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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

Characteristics of statoliths from rootcaps and coleoptiles

Amyloplasts with intact envelopes were isolated from corn coleoptiles, incubated with either cationized ferritin (CF) or fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-CF, and examined with epifluorescence optics. Before incubation, the mean zeta potential was found to be -19.4 mv. The net negative surface charge was confirmed ultrastructurally by the binding of CF to both amyloplasts and starch grains. Binding to the latter was reduced compared to the former. FITC-CF showed binding to some but not all amyloplasts, and was absent from individual starch granules. Membrane-bound calcium, indicated by chlorotetracycline, fluorescence, was detected throughout the cytoplasm of root cap cells. These results may reflect an affinity of CF for membrane-based charge, and suggest that a calcium shell exists on the amyloplast envelope.

Sack, F. D.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Digitally Enhanced Heterodyne Interferometry

Spurious interference limits the performance of many interferometric measurements. Digitally enhanced interferometry (DEI) improves measurement sensitivity by augmenting conventional heterodyne interferometry with pseudo-random noise (PRN) code phase modulation. DEI effectively changes the measurement problem from one of hardware (optics, electronics), which may deteriorate over time, to one of software (modulation, digital signal processing), which does not. DEI isolates interferometric signals based on their delay. Interferometric signals are effectively time-tagged by phase-modulating the laser source with a PRN code. DEI improves measurement sensitivity by exploiting the autocorrelation properties of the PRN to isolate only the signal of interest and reject spurious interference. The properties of the PRN code determine the degree of isolation.

Shaddock, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS1991

The radio to X-ray spectrum of the M87 jet and nucleus

Einstein Observatory high-resolution imager data are used in conjunction with recent radio and optical observations to examine the morphology of the M87 jet; IR and UV data from the literature are then employed to construct X-ray spectra for the jet and nucleus, allowing the isolation of new features in the X-ray images which are associable with the radio/optical knots B and D. The synchrotron mechanism is suggested to be the originator of the jet X-ray emission, despite its entailment of very high energy electrons with short lifetimes. Optical data for the nucleus are consistent with the presence of an unresolved blue continuum source, implying a spectrum similar to that of the jet except at high RFs.

Biretta, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Jitter Suppression Via Reaction Wheel Passive Isolation for the NASA Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility

Text: Third in the series of NASA great observatories, the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) is scheduled for launch from the Space Shuttle in September 1998. Following in the path of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, this telescope will image light at x-ray wavelengths, facilitating the detailed study of such phenomena as supernovae and quasars. The AXAF program is sponsored by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Due to exacting requirements on the performance of the AXAF optical system, it is necessary to reduce the transmission of reaction wheel jitter disturbances to the observatory. This reduction is accomplished via use of a passive mechanical isolation system which acts as an interface between the reaction wheels and the spacecraft central structure.

Pendergast, Karl J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Planar Rowland spectrometer for fiber-optic wavelength demultiplexing

A planar Rowland spectrometer was fabricated and characterized as a wavelength demultiplexer for multimode fiber-optic applications. The spectrometer consisted of a planar multimode glass waveguide with two curved end faces and a cylindrical concave attached to one of the end faces. Semiconductor lasers with wavelengths between 0.825 and 0.845 micron were used for the measurements. Cross-talk isolation between two adjacent fibers with center-to-center separation of 175 microns (100 A in wavelength difference) was measured to be 18 dB. The device's performance was limited by grating diffraction efficiency, optical aberration, waveguide dispersion, and waveguide losses.

Yen, H. W.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Use of a Passive Reaction Wheel Jitter Isolation System to Meet the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility Imaging Performance Requirements

Third in the series of NASA great observatories, the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) is scheduled for launch from the Space Shuttle in November of 1998. Following in the path of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, this observatory will image light at X-ray wavelengths, facilitating the detailed study of such phenomena as supernovae and quasars. The AXAF project is sponsored by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Because of exacting requirements on the performance of the AXAF optical system, it was necessary to reduce the transmission of reaction wheel jitter disturbances to the observatory. This reduction was accomplished via use of a passive mechanical isolation system to interface the reaction wheels with the spacecraft central structure. In addition to presenting a description of the spacecraft, the isolation system, and the key image quality requirement flowdown, this paper details the analyses performed in support of system-level imaging performance requirement verification. These analyses include the identification of system-level requirement suballocations, quantification of imaging and pointing performance, and formulation of unit-level isolation system transmissibility requirements. Given in comparison to the non-isolated system imaging performance, the results of these analyses clearly illustrate the effectiveness of an innovative reaction wheel passive isolation system.

