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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2009

Long Cable Deployments During Martian Touchdown: Lessons Learned

The launch of NASA/JPL's next generation Mars rover is planned for the fall of 2011. The landing scheme chosen for this rover represents a step forward in unmanned payload delivery. The rover will be lowered from a rocket powered descent stage and then placed onto the surface while hanging from three bridles. During this touchdown event, the communication between the rover and descent stage is maintained by an electrical umbilical cable which is deployed in parallel with the structural bridles. During the development of the deployment device for the electrical umbilical, many obstacles were identified and overcome. Many of these challenges were due in large part to the helical nature of the packing geometry of the umbilical cable. And although none of these issues resulted in the failure of the design, they increased both development and assembly time. Many of the issues and some of the benefits of a helical deployment were not immediately apparent during the trade studies carried out during the deployment selection process. Tests were conducted upon completion of the device in order to characterize both the deployment and separation characteristics of the cable. Extraction loads were needed for inputs to touchdown models and separation dynamics were required to assess cable-rover recontact risk. Understanding the pros and cons surrounding the deployment of a helically packed cable would most certainly influence the outcome of future trade studies surrounding the selection of cable deployment options.

Mars Science Lab↗
NASA NTRS2020

Nuclear X-Ray Activity in Low-surface-brightness Galaxies: Prospects for Constraining the Local Black Hole Occupation Fraction with a Chandra Successor Mission

About half of nearby galaxies have a central surface brightness>1 mag below that of the sky. The overall properties of these low-surface-brightness galaxies(LSBGs)remain understudied, and in particular we know very little about their massive black hole population. This gap must be closed to determine the frequency of massive black holes at z=0 as well as to understand their role in regulating galaxy evolution. Here we investigate the incidence and intensity of nuclear, accretion-powered X-ray emission in a sample of 32 nearby LSBGs with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. A nuclear X-ray source is detected in four galaxies(12.5%). Based on an X-ray binary contamination assessment technique developed for normal galaxies, we conclude that the detected X-ray nuclei indicate low-level accretion from massive black holes. The active fraction is consistent with that expected from the stellar mass distribution of the LSBGs, but not their total baryonic mass, when using a scaling relation from an unbiased X-ray survey of normal galaxies. This suggests that their black holes co-evolved with their stellar population. In addition, the apparent agreement nearly doubles the number of galaxies available within∼100 Mpc for which a measurement of nuclear activity can efficiently constrain the frequency of black holes as a function of stellar mass. We conclude by discussing the feasibility of measuring this occupation fraction to a few percent precision below ≲ 10^10 M(ʘ) with high-resolution, wide-field X-ray missions currently under consideration.

Edmund J. Hodges-Kluck↗
NASA NTRS1983

Large amplitude MHD waves upstream of the Jovian bow shock

Observations of large amplitude MHD waves upstream of Jupiter's bow shock are analyzed. The waves are found to be right circularly polarized in the solar wind frame, which suggests that they are propagating in the fast magnetosonic mode. A complete spectral and minimum variance eigenvalue analysis of the data was performed. The power spectrum of the magnetic fluctuations contains several peaks. The fluctuations at 2.3 MHz have a direction of minimum variance anti-parallel to the direction of the average magnetic field. Several harmonics at 6, 9, and 12 MHz are also present. The direction of minimum variance of these fluctuations lies at approximately 40 deg to the magnetic field. It is argued that these fluctuations are waves excited by protons reflected off the Jovian bow shock. The inferred speed of the reflected protons is about two times the solar wind speed in the solar wind frame. A linear instability analysis is presented that suggests an explanation for many of the observed features of the observations. The fluctuations apparently contain a significant fraction of magnetic energy that is linearly polarized and in the Alfven mode.

Goldstein, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The Galactic center wind

The combined effect of winds from a cluster of stars in the central 0.8 pc of the Galaxy is modeled as uniform power and mass input over the central region. The flow becomes supersonic outside the central region, and the expected decrease in pressure is in approximate accord with observations. The pressure variations on a larger scale suggest that the Galactic center wind passes through a shock front at a radius of a few pc, leading to a shocked wind bubble on a scale of 100 pc. The tangential magnetic field can come to dominate the pressure in the shocked wind flow even if the energy density of the magnetic field in the initial wind is only 0.1 percent of the wind kinetic energy density. The magnetic region produced in this way may be related to some of the apparently magnetized structures observed in the central region of the Galaxy.

