight is about 1.2 lbs, with an estimated power dissipation of approximately 4 watts operating at the maximum input data rate. The projected throughput rate exceeds 5 MHz.

Chang, C. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1990

New drift chamber technology for high energy gamma-ray telescopes

Work to develop a low-power amplifier and discriminator for use on space qualifiable drift chambers is discussed. Consideration is given to the goals of the next generation of high-energy gamma-ray telescope design and to how the goals can be achieved using xenon gas drift chambers. The design and construction of a low power drift chamber amplifier and discriminator are described, and the design of a quad-time-to-amplitude converter is outlined.

Hunter, Stanley D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Measurement of fluid velocity fields using digital correlation techniques

A new aperiodic recording technique for measuring fluid velocity fields by digital correlation is introduced which uses a low-powered He-Ne laser, a desktop computer, and a lightly seeded fluid. In contrast to optical methods, this technique does not need to use laser light to interrogate the image pattern, so no secondary speckle is introduced. Also, the lower limit of displacement measurement is determined by the resolution of the sensor used and the magnification of the camera, and can be much lower than the speckle size, so a considerably wider range of measurement is possible than with optical processing. The technique can be completely automated and is potentially much faster than all of the optical methods currently used for flow visualization.

Matthys, Donald R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Ampere-Hour Meter For Rechargeable Battery

Low-power analog/digital electronic circuit meters discharge of storage battery in ampere-hours. By metering discharge, one obtains indication of state of charge of battery and avoids unnecessary recharging, maintaining capacity of battery and prolonging life. Because of its small size and low power consumption, useful in such applications as portable video cameras, communication equipment on boats, portable audio equipment, and portable medical equipment.

Tripp, John S.↗

NASA NTRS1924

Comparing the performance of geometrically similar airplanes

This note has been prepared for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. It deals with the model rules relating to aeronautical problems, and shows how the characteristics of one airplane can be determined from those of another airplane of different weight or size, and of similar type. If certain rules for the ratios of the dimensions, the weights and the horsepower are followed, a small low-powered airplane can be used for obtaining information as to performance, stability, controllability and maneuverability of a larger prototype, and contrariwise.

Munk, Max M↗

NASA NTRS1938

Engines and propellers for powered gliders and light airplanes

The object of the present paper is to consider the interaction of engine, propeller, and airplane for the low-power range. The discussion is presented in a form so as to provide the engine builder with a basis in his selection in the type of engine required, a suitable selection being possible only in connection with considerations on the best possible propeller.

Gropp, H↗