Pendergast, Karl J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Transport effects due to particle erosion mechanisms

Various processes can erode the surfaces of planetary ring particles. Recent estimates for Saturn's rings suggest that a centimeter-thick surface layer could be eroded from an isolated ring particle in less than 1000 yr by meteoroid impacts alone. The atoms, molecules, and chips ejected from ring particles by erosion will arc across the rings along elliptical orbits. For moderate ring optical depths, ejecta will be absorbed or inelastically scattered upon reintersecting the ring plane. Continuous exchange of ejecta between different ring regions can lead to net radial transport of mass and angular momentum, to changes in particle sizes, and to the buildup of chip regoliths several centimeters deep on the surfaces of ring particles. Because most of the erosional ejecta are not lost but merely exchanged over short distances, the net erosion rate of the surfaces of these ring particles will be much less than that estimated for an isolated particle. Numerical solutions for time-dependent ballistic transport under various assumptions suggest pile-up and spillover effects especially near regions of preexisting high optical depth contrast, such as the inner edges of A and B rings. Global redistribution could be significant over billions of years. Other features in planetary ring systems may be influenced by ballistic transport.

Durisen, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1999

The Plasmasphere as "Seen" by the IMAGE Mission

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) is the first mission designed exclusively to remotely measure the magnetosphere. As such, it will reveal the ring current, plasmasphere, polar cusp, and magnetopause as whole extended, interacting systems. For the first time, our impressions of the global magnetosphere, synthesized through many years of whistler and in situ measurement, will be replaced by images. The overall morphology of each system of plasma and the correspondence of changes between them in response to the sun and solar wind will become available. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUV) and the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) are the two IMAGE instruments which will remotely measure and image the plasmasphere. What we expect to "see" from these instruments and how it may be interpreted is the subject of this presentation. The EUV instrument includes three optical cameras, with an almost 90 degree field of view, transverse to the spin axis. EUV is designed to see He+ ions in resonantly scatter solar light at 30.4rim. The IMAGE spacecraft will spin with a period of about 2 minutes, with its spin axis parallel to the orbit normal. The IMAGE orbit will be highly inclined, with a high latitude apogee at a geocentric distance of 8RE and perigee of about 1.2RE. The normal observing integration time of 10 minutes will easily see to the outer edge of the plasmasphere. The RPI instrument makes use of three orthoganal dipole antennas: two in the spin plane with a tip-to-tip length of 500m and one along the spin axis with a length of 20 meters. Using coded pulse transmissions, the RPI instrument will broadcast from 3kHz to 3MHz. With one minute resolution, plasma densities from about 0.1 cm(exp -3) to 100,000 cm(exp -3), along with line-of-sight bulk velocities and locations, will be obtained from all returned radio wave signals. When transmitting from the high latitude magnetospheric cavity, RPI will measure density profiles for the major plasma structures in the magnetosphere, including the magnetopause, polar cusp, and plasmasphere. RPI should also see isolated density irregularities and possibly the plasma sheet. Observations The EUV instrument will return line-of-sight integrated images through the optically thin helium medium of the plasmasphere and magnetosphere. A variety of techniques have been suggested for the translation of the images into physically useful data, such as plasmapause location and three dimensional density distribution. The RPI instrument will return quantitative density values and line-of-sight velocity as a function of position along reflecting wave propagation paths. How they may be used individually and together to study plasmaspheric dynamics and global structure will be discussed. Attention will also be given to the data products and how access to IMAGE data will be provided by the IMAGE team and the NSSDC.

