Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report
Apollo 15 flight accomplishments, lunar surface activities, lunar orbital activities, and photographic coverage
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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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Topological grid structure - A data structure for earth science modeling
The automated analysis of land surface features is increasingly important to earth scientists. User-friendly algorithms for studying these features can be integrated into geographic information systems through the use of topological grid structure, which maintains the simplicity and transportability of standard grid structure while providing the essential capability to treat groups of contiguous, identically-classified pixels (corresponding to lakes, forests, fields, etc.) as distinct spatial entities.
Goldberg, M.↗
An Update on the Hydrological Land Surface Data and Services at NASA GES DISC
"The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) is one of twelve NASA Earth Observing System data centers that document, process, archive and distribute data from Earth science missions and related projects. The GES DISC hosts many hydrological land surface data products including North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Land Data Assimilation System (FLDAS), and assimilated-Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). The Land Surface Model (LSM) products contain model output, including heat fluxes, rain, snow, soil temperature, soil moisture and runoff; and observational forcing data, including surface pressure, temperature, precipitation, downward shortwave and longwave radiation, humidity, and wind. The temporal resolution of the hydrology data at the GES DISC ranges from hourly to monthly and the spatial resolution 0.1 degree to 1.0 degree. The variability of Earth’s water and energy cycles can be characterized with these spatially and temporally consistent, and quality controlled hydrological land surface data. These data could support ongoing modeling activities, and help improve our understanding of land-surface-atmosphere interactions and their impact on climate. Over the years, new data is added, and older data is reprocessed and updated. This presentation provides a summary table of the hydrological data and discusses recent updates to the data and data services at the GES DISC. New data products include (1) GRACE Global Version 3.0 drought indicators and (2) FLDAS monthly global and Central Asia daily data. Reprocessed and updated products include (1) NLDAS Version 2.0 and (2) GRACE United States Version 4.0 drought indicators. Lastly, this presentation will discuss the opportunities for accessing some of our hydrology data from the cloud. As the hydrology land surface data is moved to the cloud, users can expect faster service for longer time series, notably the hydrology data rods time series service."
Ashley Heath↗
Heliophysics Science and the Moon: Potential Solar and Space Physics Science for Lunar Exploration
This report addresses both these features new science enabled by NASAs exploration initiative and enabling science that is critical to ensuring a safe return to the Moon and onward to Mars. The areas of interest are structured into four main themes: Theme 1: Heliophysics Science of the Moon Studies of the Moons unique magnetodynamic plasma environment. Theme 2: Space Weather, Safeguarding the Journey Studies aimed at developing a predictive capability for space weather hazards. Theme 3: The Moon as a Historical Record Studies of the variation of the lunar regolith to uncover the history of the Sun, solar system, local interstellar medium, galaxy, and universe. Theme 4: The Moon as a Heliophysics Science Platform Using the unique environment of the lunar surface as a platform to provide observations beneficial to advancing heliophysics science.
Lunar exploration↗
A Comparison of Energy Conversion Technologies for Space Nuclear Power Systems
A key element of space nuclear power systems is the energy conversion subsystem that converts the nuclear heat into electrical power. Nuclear systems provide a favorable option for missions that require long-duration power in hostile space environments where sunlight for solar power is absent or limited. There are two primary nuclear power technology options. Radioisotope Power System (RPS) utilize the natural decay heat from Pu238 to generate electric power levels up to about one kilowatt. Fission Power System (FPS) rely on a sustained fission reaction of U235 and offer the potential to supply electric power from kilowatts to megawatts. Example missions for nuclear power include Mars science rovers (e.g. Curiosity, Mars 2020), lunar and Mars surface landers ? including crewed missions, deep space planetary orbiters, Ocean World science landers, and robotic space probes that utilize nuclear electric propulsion. This paper examines the energy conversion technology options that can be used with RPS and FPS, and provides an assessment of their relative performance and technology readiness.