Chevalier, Roger A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The interstellar D1 line at high resolution

Observations at a resolving power or a velocity resolution are reported of the interstellar D(sub 1) line of Na I in the spectra of gamma Cas, delta Ori, epsilon Ori, pi Sco, delta Cyg, and alpha Cyg. An echelle grating was used in a double-pass configuration with a CCD detector in the coude spectrograph of the 2.7 m reflector at McDonald Observatory. At least 42 kinematically distinct clouds are detected along the light paths to the five more distant stars, in addition to a single cloud seen toward delta Cyg. The absorption lines arising in 13 of the clouds are sufficiently narrow and unblended to reveal clearly resolved hyperfine structure components split by 1.05 km/s. An additional 13 clouds apparently show comparably narrow, but more strongly blended, lines. For each individual cloud, upper limits T(sub max) and (v sub t)(sub max) on the temperature and the turbulent velocity, respectively, are derived by fitting the observed lines with theoretical absorption profiles.

Hobbs, L. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The interstellar D1 line at high resolution

Observations at a resolving power or a velocity resolution are reported of the interstellar D(sub 1) line of Na I in the spectra of Gamma Cas, Delta Ori, Epsilon Ori, Pi Sco, Delta Cyg, and Alpha Cyg. An echelle grating was used in a double-pass configuration with a CCD detector in the coude spectrograph of the 2.7 m reflector at McDonald Observatory. At least 42 kinematically distinct clouds are detected along the light paths to the five more distant stars, in addition to a single cloud seen toward Delta Cyg. The absorption lines arising in 13 of the clouds are sufficiently narrow and unblended to reveal clearly resolved hyperfine structure components split by 1.05 km/s. An additional 13 clouds apparently show comparably narrow, but more strongly blended, lines. For each individual cloud, upper limits T(sub max) and (v sub t) (sub max) on the temperature and the turbulent velocity, respectively, are derived by fitting the observing lines with theoretical absorption profiles.

Hobbs, L. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

G27.4+0.0 - A galactic supernova remnant with a central compact source

High-resolution X-ray and radio images of the galactic supernova remnant G27.4+0.0 are presented. The X-ray image reveals a centrally located compact source of emission which accounts for 25 percent + or - 2 percent of the emission. The rest of the emission is found in diffuse patches defining a circle of diameter 4 arc min. The radio image is an incomplete shell of comparable diameter with no apparent counterpart to the compact X-ray source. The X-ray luminosity of the supernova remmant implied by the distance of 26 kpc inferred from the Sigma-D relationship exceeds that of any known remnant. This fact, plus the relatively low X-ray absorption, suggests that the remnant is substantially closer than 26 kpc. No X-ray variability of the central source has been detected to a level of 50 percent on time scales of about 1 year, and no periodicity in the range 0.0001-100 Hz to a limit of 16 percent was detected. If G27.4 +0.0 is within a few kiloparsecs, the central source is most likely to be an accretion-powered X-ray binary.

Kriss, G. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Lightning mapper and the future

A trade-off analysis was completed that reveals how the lightning mapper detection efficiency will change as a function of interference filter bandwidth, pixel field of view, and telescope aperture. It is shown that the critical parameter on which we have minimum flexibility is filter band-width. The problem is that too narrow a filter bandwidth is incompatible with wide areal coverage. The trade-off analysis demonstrates that an 80 percent lightning detection efficiency will technically be relatively straight-forward, while a 90 percent detection efficiency will apparently be difficult to achieve. Three focal plane designs are currently under consideration. One would use a single large, solid state silicon integrating array with multiple output channels and off-the-focal-plane analog, time domain, background removing fibers. A second design would use the same technology, but the sensor would consist of up to four virtually independent focal plane arrays. This design reduces the areal coverage of each detector. Thus narrower interference filters could be utilized. Superior performance would be realized at a probable increase in cost. The final design would use a three-dimensional focal plane in order to perform background removal at the focal plane. Superior performance would be achieved along with reduced weight and power requirements. Unfortunately, this focal plane technology is still under development.

