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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Environmental effects on lunar astronomical observatories

The Moon offers a stable platform with excellent seeing conditions for astronomical observations. Some troublesome aspects of the lunar environment will need to be overcome to realize the full potential of the Moon as an observatory site. Mitigation of negative effects of vacuum, thermal radiation, dust, and micrometeorite impact is feasible with careful engineering and operational planning. Shields against impact, dust, and solar radiation need to be developed. Means of restoring degraded surfaces are probably essential for optical and thermal control surfaces deployed in long-lifetime lunar facilities. Precursor missions should be planned to validate and enhance the understanding of the lunar environment (e.g., dust behavior without and with human presence) and to determine environmental effects on surfaces and components. Precursor missions should generate data useful in establishing keepout zones around observatory facilities where rocket launches and landings, mining, and vehicular traffic could be detrimental to observatory operation.

Johnson, Stewart W.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Dating native gold by noble gas analyses

Our recent work on He, Ne, and Ar in Alpine gold samples has demonstrated that gold is extremely retentive for He and could thus, in principle, be used for U/Th-He-4 dating. For vein-type gold from Brusson, Northern Italy, we derived a U/Th-He-4 age of 36 Ma, in agreement with the K-Ar formation age of associated muscovites and biotites. However, in placer gold from the Napf area, Central Switzerland, we observed large excesses of both He-4 and radiogenic Ar-40 (Ar-40 sub rad, defined as Ar-40-295.5-Ar-.36). The gas release systematics indicate two distinct noble gas components, one of which is released below about 800 C and the other one at the melting point of gold (1064 C). We now present results of He and Xe measurements in a 1 g placer gold sample from the river Kruempelgraben, as well as He and Ar data for Brusson vein-type gold and for gold from the Lily Gold Mine, South Africa. We calculate reasonable U/Th-He-4 as well as U-Xe ages based on those gases which are released at approximately 800 C. Probably the low-temperature components represent in-situ-produced radiogenic He and fission Xe, whereas the gases evolving when gold melts have been trapped during gold formation. Therefore, only the low-temperature components are relevant for dating purposes.

Niedermann, S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Continuing Development of a Collaborative Plan to Further Engage South Dakota in NASA's Earth Science Enterprise

An ongoing set of research planning activities have occurred in South Dakota as a consequence of the past two years of NASA-EPSCoR Preparation Grants. During this time a group of approximately 60 scientists, engineers, and university administrators in South Dakota have been directly involved as "theme team" members in a series of five all-day meetings to identify the research and technological priorities that are consistent both with NASA-ESE's interests and the State's expertise. Institutions represented within the group's membership include: South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, South Dakota State University, Augustana College, University of South Dakota, USGS EROS Data Center, Si ranks College, Santa Gleska University, Sisseton Wahpeton Community College, USGS Water Resources Division, US National Weather Service, and the SD Department of Environment & Natural Resources. Many of these organizations are also members and affiliates of the SD Space Grant Consortium. The evolving plan has been guided by the following desirable actions: 1. To establish new contacts and strengthen existing linkages with NASA Centers, relevant NASA researchers, and key personnel at the USGS EROS Data Center. 2. To promote participation from the State's major research institutions, State agencies, and relevant businesses in South Dakota that are interested in strengthening our scientific and technological enterprises. 3. To develop the State's scientific talent and infrastructure for enhanced competitiveness in research, development, and technology-based economic development. 4. To encourage greater participation by under represented groups, especially Native Americans, in scientific education and research. 5. To build greater public and political support in South Dakota for the overall science, engineering, and technology enterprise. 6. To communicate the benefits of current and future NASA programs to the progress and development of South Dakota, the Northern Great Plains Region, and the Nation.