Mason, Lee S.↗
Spatial Correlations of Anomaly Time Series of AIRS Version-6 Land Surface Skin Temperatures with the Nino-4 Index
The AIRS Science Team Version-6 data set is a valuable resource for meteorological studies. Quality Controlled earth's surface skin temperatures are produced on a 45 km x 45 km spatial scale under most cloud cover conditions. The same retrieval algorithm is used for all surface types under all conditions. This study used eleven years of AIRS monthly mean surface skin temperature and cloud cover products to show that land surface skin temperatures have decreased significantly in some areas and increased significantly in other areas over the period September 2002 through August 2013. These changes occurred primarily at 1:30 PM but not at 1:30 AM. Cooling land areas contained corresponding increases in cloud cover over this time period, with the reverse being true for warming land areas. The cloud cover anomaly patterns for a given month are affected significantly by El Nino/La Nina activity, and anomalies in cloud cover are a driving force behind anomalies in land surface skin temperature.
Spatial correlations↗
Artemis Internal Science Team Update: Deployed Payloads
Artemis will reestablish human presence on the Moon and lead to a new era of scientific discovery and exploration. Led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Artemis effort includes a collaboration of space agencies and companies from around the world. In support of Artemis, a cross-disciplinary effort of science, engineering, operations, and human factors personnel is currently developing the best methods, facilities, and field locations to test hardware, train astronauts, and evaluate concepts of operations. This poster, as part of the Artemis Internal Science Team (AIST), provides an update to NASA’s plans for the solicitation, development, and operations of deployed surface payloads. In calendar year 2023, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate will solicit proposals for instruments to be deployed by crew on the surface of the Moon (Fig. 1), beginning with Artemis III. The Artemis III mission will land in the south polar region of the Moon, within 6º of latitude from the south pole, in the vicinity of both persistently illuminated and permanently shadowed areas of the Moon, with potential access to surface-accessible volatile deposits. Several of the proposed landing regions are located among some of the oldest parts of the Moon, and together with the permanently shadowed regions, provide the opportunity to learn about the history of the Moon through previously unexplored lunar regions. Deployed payloads will be a critical part of a notional program that captures the highest-priority science for Artemis III and provides the greatest feed-forward to follow-on missions and the build-up to the Artemis Base Camp.
R. C. Weber↗
Regenerative ECLSS and Logistics Analysis for Sustained Lunar Surface Missions
Sustained Lunar Campaign: Annual crew missions to the lunar surface with 2 to 4 crewmembers living in a Surface Habitat (SH) and/or a Pressurized Rover (PR) for 30 days or longer. Missions will require annual resupply of logistics to the lunar surface: Logistics include consumables, EVA consumables and spares, carriers, surface system spares and maintenance, and science and utilization. Water and gas (may) dominate the total logistics resupply: Water and gas = a direct function of the level of closure provided by the ECLSS in the Surface Habitat (SH) and the Pressurized Rover (PR). Logistics requirements will drive the number of required resupply landers, launch vehicles, and resupply costs. Goal of Paper: Determine a recommended regenerative ECLSS architecture option to minimize the tradeoff between ECLSS Delivery Mass and Logistics Resupply Mass
ECLSS↗
Apollo 17 mission 5-day report
A five day report of the Apollo 17 mission is presented. The subjects discussed are: (1) sequence of events, (2) extravehicular activities, (3) first, second, and third lunar surface extravehicular activity, (4) transearth extravehicular activity, (5) lunar surface experiments conducted, (6) orbital science activities, (7) spacecraft reentry and recovery.
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Data catalog series for space science and applications flight missions. Volume 1A: Brief descriptions of planetary and heliocentric spacecraft and investigations
Planetary and heliocentric spacecraft, including planetary flybys and probes, are described. Imaging, particles and fields, ultraviolet, infrared, radio science and celestial mechanics, atmospheres, surface chemistry, biology, and polarization are discussed.
Cameron, W. S.↗
Precise-Conductance Valve Insert
Valve modification provides two operating modes fully open and small, precise leak. Copper insert with radially oriented holes allows small, controllable, precise effusion rate when valve closed or nearly unobstructed flow when valve open. Numerous applications in surface physics, vacuum physics, materials science, gas kinetics, thin films, and other areas of research requiring measured flows of gas into or out of system.
