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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 433 records · Page 24

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NASA NTRS1985

Design and Fabrication of the NASA Decoupler Pylon for the F-16 Aircraft

The NASA Decoupler Pylon is a passive means of suppressing wing-store flutter. The feasibility of demonstrating this concept on the F-16 aircraft was established through model wind tunnel tests and analyses. As a result of these tests and studies a ship set of Decoupler Pylons was designed and fabricated for a flight test demonstration on the F-16 aircraft. Basic design criteria were developed during the analysis study pertaining to pylon pitch stiffness, alignment system requirements, and damping requirements. A design was developed which utilized an electrical motor for the pylon alignment system. The design uses a four pin, two link pivot design which results in a remote pivot located at the center of gravity of the store when the store is in the aligned position. The pitch spring was fabricated from a tapered constant stress cantilevered beam. The pylon has the same external lines as the existing production pylon and is designed to use a MAU-12 ejection rack which is the same as the one used with the production pylon. The detailed design and fabrication was supported with a complete ground test of the pylon prior to shipment to NASA.

Clayton, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

High altitude, microwave-powered atmospheric sampling aircraft

The preliminary design af a high altitude, remotely piloted, atmospheric sampling aircraft powered by microwave energy beamed from a ground based antenna has been completed. The aircraft utilizes a horizontal tail and a canard for longitudinal control and to enhance the structural rigidity of the twin fuselage configuration. The wing structure is designed to withstand a gust induced load factor of n equals 3 at cruise altitude, but the low wing loading of the aircraft makes it very sensitive to gusts at lower altitudes, where induced load factors may be in excess of 20. Therefore, a structural load alleviation system is proposed to limit actual loads to the designed structural limit. Since the transmitting antenna would have a diameter of several hundred feet, it would not be readily transportable; so, it is proposed that a single antenna be constructed at a site from which the aircraft is to be flown. The aircraft would be towed aloft to an initial altitude at which the microwave power would be utilized. The aircraft would climb to cruise altitude in a spiral flight path and then orbit the transmitter in a gentle turn.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1979

An airborne remote sensing 4.5 to 7.2 gigahertz stepped frequency microwave radiometer

A microwave stepped frequency radiometer operating from 4.5 to 7.2 gigahertz has been designed, fabricated and flight tested in an airborne remote sensing mission by NASA Langley Research Center. This paper describes the design of this precision microwave Dicke-switched noise feedback radiometer, calibration techniques and presents typical results from remote sensing mission employing this radiometer.

Harrington, R. F.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Design of a V/STOL propulsion system for a large-scale fighter model

Modifications were made to the existing Large-Scale STOL fighter model to simulate a V/STOL configuration. Modifications include the substitutions of two dimensional lift/cruise exhaust nozzles in the nacelles, and the addition of a third J97 engine in the fuselage to suppy a remote exhaust nozzle simulating a Remote Augmented Lift System. A preliminary design of the inlet and exhaust ducting for the third engine was developed and a detailed design was completed of the hot exhaust ducting and remote nozzle.

Willis, W. S.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Operational experience and design recommendations for teleoperated flight hardware

Teleoperation (remote manipulation) will someday supplement/minimize astronaut extravehicular activity in space to perform such tasks as satellite servicing and repair, and space station construction and servicing. This technology is being investigated by NASA with teleoperation of two space-related tasks having been demonstrated at the Oak Ridge National Lab. The teleoperator experiments are discussed and the results of these experiments are summarized. The related equipment design recommendations are also presented. In addition, a general discussion of equipment design for teleoperation is also presented.

Burgess, T. W.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Utilization of remote sensing observations in hydrologic models

Most of the remote sensing related work in hydrologic modeling has centered on modifying existing models to take advantage of the capabilities of new sensor techniques. There has been enough success with this approach to insure that remote sensing is a powerful tool in modeling the watershed processes. Unfortunately, many of the models in use were designed without recognizing the growth of remote sensing technology. Thus, their parameters were selected to be map or field crew definable. It is believed that the real benefits will come through the evolution of new models having new parameters that are developed specifically to take advantage of our capabilities in remote sensing. The ability to define hydrologically active areas could have a significant impact. The ability to define soil moisture and the evolution of new techniques to estimate evoportransportation could significantly modify our approach to hydrologic modeling. Still, without a major educational effort to develop an understanding of the techniques used to extract parameter estimates from remote sensing data, the potential offered by this new technology will not be achieved.

Ragan, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1974

The S-193 radar altimeter experiment

The Skylab S-193 altimeter experiment utilizes a 10- and 100-ns pulse length, 13.9-GHz earth-pointed radar system to obtain earth-surface backscatter measurements from the Skylab spacecraft. Objectives of the experiment are to obtain precision measurements of surface profile for uses in geodesy, oceanography, and earth physics, and to measure radar-signal characteristics from an earth-orbit geometry to provide design information for future radar remote-sensors. The technical approach is that of measuring the power impulse response of the scattering surface. The hardware is designed to operate in five modes: waveform or impulse-response measurement and altitude determination; radar cross-section experiment; signal correlation experiment; 10-nsec pulse-compression evaluation; and nadir-seeker experiment.

