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At least 307 records · Page 17

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NASA NTRS1987

Laboratory test results of the high speed optical tracking system for the Spaceborne Geodynamic Ranging System

The high speed, high resolution optical tracking system for the Spaceborne Geodynamic Ranging System employs a two-axis gimbaled pointing device that can operate from a Space Shuttle platform and can track multiple retroreflector ground targets with arcsec accuracy. Laboratory tests of the stepping characteristics of the pointing system for various step sizes and directions has shown arcsec repeatability with little wasted motion, overshoot, or ringing. The worst rms tracking jitter was 1 and 2 arcsec in the roll and pitch axes, respectively, at the maximum tracking rate of 2 deg/sec.

Zagwodzki, Thomas W.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Improved Tracking Of Square-Wave Subcarrier

Variance of phase error reduced. Report discusses application of "windowing" concept to improve ability of telemetry receiver to track phase of square-wave phase-modulation subcarrier signal. Concept based on setting phase-tracking signal at zero outside narrow time "windows", reducing noise energy in processed signal. Result is increase in signal-to-noise ratio in tracking loop with consequent increase in accuracy of tracking and reduction in number of errors in telemetric data.

Hurd, William J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

High dynamic GPS receiver using maximum likelihood estimation and frequency tracking

A new high dynamic global positioning system (GPS) receiver is presented and its performance characterized by analysis, simulation, and demonstration. The demonstration receiver is a breadboard model capable of tracking a single simulated satellite signal in pseudorange and range rate. Pseudorange and range rate estimates are made once every 20 ms, using a maximum likelihood estimator, and are tracked by means of a third-order fading memory filter in a feedback configuration. The receiver tracks pseudorange with rms errors of under 1 m when subjected to simulated 50 g, 40 g/s circular trajectories. The tracking threshold is approximately 28 dB-Hz, which provides 12 dB margin relative to the minimum specified signal strength, assuming 3.5 dB system noise figure and 0 dBi antenna gain.

Hurd, W. J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The NASA tracking and data acquisition networks - Their history and their future

The NASA Tracking and Data Acquisition Networks were begun in the late 1950s as a part of the U.S. activities associated with the 1958-59 International Geophysical Year. The first network, the Minitrack Net, evolved into the Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN) for support of scientific satellites in earth orbit. The NASA Mercury and Apollo manned flight programs produced more demanding requirements for near real-time tracking, communications, and orbit determination, thus providing the impetus for new, more sophisticated networks. The Deep Space Network was also created to meet unique requirements of the planetary exploration programs. All of these programs necessitated establishing ground stations in various countries around the world, thus promoting the concept of international cooperation in space activities which NASA has fostered in many programs. This paper traces these networks from their beginnings through the various stages of development and introduction of new technologies to meet the requirements of increasingly more complex space missions. The paper also discusses the planning for new capabilities for tracking, data acquisition and communications support of future programs, including particularly the Space Station in the next decade.

Force, Charles T.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Objective method for analysis and tracking of convective cells as seen by radar

A special method has been developed for the study of cells that are embedded in convective rain systems. This method consists of a package of computer programs that use pattern recognition techniques on three-dimensional digital radar data to identify the rain cells, track them with time, and calculate their properties. The product of the computations is a comprehensive database of physically meaningful properties of rain cells, which can be used to infer the internal structure and the dynamics of convective rain systems. The cell-tracking method has been applied to the summer convective clouds of south Florida for the following purposes: (1) derivation of the relationship between the echo top height and the precipitation characteristics (e.g., area, water yield, rain intensity and duration of the rain cells); (2) study of the microphysical behaviorof cumulus clouds in relation to their cell properties; (3) evaluation of the effect of seeding on cumulus clouds on the cell scale; and (4) examination of cloud-to-ground lightning discharges in relation to convective cell intensity. The cell-tracking method is also currently being used in rain enhancement projects in Texas, Israel, and South Africa. The cell-tracking method, its products and their use in meteorological research are described in this paper.

Rosenfeld, Daniel↗

NASA NTRS1980

Real-time optical multiple-object recognition and tracking demonstration: A friendly challenge to the digital field

Researchers demonstrated the first optical multiple object tracking system. The system is capable of simultaneous tracking of multiple objects, each with independent movements in real-time, limited only to the TV frame rate (30 msec). In order to perform a similar tracking operation, a large computer system and very complex software would be needed. Although researchers have demonstrated the tracking of only 3 objects, the system capacity can easily be expanded by 2 orders of magnitude.