Outlaw, R. A.↗
Antarctica - Lessons for a Mars exploration program
The history of exploration and the international system of control of Antarctica has often been cited as a paradigm for the exploration of space. The small isolated research stations have been used to model the psychological stresses of future space missions. In addition, the programmatic structure of the U.S. Antarctic Research Program provides several possible analogs to future Mars Programs presently under discussion. These are: (1) Continued presence; (2) Civilian, military and private sector involvement; (3) Scientific activities; (4) Risk assessment and logistical support; (5) Accessibility for non-specialists; (6) Political and strategic motivations; (7) International cooperation/competition. Survival in Antarctica is contingent on advanced technology and the active transport of supplies. The scientific exploration of this remote and barren expanse without, of course, the aid and guidance of indigenous people certainly provides one of the closest analogs available to future science activities on the Martian surface.
Mckay, C. P.↗
Project Hyreus: Mars sample return mission utilizing in situ propellant production
Project Hyreus is an unmanned Mars sample return mission that utilizes propellants manufactured in situ from the Martian atmosphere for the return voyage. A key goal of the mission is to demonstrate the considerable benefits of using indigenous resources and to test the viability of this approach as a precursor to manned Mars missions. The techniques, materials, and equipment used in Project Hyreus represent those that are currently available or that could be developed and readied in time for the proposed launch date in 2003. Project Hyreus includes such features as a Mars-orbiting satellite equipped with ground-penetrating radar, a large rover capable of sample gathering and detailed surface investigations, and a planetary science array to perform on-site research before samples are returned to Earth. Project Hyreus calls for the Mars Landing Vehicle to land in the Mangala Valles region of Mars, where it will remain for approximately 1.5 years. Methane and oxygen propellant for the Earth return voyage will be produced using carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and a small supply of hydrogen brought from Earth. This process is key to returning a large Martian sample to Earth with a single Earth launch.
Abrego, Anita↗
Control of the Magellan spacecraft during aerobraking
In May 1993 the Magellan spacecraft will be lowered into the Venus atmosphere for the purpose of `aerobraking' to slow the spacecraft and achieve a near-circular orbit. The unprecedented science return of a 99% surface map, already accomplished by Magellan, will then be augmented by new atmospheric data and the opportunity to produce a high-resolution global gravity map from this circular orbit. The aerobraking concept, attitude control modeling and simulation results, and on-board software modifications are presented.
Carpenter, Anita S.↗
Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA): A pathfinder for space-based laser altimetry and lidar
The Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA) is a Hitchhiker experiment now being integrated for first flight on STS-72 in November 1995. Four Shuttle flights of the SLA are planned at a rate of about a flight every 18 months. They are aimed at the transition of the Goddard Space Flight Center airborne laser altimeter and lidar technology to low Earth orbit as a pathfinder for operational space-based laser remote sensing devices. Future alser altimeter sensors such as the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), an Earth Observing System facility instrument, and the Multi-Beam Laser Altimeter (MBLA), the land and vegetation laser altimeter for the NASA TOPSAT (Topography Satellite) Mission, will utilize systems and approaches being tested with SLA. The SLA Instrument measures the distance from the Space Shuttle to the Earth's surface by timing the two-way propagation of short (approximately 10 na noseconds) laser pulses. laser pulses at 1064 nm wavelength are generated in a laser transmitter and are detected by a telescope equipped with a silicon avalanche photodiode detector. The SLA data system makes the pulse time interval measurement to a precision of about 10 nsec and also records the temporal shape of the laser echo from the Earth's surface for interpretation of surface height distribution within the 100 m diam. sensor footprint. For example, tree height can be determined by measuring the characteristic double-pulse signature that results from a separation in time of laser backscatter from tree canopies and the underlying ground. This is accomplished with a pulse waveform digitizer that samples the detector output with an adjustable resolution of 2 nanoseconds or wider intervals in a 100 sample window centered on the return pulse echo. The digitizer makes the SLA into a high resolution surface lidar sensor. It can also be used for cloud and atmospheric aerosol lidar measurements by lengthening the sampling window and degrading the waveform resolution. Detailed test objectives for the STS-72 mission center on the acquisition of sample data sets for land topography and vegetation height, waveform digitizer performance, and verification of data acquisition algorithms. The operational concept of SLA is illustrated in Fig. 1 where a series of 100 m footprints stretch in a profile of Earth surface topography along the nadir track of the Space Shuttle. The location of SLA as a dual canister payload on the Hitchhiker Bridge Assembly in Bay 12 of the Space Shuttle Endeavor can also be noted in this figure. Full interpretation of the SLA range measurement data set requires a 1 m knowledge of the Orbiter trajectory and better than 0.1 deg knowledge of Orbiter pointing angle. These ancillary data sets will be acquired during the STS-72 mission with an on-board Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, K-band range and range-rate tracking of the Orbiter through TDRSS, and use of on-board inertial measurement units and star trackers. Integration and interpretation of all these different data sets as a pathfinder investigation for accurate determination of Earth surface elevation is the overall science of the SLA investigation.