Farwell, Sherry O.↗
NASA NTRS2020

A Fresh Look at the Stratigraphy of Northern Australe

The roughly circular collection of mare deposits centered at ~38.9°S, 93°E is often re- ferred to as Mare Australe. It is located outside of the Procellarum KREEP Terrain. The circular arrangement of Australe’s mare patches has suggested an ancient, heavily degraded or relaxed impact basin roughly 900 km in diameter. The mare deposits are generally thought to have erupted into smaller post- basin craters. The type, volume, and distribution of mare eruptions potentially resembles the early stages of basin-filling mare events, but which are preserved in Australe and some farside locations. Gravity data suggest that if there was a basin, it is much smaller than originally proposed (now ~600 km) and located in the northern part of Mare Australe, between Humboldt, Milne, and Jenner craters. As a whole, Mare Australe lacks the topography typically associated with a basin; however, northern Australe has a slight topographic depression that roughly corresponds to the basin-like Bouguer gravity signature in the same area. The compositions exposed in Humboldt crater suggest that a preexisting basin might have excavated deeper crustal material. However, the underlying cause of the circularity of Mare Australe’s deposits, particularly those extending outside of the potential impact basin setting, is not yet understood. Thus, Australe may preserve fundamental information about mare volcanism potentially uncoupled from basin formation and structure. The objectives of this study are to use new high- resolution data (images, gravity, topography, and com- position) to reassess Australe’s mare deposits, deter- mine the timing and style of volcanism, identify discrete basalt deposits, and to further characterize the evolution of magmatism and subsurface structure in this area. Here, we focus on the northern Australe deposits (between Humboldt, Jenner, and Milne). As originally noted by Whitford-Stark (1979), Humboldt crater and its ejecta make an excellent stratigraphic marker that can be traced across much of the Australe region. The ejecta serves as a stratigraphic constraint for absolute model ages (AMAs) derived from crater size-frequency distributions (CSFDs).

Stopar, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Using a Genetic Algorithm to Model Broadband Regional Waveforms for Crustal Structure in the Western United States

In this study, we analyze regional seismograms to obtain the crustal structure in the eastern Great Basin and western Colorado plateau. Adopting a for- ward-modeling approach, we develop a genetic algorithm (GA) based parameter search technique to constrain the one-dimensional crustal structure in these regions. The data are broadband three-component seismograms recorded at the 1994-95 IRIS PASSCAL Colorado Plateau to Great Basin experiment (CPGB) stations and supplemented by data from U.S. National Seismic Network (USNSN) stations in Utah and Nevada. We use the southwestern Wyoming mine collapse event (M(sub b) = 5.2) that occurred on 3 February 1995 as the seismic source. We model the regional seismograms using a four-layer crustal model with constant layer parameters. Timing of teleseismic receiver functions at CPGB stations are added as an additional constraint in the modeling. GA allows us to efficiently search the model space. A carefully chosen fitness function and a windowing scheme are added to the algorithm to prevent search stagnation. The technique is tested with synthetic data, both with and without random Gaussian noise added to it. Several separate model searches are carried out to estimate the variability of the model parameters. The average Colorado plateau crustal structure is characterized by a 40-km-thick crust with velocity increases at depths of about 10 and 25 km and a fast lower crust while the Great Basin has approximately 35- km-thick crust and a 2.9-km-thick sedimentary layer.

Bhattacharyya, Joydeep↗
NASA NTRS1983

New applications for phosphoric acid fuel cells

New applications for phosphoric acid fuel cells were identified and evaluated. Candidates considered included all possibilities except grid connected electric utility applications, on site total energy systems, industrial cogeneration, opportunistic use of waste hydrogen, space and military applications, and applications smaller than 10 kW. Applications identified were screened, with the most promising subjected to technical and economic evaluation using a fuel cell and conventional power system data base developed in the study. The most promising applications appear to be the underground mine locomotive and the railroad locomotive. Also interesting are power for robotic submersibles and Arctic villages. The mine locomotive is particularly attractive since it is expected that the fuel cell could command a very high price and still be competitive with the conventionally used battery system. The railroad locomotive's attractiveness results from the (smaller) premium price which the fuel cell could command over the conventional diesel electric system based on its superior fuel efficiency, and on the large size of this market and the accompanying opportunities for manufacturing economy.

Stickles, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Steam Turbines

Turbonetics Energy, Inc.'s steam turbines are used as power generating systems in the oil and gas, chemical, pharmaceuticals, metals and mining, and pulp and paper industries. The Turbonetics line benefited from use of NASA research data on radial inflow steam turbines and from company contact with personnel of Lewis Research Center, also use of Lewis-developed computer programs to determine performance characteristics of turbines.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2002

Recursive Hierarchical Image Segmentation by Region Growing and Constrained Spectral Clustering

