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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1971

A rocket borne instrument to measure electric fields inside electrified clouds

The development of a rocket borne instrument to measure electric fields in thunderstorms is described. Corona currents from a sharp needle atop a small rocket are used to sense the electric field. A high ohm resistor in series with the corona needle linearizes the relationship between corona current and electric field. The corona current feeds a relaxation oscillator, whose pulses trigger a transmitter which operates in the 395 to 410 MHz meteorological band. The instrument senses fields between 5 kV/m and 100 kV/m.

Ruhnke, L. H.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Rocket-borne instrument for observations of near-infrared and far-infrared extended astrophysical emission

We give a detailed description of the design and flight performance of an instrument onboard the S-520-15 rocket of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The isntrument, consisting of a near-infrared spectrometer and a far-infrared photometer at the focus of a 10 cm liquid-helium cooled telescope, was designed to observe both the brightness and distribution of diffuse emission with high sensitivity. The rocket was successfully launched and the instrument observed near-infrared and far-infrared continuum emission, as well as (C II) 157.7 micrometer line emission from regions at high Galactic latitude. We also give a brief description of the design and performance of an onboard attitude control system.

Matsuhara, Hideo↗
NASA NTRS1974

A rocket borne instrument for the study of soft X-ray emission from cosmic X-ray sources

Details about a rocket-borne instrument designed for studying the various characteristics of soft X-ray emission from cosmic X-ray sources in the energy range of 0.2 to 3 keV are presented. The X-ray detector consists of a bank of four multilayer, wall-less proportional counters, each with an area of 400 sq cm. The detectors are covered by windows of 1.4-micron polypropylene and are maintained at a constant pressure in flight using a gas control system. Two of the detectors are equipped with 0.4- by 10-deg collimators for mapping the spatial distribution of soft X-rays from extended X-ray sources. A pair of balanced filters consisting of oxygen and CF4 are used for detecting oxygen emission lines.

Agrawal, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Atmospheric response in aurora experiment: Observations of E and F region neutral winds in a region of postmidnight diffuse aurora

The goal of the Atmospheric Response in Aurora (ARIA) experiment carried out at Poker Flat, Alaska, on March 3, 1992, was to determine the response of the neutral atmosphere to the long-lived, large-scale forcing that is characteristic of the diffuse aurora in the post midnight sector. A combination of chemical release rocket wind measurements, instrumented rocket composition measurements, and ground-based optical measurements were used to characterize the response of the neutral atmosphere. The rocket measurements were made at the end of a 90-min period of strong Joule heating. We focus on the neutral wind measurements made with the rocket. The forcing was determined by running the assimilated mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) analysis procedure developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The winds expected at the latitude and longitude of the experiment were calculated using the spectral thermospheric general circulation model developed at the Danish Meteorological Institute. Comparisons of the observations and the model suggest that the neutral winds responded strongly in two height ranges. An eastward wind perturbation of approximately 100 m/s developed between 140 and 200 km altitude with a peak near 160 km. A southwestward wind with peak magnitude of approximately 150 m/s developed near 115 km altitude. The large amplitude winds at the lower altitude are particularly surprising. They appear to be associated with the upward propagating semidiurnal tide. However, the amplitude is much larger than predicted by any of the tidal models, and the shear found just below the peak in the winds was nominally unstable with a Richardson number of approximately 0.08.

Larsen, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Rocket borne instrument to measure electric fields inside electrified clouds

An apparatus for measuring the electric field in the atmosphere which includes a pair of sensors carried on a rocket for sensing the voltages in the atmosphere being measured is described. One of the sensors is an elongated probe with a fine point which causes a corona current to be produced as it passes through the electric field. An electric circuit is coupled between the probe and the other sensor and includes a high ohm resistor which linearizes the relationship between the corona current and the electric field being measured. A relaxation oscillator and transmitter are provided for generating and transmitting an electric signal having a frequency corresponding to the magnitude of the electric field.

Ruhnke, L. H.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Rocket-borne instrument with a high-resolution microchannel plate detector for planetary UV spectroscopy

A telescope-spectrograph employing a photon-counting microchannel plate (MCP)-CODACON detector has been built, tested, and flown on a sounding rocket. The detector uses a curved-channel MCP proximity focused onto a coded anode array of 1024 channels spaced 25.4-mm center to center. High quantum efficiency is obtained by depositing a cesium iodide photocathode on the front surface of the MCP. The instrument has obtained an ultraviolet spectrum of Jupiter with a spectral resolution of 8 A, which is higher than that of any previously reported observation in this wavelength range.