Christian, H. J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Advances in understanding the gravity wave spectrum during MAP

Prior to MAP, virtually nothing was known about gravity wave spectra in the atmosphere. The development of observational techniques has played a major role in these studies. Radar and lidar have been particularly important since they can measure atmospheric parameters continuously over large height ranges. Some advances made are: (1) The observed fluctuations and power spectra in the free atmosphere are mostly if not entirely due to a superposition of gravity waves, which can be modeled by the Garrett Munk (GM) model; (2) There is no evidence that 2-D turbulence makes a significant contribution to the observed fluctuations. In any case, the agreement between observations and the GM model shows that the 2DT contribution must be relatively small; (3) Spectra versus vertical wave number are saturated at large wave number, with theory and observations indicating that t approximately equals 3; and (4) Vertical velocity fluctuations and spectra measured near rough terrain are strongly contaminated by mountain waves. But over very flat terrain the spectra are dominated by gravity waves at periods shorter than about 6 hours and apparently by synoptic scale velocities at periods longer than 6 hours. Thus it may be possible to study synoptic scale vertical velocities using radars located in very flat terrain.

Vanzandt, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Chandra X-Ray Observatory Observations of the Globular Cluster M28 and its Millisecond Pulsar PSR B1821-24

We report here the results of the first Chandra X-Ray Observatory observations of the globular cluster M28 (NGC 6626). We detect 46 X-ray sources of which 12 lie within one core radius of the center. We show that the apparently extended X-ray core emission seen with the ROSAT HRI is due to the superposition of multiple discrete sources for which we determine the X-ray luminosity function down to a limit of about 6 x 10(exp 30) erg/s. We measure the radial distribution of the X-ray sources and fit it to a King profile finding a core radius of r(sub c,x) approx. 11 sec. We obtain the best-fit mass of the X-ray sources to be M(sub x) approx. 1.9 solar masses. We measure for the first time the unconfused phase-averaged X-ray spectrum of the 3.05-ms pulsar B1821-24 and find it best described by a power law with photon-index Gamma approx. equal to 1.2. We find marginal evidence of an emission line centered at 3.3 kev in the pulsar spectrum, which could be interpreted as cyclotron emission from a corona above the pulsar's polar cap if the the magnetic field is strongly different from a centered dipole. The unabsorbed pulsar flux in the 0.5-8.0 keV band is approx. 3.5 x 10(exp -13) ergs/s/sq cm. We present spectral analyses of the 5 brightest unidentified sources. Based on the spectral parameters of the brightest of these sources, we suggest that it is a transiently accreting neutron star in a low-mass X-ray binary, in quiescence. Fitting its spectrum with a hydrogen neutron star atmosphere model yields the effective temperature T(sup infinity)(sub eff) = 90(sup +30)(sub -10) eV and the radius R(sup infinity)(sub NS) = 14.5(sup +6.9)(sub -3.8) km. In addition to the resolved sources, we detect fainter, unresolved X-ray emission from the central core. Using the Chandra-derived positions, we also present a preliminary report on the result of searching archival Hubble Space Telescope data for possible optical counterparts.

Becker, Werner↗
NASA NTRS1987

Dynamic evolution of the source volumes of gradual and impulsive solar flare emissions

This study compares flare source volumes inferred from impulsive hard X-rays and microwaves with those derived from density sensitive soft X-ray line ratios in the O VII spectrum. The data for this study were obtained with the SMM Hard X-Ray Burst Spectrometer, Earth-based radio observatories, and the SOLEX-B spectrometer on the P78-1 satellite. Data were available for the flares of 1980 April 8, 1980 May 9, and 1981 February 26. The hard X-ray/microwave source volume is determined under the assumption that the same electron temperature or power law index characterizes both the source of hard X-rays and the source of microwaves. The O VII line ratios yield the density and volume of the 2 X 10 to the 6th K plasma. For all three flares, the O VII source volume is found to be smallest at the beginning of the flare, near the time when the impulsive hard X-ray/microwave volume reaches its first maximum. At this time, the O VII volume is three to four orders of magnitude smaller than that inferred from the hard X-ray/microwave analysis. Subsequently, the O VII source volume increases by one or two orders of magnitude then remains almost constant until the end of the flare when it apparently increases again.