This paper describes an algorithm for hierarchical image segmentation (referred to as HSEG) and its recursive formulation (referred to as RHSEG). The HSEG algorithm is a hybrid of region growing and constrained spectral clustering that produces a hierarchical set of image segmentations based on detected convergence points. In the main, HSEG employs the hierarchical stepwise optimization (HS WO) approach to region growing, which seeks to produce segmentations that are more optimized than those produced by more classic approaches to region growing. In addition, HSEG optionally interjects between HSWO region growing iterations merges between spatially non-adjacent regions (i.e., spectrally based merging or clustering) constrained by a threshold derived from the previous HSWO region growing iteration. While the addition of constrained spectral clustering improves the segmentation results, especially for larger images, it also significantly increases HSEG's computational requirements. To counteract this, a computationally efficient recursive, divide-and-conquer, implementation of HSEG (RHSEG) has been devised and is described herein. Included in this description is special code that is required to avoid processing artifacts caused by RHSEG s recursive subdivision of the image data. Implementations for single processor and for multiple processor computer systems are described. Results with Landsat TM data are included comparing HSEG with classic region growing. Finally, an application to image information mining and knowledge discovery is discussed.

Tilton, James C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Lunar Resource Assessment: an Industry Perspective

The goals of the U.S. space program are to return to the Moon, establish a base, and continue onward to Mars. To accomplish this in a relatively short time frame and to avoid the high costs of transporting materials from the Earth, resources on the Moon will need to be mined. Oxygen will be one of the most important resources, to be used as a rocket propellant and for life support. Ilmenite and lunar regolith have both been considered as ores for the production of oxygen. Resource production on the Moon will be a very important part of the U.S. space program. To produce resources we must explore to identify the location of ore or feedback and calculate the surface and underground reserves. Preliminary resource production tests will provide the information that can be used in final plant design. Bechtel Corporation's experience in terrestrial engineering and construction has led to an interest in lunar resource assessment leading to the construction of production facilities on the Moon. There is an intimate link between adequate resource assessment to define feedstock quantity and quality, material processing requirements, and the successful production of lunar oxygen. Although lunar resource assessment is often viewed as a research process, the engineering and production aspects are very important to consider. Resource production often requires the acquisition of different types, scales, or resolutions of data than that needed for research, and it is needed early in the exploration process. An adequate assessment of the grade, areal extent, and depth distribution of the resources is a prerequisite to mining. The need for a satisfactory resource exploration program using remote sensing techniques, field sampling, and chemical and physical analysis is emphasized. These data can be used to define the ore for oxygen production and the mining, processing facilities, and equipment required.

Feldman, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Application of remote sensor data to geologic analysis of the Bonanza Test Site Colorado

A geologic map of the Bonanza Test Site is nearing completion. Using published large scale geologic maps from various sources, the geology of the area is being compiled on a base scaled at 1:250,000. Sources of previously published geologic mapping include: (1) USGS Bulletins; (2) professional papers and geologic quadrangle maps; (3) Bureau of Mines reports; (4) Colorado School of Mines quarterlies; and (5) Rocky Mountain Association of Geologist Guidebooks. This compilation will be used to evaluate ERTS, Skylab, and remote sensing underflight data.

Lee, K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Evaluation of Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Data of the Mountain Pass, California carbonatite complex

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data of the Mountain Pass, California carbonatite complex were examined to evaluate the AVIRIS instrument performance and to explore alternative methods of data calibration. Although signal-to-noise estimates derived from the data indicated that the A, B, and C spectrometers generally met the original instrument design objectives, the S/N performance of the D spectrometer was below expectations. Signal-to-noise values of 20 to 1 or lower were typical of the D spectrometer and several detectors in the D spectrometer array were shown to have poor electronic stability. The AVIRIS data also exhibited periodic noise, and were occasionally subject to abrupt dark current offsets. Despite these limitations, a number of mineral absorption bands, including CO3, Al-OH, and unusual rare earth element bands, were observed for mine areas near the main carbonatite body. To discern these bands, two different calibration procedures were applied to remove atmospheric and solar components from the remote sensing data. The two procedures, referred to as the single spectrum and the flat field calibration methods gave distinctly different results. In principle, the single spectrum method should be more accurate; however, additional fieldwork is needed to rigorously determine the degree of calibration success.