Chao, Tien-Hsin↗

NASA NTRS1988

VLBI tracking of the TDRS

The use of radio interferometry is being investigated by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center as a means to track the TDRS geostationary satellites. This technique offers the advantages of very high accuracy using a ground network confined to the continental U.S. and minimal (or no) impact on spacecraft systems as the downlink transmissions can be used passively. A demonstration experiment was performed using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). The TDRS-E was observed at S-band over a 28-hour definitive period together with dual X/S-band calibration observations of quasars. An orbit was determined for TDRS-E which agrees within estimated error bars with the orbit solution from NASA's operational tracking system but with about half the uncertainty. It was found that, for S-band tracking, the ionosphere is the largest source of orbit error. Use of Ku-band tracking instead would permit geostationary orbits accurate at the 10-m level.

Ray, J.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Lateral charge transport from heavy-ion tracks in integrated circuit chips

A 256K DRAM has been used to study the lateral transport of charge (electron-hole pairs) induced by direct ionization from heavy-ion tracks in an IC. The qualitative charge transport has been simulated using a two-dimensional numerical code in cylindrical coordinates. The experimental bit-map data clearly show the manifestation of lateral charge transport in the creation of adjacent multiple-bit errors from a single heavy-ion track. The heavy-ion data further demonstrate the occurrence of multiple-bit errors from single ion tracks with sufficient stopping power. The qualitative numerical simulation results suggest that electric-field-funnel-aided (drift) collection accounts for single error generated by an ion passing through a charge-collecting junction, while multiple errors from a single ion track are due to lateral diffusion of ion-generated charge.

Zoutendyk, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Advanced tracking systems design and analysis

The results of an assessment of several types of high-accuracy tracking systems proposed to track the spacecraft in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (ATDRSS) are summarized. Tracking systems based on the use of interferometry and ranging are investigated. For each system, the top-level system design and operations concept are provided. A comparative system assessment is presented in terms of orbit determination performance, ATDRSS impacts, life-cycle cost, and technological risk.

Potash, R.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Galileo Earth approach navigation using connected-element interferometer phase-delay tracking

The application of a Connected-Element Interferometer (CEI) to the navigation of the Galileo spacecraft during its encounter with Earth in December 1990 is investigated. A CEI tracking demonstration is planned for the week of November 11 through 18, 1990, from 27 days to 20 days prior to Earth encounter on December 8. During this period, the spacecraft will be tracked daily with Deep Space Network Stations 13 and 15 at Goldstone. The purpose of this work is twofold: first, to establish and define the navigation performance expected during the tracking demonstration and, second, to study, in a more general sense, the sensitivity of orbit demonstration results obtained with CEI to the data density within CEI tracking passes and to important system parameters, such as baseline orientation errors and the phase-delay measurement accuracy. Computer simulation results indicate that the use of CEI data, coupled with conventional range and Doppler data, may reduce the uncertainty in the declination of the spacecraft's incoming trajectory by 15 to 66 percent compared with the operational solution using range and Doppler data only. The level of improvement depends upon the quantity and quality of the CEI data.

Thurman, S. W.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Optical properties of marine stratocumulus clouds modified by ship track effluents

The angular distribution of scattered radiation deep within a cloud layer was measured in marine stratocumulus clouds modified by the emissions from ships. These observations, obtained at thirteen discrete wavelengths between 0.5 and 2.3 microns, were obtained as the University of Washington Convair C-131A aircraft flew through a pair of roughly parallel ship tracks off the coast of southern California on 10 July 1987. In the first of these ship tracks, the cloud droplet concentration increased from 40 to 107/cu cm (125/cu cm in the second ship track). Simultaneous to this spectacular change, the aircraft measured interstitial aerosol (Aitken nucleus) concentration that increased from 400 to 1000/cu cm and cloud liquid water content that increased from 0.03 to 0.75 g/cu m. Broadband pyranometer measurements showed that the upwelling flux density increased from 150 to 280 W/sq m. These in-situ microphysics and broadband pyranometer results, together with AVHRR satellite images obtained with the NOAA-10 satellite, are described in detail by Radke et al., (1989). Internal scattered radiation measurements at selected wavelengths obtained with the cloud absorption radiometer (King et al., 1986) for a 100 km section of marine stratocumulus clouds containing these two ship track features are presented.

King, Michael D.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Characterization of multiple-bit errors from single-ion tracks in integrated circuits

The spread of charge induced by an ion track in an integrated circuit and its subsequent collection at sensitive nodal junctions can cause multiple-bit errors. The authors have experimentally and analytically investigated this phenomenon using a 256-kb dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). The effects of different charge-transport mechanisms are illustrated, and two classes of ion-track multiple-bit error clusters are identified. It is demonstrated that ion tracks that hit a junction can affect the lateral spread of charge, depending on the nature of the pull-up load on the junction being hit. Ion tracks that do not hit a junction allow the nearly uninhibited lateral spread of charge.