Bruner, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Dynamic evolution of the source volumes of gradual and impulsive solar flare emissions

This study compares flare source volumes inferred from impulsive hard X-rays and microwaves with those derived from density sensitive soft X-ray line ratios in the O VII spectrum. The data for this study were obtained with the SMM Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer, Earth-based radio observatories, and the SOLEX-B spectrometer on the P78-1 satellite. Data were available for the flares of 1980 April 8, 1980 May 9, and 1981 February 26. The hard X-ray/microwave source volume is determined under the assumption that the same electron temperature or power law index characterizes both the source of hard X-rays and the source of microwaves. The O VII line ratios yield the density and volume of the 2 x 10 to the 6th K plasma. For all three flares, the O VII source volume is found to be smallest at the beginning of the flare, near the time when the impulsive hard X-ray/microwave volume reaches its first maximum. At this time, the O VII volume is three to four orders of magnitude smaller than that inferred from the hard X-ray/microwave analysis. Subsequently, the O VII source volume increases by one or two orders of magnitude then remains almost constant until the end of the flare when it apparently increases again.

Bruner, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Copper emissions from a high volume air sampler

High volume air samplers (hi vols) are described which utilize a brush-type electric motor to power the fans used for pulling air through the filter. Anomalously high copper values were attributed to removal of copper from the commutator into the air stream due to arcing of the brushes and recirculation through the filter. Duplicate hi vols were set up under three operating conditions: (1) unmodified; (2) gasketed to prevent internal recirculation; and (3) gasketed and provided with a pipe to transport the motor exhaust some 20 feet away. The results of 5 days' operation demonstrate that hi vols can suddenly start emitting increased amounts of copper with no discernible operational indication, and that recirculation and capture on the filter can take place. Copper levels found with hi vols whose exhaust was discharged at a distance downwind were among the lowest found, and apparently provides a satisfactory solution to copper contamination.

King, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Solar Wind Ablation of Terrestrial Planet Atmospheres

Internal plasma sources usually arise in planetary magnetospheres as a product of stellar ablation processes. With the ignition of a new star and the onset of its ultraviolet and stellar wind emissions, much of the volatiles in the stellar system undergo a phase transition from gas to plasma. Condensation and accretion into a disk is replaced by radiation and stellar wind ablation of volatile materials from the system- Planets or smaller bodies that harbor intrinsic magnetic fields develop an apparent shield against direct stellar wind impact, but UV radiation still ionizes their gas phases, and the resulting internal plasmas serve to conduct currents to and from the central body along reconnected magnetic field linkages. Photoionization and thermalization of electrons warms the ionospheric topside, enhancing Jeans' escape of super-thermal particles, with ambipolar diffusion and acceleration. Moreover, observations and simulations of auroral processes at Earth indicate that solar wind energy dissipation is concentrated by the geomagnetic field by a factor of 10-100, enhancing heavy species plasma and gas escape from gravity, and providing more current carrying capacity. Thus internal plasmas enable coupling with the plasma, neutral gas and by extension, the entire body. The stellar wind is locally loaded and slowed to develop the required power. The internal source plasma is accelerated and heated, inflating the magnetosphere as it seeks escape, and is ultimately blown away in the stellar wind. Bodies with little sensible atmosphere may still produce an exosphere of sputtered matter when exposed to direct solar wind impact. Bodies with a magnetosphere and internal sources of plasma interact more strongly with the stellar wind owing to the magnetic linkage between the two created by reconnection.

Moore, Thomas Earle↗
NASA NTRS1979

Temperature anisotropy of the Jovian sulfur nebula

The apparent paradox between the reported observation of a 3-eV gyration energy of Jupiter's ionized sulfur nebula and its observed thickness is discussed. An observation of the thickness of the cloud taken nearly edge-on is presented and shown to imply a large bounce-averaged anisotropy of the sulfur in temperature. These observations are used to construct a self-consistent model of the sulfur nebula in which the sulfur ions are injected by Io as ions and remain sufficiently collisionless in the magnetosphere to maintain the anisotropy for a time longer than a characteristic diffusion time. It is also shown that the proton-electron plasma is collisionally thermalized and provides an adequate means of tapping the rotational energy of the planet to provide the power radiated in the sulfur lines.