Gallagher, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Passive isolation/damping system for the Hubble space telescope reaction wheels

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope contain large, diffraction limited optics with extraordinary resolution and performance for surpassing existing observatories. The need to reduce structural borne vibration and resultant optical jitter from critical Pointing Control System components, Reaction Wheels, prompted the feasibility investigation and eventual development of a passive isolation system. Alternative design concepts considered were required to meet a host of stringent specifications and pass rigid tests to be successfully verified and integrated into the already built flight vehicle. The final design employs multiple arrays of fluid damped springs that attenuate over a wide spectrum, while confining newly introduced resonances to benign regions of vehicle dynamic response. Overall jitter improvement of roughly a factor of 2 to 3 is attained with this system. The basis, evolution, and performance of the isolation system, specifically discussing design concepts considered, optimization studies, development lessons learned, innovative features, and analytical and ground test verified results are presented.

Hasha, Martin D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

X-ray emission associated with the jet in 3C 273

The Einstein Observatory exposure of 3C 273 obtained with the High Resolution Imager has been re-analyzed using a subtraction technique. This technique is useful for studying weak features close to strong, unresolved sources. An X-ray feature located in PA = 222 deg has been isolated at a distance of 15.8 arcsec from the core. This is closer to the core than are the brightest optical and radio features. Some physical constraints for various possible emission mechanisms are given.

Harris, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

A study of a flux-limited sample of IRAS galaxies

Redshift data and accurate four-color infrared photometry are presented for a complete IRAS sample of galaxies brighter than 2 Jy at 60 microns. A simple power law provides a good fit to the distribution for luminosities from 10 to the 10th to 10 to the 12th solar. There is no indication of an exponential dropoff in the luminosity function at high energies. A flattening of the luminosity function occurs at L less than 10 to the 20th solar. The highest luminosity galaxies typically are found in multiple, possibly interacting, systems and exhibit marginally narrower infrared spectral energy distributions than the isolated spirals which predominate at low luminosities. Infrared-bright galaxies come from a different population than the majority of optically bright galaxies. In particular, galaxies of low blue luminosity are not strong infrared emitters.

Smith, Beverly J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The nature of the emission-line nebulae in powerful far-infrared galaxies

The authors discuss their program of narrow-band (H alpha + (NII)) imaging of a sample of 30 powerful far-infrared galaxies (FIRG's) chosen to have far-infrared spectral energy distributions similar to the prototype FIRG's Arp 220, NGC 3690, NGC 6240, and M82. The emission-line nebulae of these IR color-selected sample (ICSS) galaxies as a class are both impressively large (mean half light radius, r approx. 1.3 Kpc, and mean diameter, D approx. 16 Kpc) and luminous (L sub TOT approx. 10(exp 8) solar lumninosity; uncorrected for internal extinction). The mean total H alpha + (NII) luminosity of the FIRG's is comparable to that found for pairs of optically selected interacting galaxies (Bushouse, Lamb, and Werner 1988), but is a factor of approx. 5 greater than that of isolated spirals (Kennicutt and Kent 1983). Only approx. 25 percent of the nearby (z approx. less than 0.10) FIRG's have morphologies suggesting that large HII-regions contribute significantly to their emission-line appearance. The broad-band morphologies of our IR color-selected galaxies fall into three major categories. Nearly 75 percent are single galaxy systems, with the remaining FIRG's being either multiple nuclei systems, or members of interacting pairs. Since the authors saw few (10 percent) currently interacting FIRG's, yet many (80 percent) with highly distorted continuum morphologies, their IR color criteria may be preferentially selecting galaxies that have undergone highly inelastic, rapidly merging interactions.

Armus, Lee↗
NASA NTRS1994

IRAS images of nearby dark clouds

We have investigated approximately 100 nearby molecular clouds using the extensive, all-sky database of IRAS. The clouds in this study cover a wide range of physical properties including visual extinction, size, mass, degree of isolation, homogeneity and morphology. IRAS 100 and 60 micron co-added images were used to calculate the 100 micron optical depth of dust in the clouds. These images of dust optical depth compare very well with (12)CO and (13)CO observations, and can be related to H2 column density. From the optical depth images we locate the edges of dark clouds and the dense cores inside them. We have identified a total of 43 `IRAS clouds' (regions with A(sub v) greater than 2) which contain a total of 255 `IRAS cores' (regions with A(sub v) greater than 4) and we catalog their physical properties. We find that the clouds are remarkably filamentary, and that the cores within the clouds are often distributed along the filaments. The largest cores are usually connected to other large cores by filaments. We have developed selection criteria to search the IRAS Point Source Catalog for stars that are likely to be associated with the clouds and we catalog the IRAS sources in each cloud or core. Optically visible stars associated with the clouds have been identified from the Herbig and Bell catalog. From these data we characterize the physical properties of the clouds including their star-formation efficiency.