Bufton, Jack↗
Atmospheric Measurements by the 2002 Geoscience Laser Altimeter System Mission
The NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program is a multiple platform NASA initiative for the study of global change. As part of the EOS project, the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) was selected as a laser sensor filling complementary requirements for several earth science disciplines including atmospheric and surface applications. Late in 2002, the GaAs instrument is to be launched for a three to five year observational mission. For the atmosphere, the instrument is designed to full fill comprehensive requirements for profiling of radiatively significant cloud and aerosol. Algorithms have been developed to process the cloud and aerosol data and provide standard data products. After launch there will be a three-month project to analyze and understand the system performance and accuracy of the data products. As an EOS mission, the GaAs measurements and data products will be openly available to all investigators. An overview of the instrument, data products and evaluation plan is given.
Spinhirne, James D.↗
Project Hyreus: Mars Sample Return Mission Utilizing in Situ Propellant Production
Project Hyreus is an unmanned Mars sample return mission that utilizes propellants manufactured in situ from the Martian atmosphere for the return voyage. A key goal of the mission is to demonstrate the considerable benefits of using indigenous resources and to test the viability of this approach as a precursor to manned Mars missions. The techniques, materials, and equipment used in Project Hyreus represent those that are currently available or that could be developed and readied in time for the proposed launch date in 2003. Project Hyreus includes such features as a Mars-orbiting satellite equipped with ground-penetrating radar, a large rover capable of sample gathering and detailed surface investigations, and a planetary science array to perform on-site research before samples are returned to Earth. Project Hyreus calls for the Mars Landing Vehicle to land in the Mangala Valles region of Mars, where it will remain for approximately 1.5 years. Methane and oxygen propellant for the Earth return voyage will be produced using carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and a small supply of hydrogen brought from Earth. This process is key to returning a large Martian sample to Earth with a single Earth launch.
Bruckner, A. P.↗
AstroBioLab: A Mobile Biotic and Soil Analysis Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and NASA Ames Research Center are currently developing a mobile Astrobiology Laboratory (AstroBioLab) for a series of field campaigns using the Chilean Atacama Desert as a Martian surface analog site. The Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program funded AstroBioLab is designed around the Mars Organic Detector (MOD) instrument and the Mars Oxidant Instrument (MOI) which provide complementary data sets. Using this suite of Mars Instrument Development Program (MIDP) and Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP) derived in situ instruments, which provide state-of-the-art organic compound detection (attomolar sensitivity) and depth profiling of oxidation chemistry, we measure and correlate the interplay of organic compounds, inorganic oxidants, UV irradiation and water abundance. This mobile laboratory studies the proposition that intense UV irradiation coupled with low levels of liquid water generates metastable oxidizing species that can consume moderate amounts of seeded organic compounds. Results from the initial spring 2003 field campaign will be presented.
J L Bada↗