Mcgoogan, J. T.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Compact Simultaneous-beam Optical Strain Measurement System, Phase 5

Recent advances on the laser speckle strain measurement system under development at NASA Lewis Research Center have resulted in a compact, easy-to-use measurement package having many performance improvements over previous systems. NASA has developed this high performance optical strain measurement system for high temperature material testing applications. The system is based on I. Yamaguchi's two-beam speckle-shift strain measurement theory, and uses a new optical design that allows simultaneous recording of laser speckle patterns. This design greatly improves system response over previous implementations of the two-beam speckle-shift technique. The degree of immunity to transient rigid body motions is no longer dependent on the data transfer rate. The system automatically calculates surface strains at a frequency of about 5 Hz using a high speed digital signal processor in a personal computer. This system is fully automated, and can be operated remotely. This report describes the designs and methods used by the system, and shows low temperature strain test results obtained from small diameter tungsten-rhenium and palladium-chrome wires.

Lant, Christian T.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Study of turbine bypass remote augmentor lift system for V/STOL aircraft

The airframe design and engine/aircraft integration were emphasized in a NASA comparative study of turbofan and turbine bypass engine (TBE) with remote augmentor lift systems (RALS) for supersonic V/STOL aircraft. Functional features of the TBE are reviewed, noting the enhanced cycle efficiency and reduced afterbody drag compared to the turbojets. The present studies examied performance levels for aircraft with fleet defense and secondary anti-surface warfare roles, carrying AMRAAM and AIM missiles. TBE engine cycles were configured for hover and up-and-away flight from deck launch, and all tests were done from a conceptual design viewpoint. The results indicate that the TBE-RALS is superior to turbofan-RALS aircraft in both gross take-off weight and life cycle cost.

Sheridan, A. E.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Multispectral data acquisition and classification - Computer modeling for smart sensor design

In this paper a model of the processes involved in multispectral remote sensing and data classification is developed as a tool for designing and evaluating smart sensors. The model has both stochastic and deterministic elements and accounts for solar radiation, atmospheric radiative transfer, surface reflectance, sensor spectral reponses, and classification algorithms. Preliminary results are presented which indicate the validity and usefulness of this approach. Future capabilities of smart sensors will ultimately be limited by the accuracy with which multispectral remote sensing processes and their error sources can be computationally modeled.

Park, S. K.↗

NASA NTRS1989

The design of a low Reynolds number RPV

This paper covers the ongoing design process for a long endurance Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV). The 45-pound RPV must operate in the 25-50 knot speed range at low altitudes. Specially designed low-Reynolds number airfoils were used for efficient aerodynamics. A wing of AR = 23 was selected which will give an estimated L/D(max) of 27. Wing tip feathers will be used to reduce the induced drag. A comparison between the computed aerodynamic predictions and wind tunnel results is given. The predicted handling quality and performance results are given.

Siddiqi, S.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Analysis of Technology for Solid State Coherent Lidar

Over the past few years, considerable advances have been made in the areas of the diode-pumped, eye-safe, solid state lasers, wide bandwidth, semiconductor detectors operating in the near-infrared region. These advances have created new possibilities for the development of low-cost, reliable, and compact coherent lidar systems for measurements of atmospheric winds and aerosol backscattering from a space-based platform. The work performed by the UAH personnel concentrated on design and analyses of solid state pulsed coherent lidar systems capable of measuring atmospheric winds from space, and design and perform laboratory experiments and measurements in support of solid state laser radar remote sensing systems which are to be designed, deployed, and used by NASA to measure atmospheric processes and constituents. A lidar testbed system was designed and analyzed by considering the major space operational and environmental requirements, and its associated physical constraints. The lidar optical system includes a wedge scanner and the compact telescope designed by the UAH personnel. The other major optical components included in the design and analyses were: polarizing beam splitter, routing mirrors, wave plates, signal beam derotator, and lag angle compensator. The testbed lidar optical train was designed and analyzed, and different design options for mounting and packaging the lidar subsystems and components and support structure were investigated. All the optical components are to be mounted in a stress-free and stable manner to allow easy integration and alignment, and long term stability. This lidar system is also intended to be used for evaluating the performance of various lidar subsystems and components that are to be integrated into a flight unit and for demonstrating the integrity of the signal processing algorithms by performing actual atmospheric measurements from a ground station.