Wood, Douglas O. S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

On the measurement of stationary electric fields in air

Applications and measurement methods for field measurements are reviewed. Recent developments using optical technology are examined. The various methods are compared. It is concluded that the best general purpose instrument is the isolated cylindrical field mill, but MEMS technology could furnish better instruments in the future.

electric fields measurement field mill↗
NASA NTRS1994

Optical position measurement for a large gap magnetic suspension system: Design and performance analysis

An optical measurement system (OMS) has been designed and tested for a large gap magnetic suspension system (LGMSS). The LGMSS will be used to study control laws for magnetic suspension systems for vibration isolation and pointing applications. The LGMSS features six degrees of freedom and consists of a planar array of electromagnets that levitate and position a cylindrical element containing a permanent magnet core. The OMS provides information on the location and orientation of the element to the LGMSS control system to stabilize suspension. The hardware design of this optical sensing system and the tracking algorithms are presented. The results of analyses and experiments are presented that define the accuracy limits of the optical sensing system and that quantify the errors in position estimation.

Welch, Sharon S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Design and performance of the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) instrument

Design and performance data are analyzed for the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) instrument, which has been developed for the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS). SAGE II is designed to monitor globally, from 70 degrees S to 70 degrees N latitude, the vertical distribution of stratospheric aerosols, ozone, water vapor, and nitrogen dioxide by measuring the extinction of solar radiation through the earth's atmosphere during the ERBS observatory solar occultations. A flat scanning mirror reflects solar radiation into a Cassegrain type telescope, which forms a solar image on the entrance slit of a grating spectrometer. The instantaneous-field-of-view of the SAGE II is scanned along the vertical solar diameter by the elevation scan mirror. The optical system is contained within an azimuth gimbal which tracks the solar radiometric centroid during the data event, while the spectrometer isolates seven spectral wavelengths from 0.385-1.02 micrometers. The seven channels of the spectrometer use silicon photodiode dedectors operated in the photovoltaic mode. The detector outputs are multiplexed into a serial data stream for readout by the ERBS telemetry system, with each output being sampled 64 times per second and digitized to 12 bit resolution.

Zaun, N. H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Feasibility study of an orbiting laboratory for testing CSI technology

A concept for an orbiting laboratory for testing Controls-Structures Integration (CSI) technology is described. The CSI-Star concept reflects a lower cost, higher risk approach. The concept supports demonstration and validation testing for critical CSI technologies at a cost of $20M to $26M with a 1-year reliability of approximately 0.9. The Ball Aerospace QuickStar bus is the carrier for the CSI test article. QuickStar is launched as a secondary payload on the McDonnell Douglas Delta 2. The QuickStar/Delta 2 approach is flight proven. The CSI test article is a 20 foot, 1 Hz, truss beam which is deployed from the QuickStar bus. The test article is well instrumented for quality system identification. The laboratory provides three layers of active control consisting of global vibration suppression along the truss beam, vibration isolation between the beam and instrument platforms, and vibration compensation through the use of gimbaled platforms which point lasers relative to optical sensor targets. The configuration simulates the dynamics of multi-instrument science platforms such as those of the Earth Observation System (EOS) while maintaining strong ties to astrophysics missions such as the Optical Interferometer. Uplink/downlink services and a reprogrammable computer provide flexibility for long-term investigations by members of the CSI community (NASA, DoD, academia, and industry). CSI-Star fills the gap between short-term experiments, which have been conducted primarily on the Shuttle, and future science missions which require the technology. The on-orbit maturity of CSI technology must be established to obtain acceptance by project managers and to promote injection of the technology into future science missions.

Bicos, Andrew S.↗