Eviatar, A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Reduction and analysis of VLA maps for 281 radio-loud quasars using the UNLV Cray Y-MP supercomputer

The identification of distorted radio-loud quasars provides a potentially very powerful tool for basic cosmological studies. If large morphological distortions are correlated with membership of the quasars in rich clusters of galaxies, optical observations can be used to identify rich clusters of galaxies at large redshifts. Hintzen, Ulvestad, and Owen (1983, HUO) undertook a VLA A array snapshot survey at 20 cm of 123 radio-loud quasars, and they found that among triple sources in their sample, 17 percent had radio axes which were bent more than 20 deg and 5 percent were bent more than 40 deg. Their subsequent optical observations showed that excess galaxy densities within 30 arcsec of 6 low-redshift distorted quasars were on average 3 times as great as those around undistorted quasars (Hintzen 1984). At least one of the distorted quasars observed, 3C275.1, apparently lies in the first-ranked galaxy at the center of a rich cluster of galaxies (Hintzen and Romanishin, 1986). Although their sample was small, these results indicated that observations of distorted quasars could be used to identify clusters of galaxies at large redshifts. The purpose of this project is to increase the available sample of distorted quasars to allow optical detection of a significant sample of quasar-associated clusters of galaxies at large redshifts.

Ding, Ailian↗
NASA NTRS2014

Radiation Quality Effects on Transcriptome Profiles in 3-d Cultures After Particle Irradiation

In this work, we evaluate the differential effects of low- and high-LET radiation on 3-D organotypic cultures in order to investigate radiation quality impacts on gene expression and cellular responses. Reducing uncertainties in current risk models requires new knowledge on the fundamental differences in biological responses (the so-called radiation quality effects) triggered by heavy ion particle radiation versus low-LET radiation associated with Earth-based exposures. We are utilizing novel 3-D organotypic human tissue models that provide a format for study of human cells within a realistic tissue framework, thereby bridging the gap between 2-D monolayer culture and animal models for risk extrapolation to humans. To identify biological pathway signatures unique to heavy ion particle exposure, functional gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used with whole transcriptome profiling. GSEA has been used extensively as a method to garner biological information in a variety of model systems but has not been commonly used to analyze radiation effects. It is a powerful approach for assessing the functional significance of radiation quality-dependent changes from datasets where the changes are subtle but broad, and where single gene based analysis using rankings of fold-change may not reveal important biological information. We identified 45 statistically significant gene sets at 0.05 q-value cutoff, including 14 gene sets common to gamma and titanium irradiation, 19 gene sets specific to gamma irradiation, and 12 titanium-specific gene sets. Common gene sets largely align with DNA damage, cell cycle, early immune response, and inflammatory cytokine pathway activation. The top gene set enriched for the gamma- and titanium-irradiated samples involved KRAS pathway activation and genes activated in TNF-treated cells, respectively. Another difference noted for the high-LET samples was an apparent enrichment in gene sets involved in cycle cycle/mitotic control. It is plausible that the enrichment in these particular pathways results from the complex DNA damage resulting from high-LET exposure where repair processes are not completed during the same time scale as the less complex damage resulting from low-LET radiation.

Patel, Z. S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Bubbles and braided jets in galaxies with compact radio nuclei

Narrow-band H-alpha CCD images showing ionized gas in organized kiloparsec-scale structures in three galaxies with low-level active nuclei are presented. The edge-on spiral NGC 3079 contains an apparent loop structure which corresponds to previously reported nonthermal radio emission along the minor axis. The optical emission probably results from interaction between the ejected plasma and the ISM in the disk and halo. The S0 galaxy NGC 3998 exhibits an S-shaped structure centered on the nucleus, with no other evidence for spiral structure. In the spiral galaxy NGC 4258, the presence of continuum-free emission-line arms which coincide with the nonthermal radio arms is confirmed. The morphology of the arms suggests the presence of two double-sided jets which braid or wrap around one another and which bifurcate on both sides. It is concluded that the optical and radio emission in NGC 3079 and in NGC 4258 are related, and it is suggested that both are powered by a plasma which flows from the active nucleus and dissipates kinetic energy in the surrounding ISM.

Ford, Holland C.↗