Zoutendyk, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Data association multiple target tracking using a phase-mostly liquid crystal television

This paper presents a technique of using data association target tracking in a motion sequence via an adaptive joint transform correlator. The massive data in the field of view can be reduced to a few correlation peaks. The average velocity of a target during the tracking cycle is then determined from the location of the correlation peak. A data association algorithm is used for the analysis of these correlation signals, with which multiple targets can be tracked. A phase-mostly liquid-crystal TV is used in the hybrid joint transform correlation system, and simultaneous tracking of three targets is demonstrated.

Tam, Eddy C.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Evaluation of orbit determination using dual-TDRS tracking

This paper describes the results of a study to evaluate the orbit determinatioin of Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) user spacecraft within the dual-Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) environment. Dense TDRSS tracking of the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) was acquired for the period August 16 through 22, 1989. This tracking information was processed to evaluate the orbit determination consistency achieved using the Goddard Trajectory Determination System batch least-squares estimator. The effects of the use of the second operational relay spacecraft, of refinements in orbit determination models (geopotentials, polar motion, solid earth tidal gravitational perturbations, ionospheric refraction corrections), and of methods for providing relay spacecraft spacecraft position information were also studied.

Oza, D. H.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Robot tracking system improvements and visual calibration of orbiter position for radiator inspection

The following separate topics are addressed: (1) improving a robotic tracking system; and (2) providing insights into orbiter position calibration for radiator inspection. The objective of the tracking system project was to provide the capability to track moving targets more accurately by adjusting parameters in the control system and implementing a predictive algorithm. A computer model was developed to emulate the tracking system. Using this model as a test bed, a self-tuning algorithm was developed to tune the system gains. The model yielded important findings concerning factors that affect the gains. The self-tuning algorithms will provide the concepts to write a program to automatically tune the gains in the real system. The section concerning orbiter position calibration provides a comparison to previous work that had been performed for plant growth. It provided the conceptualized routines required to visually determine the orbiter position and orientation. Furthermore, it identified the types of information which are required to flow between the robot controller and the vision system.

Tonkay, Gregory↗

NASA NTRS1980

Automatic satellite tracking system for the NASA Satellite Photometric Observatory

The development of an Automatic TV Tracking System for NASA's mobile 61 cm aperture Satellite Photometric Observatory is described. The analysis techniques used to match the FOV and resolutions to changing seeing conditions are covered in details. Theoretical reasons for such matching of general interest are discussed. It is shown that the energy density in a satellite image is 11 times greater during good seeing conditions than during typical seeing conditions. The Z7987 image tube is shown to be able to detect 16th magnitude objects under ideal seeing conditions using only 8 percent of the light collected by the main telescope. Experimental results show that the SPO equipped with a Z7987 camera can track a satellite at any orbital velocity with less than 0.14 mr accuracy using the DBA Series 606 TV Tracker. The manual system used prior to the installation of the Automatic TV Tracking System could maintain track at 1.1 mr accuracy for comparison.

Mucklow, Glenn H.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Multi-target tracking using a hybrid joint transform correlator

A technique using data association target tracking in a motion sequence via an adaptive joint transform correlator is presented. The massive data in the field of view can be reduced to a few correlation peaks. The average velocity of a target during the tracking cycle is then determined from the location of the correlation peak. A data-association algorithm is used for the analysis of these correlation signals, for which multiple targets can be tracked. A phase-mostly liquid-crystal TV is used in the hybrid joint transform correlation system, and simultaneous tracking of three targets is demonstrated.

Yu, Francis T. S.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Experiments with conjugate gradient algorithms for homotopy curve tracking

There are algorithms for finding zeros or fixed points of nonlinear systems of equations that are globally convergent for almost all starting points, i.e., with probability one. The essence of all such algorithms is the construction of an appropriate homotopy map and then tracking some smooth curve in the zero set of this homotopy map. HOMPACK is a mathematical software package implementing globally convergent homotopy algorithms with three different techniques for tracking a homotopy zero curve, and has separate routines for dense and sparse Jacobian matrices. The HOMPACK algorithms for sparse Jacobian matrices use a preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm for the computation of the kernel of the homotopy Jacobian matrix, a required linear algebra step for homotopy curve tracking. Here, variants of the conjugate gradient algorithm are implemented in the context of homotopy curve tracking and compared with Craig's preconditioned conjugate gradient method used in HOMPACK. The test problems used include actual large scale, sparse structural mechanics problems.

Irani, Kashmira M.↗