Amzajerdian, Farzin↗

NASA NTRS2020

Low-level liquid cloud properties during ORACLES retrieved using airborne polarimetric measurements and a neural network algorithm

In this study we developed a neural network (NN) that can be used to retrieve cloud microphysical properties from multiangular and multispectral polarimetric remote sensing observations. This effort builds upon our previous work, which explored the sensitivity of neural network input, architecture, and other design requirements for this type of remote sensing problem. In particular this work introduces a framework for appropriately weighting total and polarized reflectances, which have vastly different magnitudes and measurement uncertainties. The NN is trained using an artificial training set and applied to research scanning polarimeter (RSP) data obtained during the ORACLES field campaign (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS). The polarimetric RSP observations are unique in that they observe the same cloud from a very large number of angles within a variety of spectral bands, resulting in a large dataset that can be explored rapidly with a NN approach. The usefulness of applying a NN to a dataset such as this one stems from the possibility of rapidly obtaining a retrieval that could be subsequently applied as a first guess for slower but more rigorous physical-based retrieval algorithms. This approach could be particularly advantageous for more complicated atmospheric retrievals – such as when an aerosol layer lies above clouds like in ORACLES. For RSP observations obtained during ORACLES 2016, comparisons between the NN and standard parametric polarimetric (PP) cloud retrieval give reasonable results for droplet effective radius (r(e): R=0.756, RMSE=1.74 µm) and cloud optical thickness (τ: R=0.950, RMSE=1.82). This level of statistical agreement is shown to be similar to comparisons between the two most well-established cloud retrievals, namely, the polarimetric and the bispectral total reflectance cloud retrievals. The NN retrievals from the ORACLES 2017 dataset result in retrievals of r(e) (R=0.54, RMSE=4.77 µm) and τ (R=0.785, RMSE=5.61) that behave much more poorly. In particular we found that our NN retrieval approach does not perform well for thin (τ<3), inhomogeneous, or broken clouds. We also found that correction for above-cloud atmospheric absorption improved the NN retrievals moderately – but retrievals without this correction still behaved similarly to existing cloud retrievals with a slight systematic offset.

SPECTRAL-RESOLUTION LIDAR↗

NASA NTRS1987

Development of moored oceanographic spectroradiometer

Biospherical Instruments has successfully completed a NASA sponsored SBIR (Small Business Innovational Research Program) project to develop spectroradiometers capable of being deployed in the ocean for long periods of time. The completion of this project adds a valuable tool for the calibration of future spaceborne ocean color sensors and enables oceanographers to extend remote sensing optical techniques beyond the intermittent coverage of spaceborne sensors. Highlights of the project include two moorings totalling 8 months generating extensive sets of optical, biological, and physical data sets in the ocean off La Jolla, California, and a 70 day operational deployment of the resulting commercial product by the ONR and NASA sponsored BIOWATT program. Based on experience gained in these moorings, Biospherical Instruments has developed a new line of spectroradiometers designed to support the oceanographic remote sensing missions of NASA, the Navy, and various oceanographers.

Booth, Charles R.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Remote sensing impact on corridor selection and placement

Computer-aided corridor selection techniques, utilizing digitized data bases of socio-economic, census, and cadastral data, and developed for highway corridor routing are considered. Land resource data generated from various remote sensing data sources were successfully merged with the ancillary data files of a corridor selection model and prototype highway corridors were designed using the combined data set. Remote sensing derived information considered useful for highway corridor location, special considerations in geometric correction of remote sensing data to facilitate merging it with ancillary data files, and special interface requirements are briefly discussed.

Thomson, F. J.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Testbed for remote telepresence research

The paper describes the design and implementation of a telepresence system, as well as its control hardware and software. The mobile omnidirectional robot has three independent degrees of freedom that permit independent control of translation and rotation, thereby simulating a free-flying robot in a plane. The kinematically redundant robot arm has eight degrees of freedom that assist in obstacle and singularity avoidance. The on-board control computers permit control of the robot from the dual hand controllers via a radio modem system. A head-mounted display system provides the user with a stereo view from a pair of cameras attached to the mobile robotics system. The head tracking camera system moves stereo cameras mounted on a three-DOF platform to coordinate with the operator's head movements. This telepresence system provides a framework for research in remote telepresence, and teleoperations for space.

Adnan, Sarmad↗

NASA NTRS2010

Lunabotics Mining Competition

This slide presentation describes a competition to design a lunar robot (lunabot) that can be controlled either remotely or autonomously, isolated from the operator, and is designed to mine a lunar aggregate simulant. The competition is part of a systems engineering curriculum. The 2010 competition winners in five areas of the competition were acknowledged, and the 2011 competition was announced.

Mueller, Rob↗

NASA NTRS2013

Design of an Ultra-High Efficiency GaN High-Power Amplifier for SAR Remote Sensing

This work describes the development of a high-power amplifier for use with a remote sensing SAR system. The amplifier is intended to meet the requirements for the Sweep-SAR technique for use in the proposed DESDynI SAR instrument. In order to optimize the amplifier design, active load-pull technique is employed to provide harmonic tuning to provide efficiency improvements. In addition, some of the techniques to overcome the challenges of load-pulling high power devices are presented. The design amplifier was measured to have 49 dBm of output power with 75% PAE, which is suitable to meet the proposed system requirements.

active load-pull↗