Mcclintock, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Comparison of horizontal winds from the LIMS satellite instrument with rocket measurements

Statistical results are given for a comparison between horizontal geostrophic winds computed from satellite height data and all available in situ rocket wind soundings during a 7-month period. The satellite data are the daily mapped fields from the Nimbus 7 Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS) instrument, which extend from 100 to 0.1 mbar. Results indicate that in both the tropics and the extratropical Northern Hemisphere, the average zonal and meridional wind speeds agree to within 2-4 m/s throughout the stratosphere. The rms differences are much larger, with values of 5-10 m/s in the lower stratosphere, increasing to 20-40 m/s in the lower mesosphere. Time series show that LIMS and rocketsonde zonal wind speeds show coherent variations with temporal periods of 1-2 weeks and more, and both exhibit irregular variations on time scales of less than one week.

Smith, A. K.↗
NASA NTRS1995

PULSAUR 2: A sounding rocket project to study pulsating aurora and related phenomena

The second pulsating aurora (PULSAUR 2) rocket was a comprehensively instrumented rocket for the study of the generating mechanisms of pulsating auroras and their related atmospheric and ionospheric effects. It carried instruments to measure electrons and ions over a wide range of energies and pitch angles, optical emissions and X-rays, direct currents and alternating currents, magnetic fields, electron densities and temperatures. The rocket was flown from Andoeya, Norway on 9 February 1994, during good auroral and optical conditions, and reached an altitude of 291.5 km. Coordinated measurements were made from the rocket range by television cameras, photometers, magnetometers, riometers and very low frequency receivers. Ionospheric parameters were measured by the EISCAT radar. The main objectives and performance of the project are discussed, and some of the data obtained are mentioned.

Maaseide, K.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Reliability Improvements in Liquid Rocket Engine Instrumentation

Instrumentation hardware is often the weak link in advanced liquid fueled propulsion systems. The development of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) was no exception. By sheer necessity, a reusable, high energy, low weight engine system often relegates the instrumentation hardware to the backseat in the critical hardware development process. This produces less than optimum hardware constraints; including size, location, mounting, redundancy, and signal conditioning. This can negatively affect the development effort and ultimately the system reliability. The challenge was clear, however, the outcome was less certain. Unfortunately, the SSME hardware development culminated in series of measurement failures, most significant of which was the premature engine shutdown during the launch of STS-51F on July 29, 1985. The Return to Flight activities following the Challenger disaster redoubled our efforts to eliminate, once and for all, sensor malfunctions as the determining factor in overall engine reliability. This paper describes each phase of this effort in detail and includes discussion of the tasks related to improving measurement reliability.

Hill, A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Soft Particle Spectrometer, Langmuir Probe, and Data Analysis for Aerospace Magnetospheric/Thermospheric Coupling Rocket Program

Under this grant two instruments, a soft particle spectrometer and a Langmuir probe, were refurbished and calibrated, and flown on three instrumented rocket payloads as part of the Magnetosphere/Thermosphere Coupling program. The flights took place at the Poker Flat Research Range on February 12, 1994 (T(sub o) = 1316:00 UT), February 2, 1995 (T(sub o) = 1527:20 UT), and November 27, 1995 (T(sub o) = 0807:24 UT). In this report the observations of the particle instrumentation flown on all three of the flights are described, and brief descriptions of relevant geophysical activity for each flight are provided. Calibrations of the particle instrumentation for all ARIA flights are also provided.

Sharber, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The extreme ultraviolet spectrograph: A radial groove grating, sounding rocket-borne, astronomical instrument

The design, calibration, and sounding rocket flight performance of a novel spectrograph suitable for moderate-resolution EUV spectroscopy are presented. The sounding rocket-borne instrument uses a radial groove grating to maintain a high system efficiency while controlling the aberrations induced when doing spectroscopy in a converging beam. The instrument has a resolution of approximately 2 A across the 200-330 A bandpass with an average effective area of 2 sq cm. The instrument, called the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph, acquired the first EUV spectra in this wavelength region of the hot white dwarf G191-B2B and the late-type star Capella.

Wilkinson, Erik↗
NASA NTRS2008

Combined Impedance Probe and Langmuir Probe Studies of the Low-Latitude E Region

The EQUIS-2 sounding rocket and radar campaign, launched from Kwajalein Atoll in 2004, included a mission to study low-latitude irregularities and electrodynamics, led by NASA GSFC. This mission included two instrumented rockets launched into the nighttime E region (apogee near 120 km), which included comprehensive electrodynamics and neutral density instrumentation. These rockets carried the first of a new generation of impedance probes, that utilize a wide-band drive signal to simultaneously measure the impedance of an antenna in a plasma as a function of frequency from 7 kEIz to 4 MHz. at a rapid cadence. This technique promises to permit true plasma spectroscopy, and resulted in the identification of multiple plasma resonances and accurate measurements of the plasma density, even in the low density nighttime E region. We present analyses of the technique and resulting spectra, and show how these data may be combined with fixed-bias Langmuir Probe data to infer the temperature structure of the E region as well as providing accurate absolute calibrations for the very high time resolution fixed-bias probe data. The data is shown to agree well with data from ionosonde, the ALTAIR radar, and the Peruvian beacon experiment.

Rowland, D. E.↗