Crowley, James↗
NASA NTRS1978

Remote sensing of strippable coal reserves and mine inventory in part of the Warrior Coal Field in Alabama

Methods by which estimates of the remaining reserves of strippable coal in Alabama could be made were developed. Information acquired from NASA's Earth Resources Office was used to analyze and map existing surface mines in a four-quadrangle area in west central Alabama. Using this information and traditional methods for mapping coal reserves, an estimate of remaining strippable reserves was derived. Techniques for the computer analysis of remotely sensed data and other types of available coal data were developed to produce an estimate of strippable coal reserves for a second four-quadrangle area. Both areas lie in the Warrior coal field, the most prolific and active of Alabama's coal fields. They were chosen because of the amount and type of coal mining in the area, their location relative to urban areas, and the amount and availability of base data necessary for this type of study.

Joiner, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Seasat data applications in ocean industries

It is pointed out that the world population expansion and resulting shortages of food, minerals, and fuel have focused additional attention on the world's oceans. In this context, aspects of weather prediction and the monitoring/prediction of long-range climatic anomalies become more important. In spite of technological advances, the commercial ocean industry and the naval forces suffer now from inadequate data and forecast products related to the oceans. The Seasat Program and the planned Navy-Remote Oceanographic Satellite System (N-ROSS) represent major contributions to improved observational coverage and the processing needed to achieve better forecasts. The Seasat Program was initiated to evaluate the effectiveness of the remote sensing of oceanographic phenomena from a satellite platform. Possible oceanographic satellite applications are presented in a table, and the impact of Seasat data on industry sectors is discussed. Attention is given to offshore oil development, deep-ocean mining, fishing, and marine transportation.

Montgomery, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The NASA Fireball Network Database

The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) has been operating an automated video fireball network since late-2008. Since that time, over 1,700 multi-station fireballs have been observed. A database containing orbital data and trajectory information on all these events has recently been compiled and is currently being mined for information. Preliminary results are presented here.

Moser, Danielle E.↗
NASA NTRS1995

The NAS Computational Aerosciences Archive

In order to further the state-of-the-art in computational aerosciences (CAS) technology, researchers must be able to gather and understand existing work in the field. One aspect of this information gathering is studying published work available in scientific journals and conference proceedings. However, current scientific publications are very limited in the type and amount of information that they can disseminate. Information is typically restricted to text, a few images, and a bibliography list. Additional information that might be useful to the researcher, such as additional visual results, referenced papers, and datasets, are not available. New forms of electronic publication, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), limit publication size only by available disk space and data transmission bandwidth, both of which are improving rapidly. The Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center is in the process of creating an archive of CAS information on the WWW. This archive will be based on the large amount of information produced by researchers associated with the NAS facility. The archive will contain technical summaries and reports of research performed on NAS supercomputers, visual results (images, animations, visualization system scripts), datasets, and any other supporting meta-information. This information will be available via the WWW through the NAS homepage, located at http://www.nas.nasa.gov/, fully indexed for searching. The main components of the archive are technical summaries and reports, visual results, and datasets. Technical summaries are gathered every year by researchers who have been allotted resources on NAS supercomputers. These summaries, together with supporting visual results and references, are browsable by interested researchers. Referenced papers made available by researchers can be accessed through hypertext links. Technical reports are in-depth accounts of tools and applications research projects performed by NAS staff members and collaborators. Visual results, which may be available in the form of images, animations, and/or visualization scripts, are generated by researchers with respect to a certain research project, depicting dataset features that were determined important by the investigating researcher. For example, script files for visualization systems (e.g. FAST, PLOT3D, AVS) are provided to create visualizations on the user's local workstation to elucidate the key points of the numerical study. Users can then interact with the data starting where the investigator left off. Datasets are intended to give researchers an opportunity to understand previous work, 'mine' solutions for new information (for example, have you ever read a paper thinking "I wonder what the helicity density looks like?"), compare new techniques with older results, collaborate with remote colleagues, and perform validation. Supporting meta-information associated with the research projects is also important to provide additional context for research projects. This may include information such as the software used in the simulation (e.g. grid generators, flow solvers, visualization). In addition to serving the CAS research community, the information archive will also be helpful to students, visualization system developers and researchers, and management. Students (of any age) can use the data to study fluid dynamics, compare results from different flow solvers, learn about meshing techniques, etc., leading to better informed individuals. For these users it is particularly important that visualization be integrated into dataset archives. Visualization researchers can use dataset archives to test algorithms and techniques, leading to better visualization systems, Management can use the data to figure what is really going on behind the viewgraphs. All users will benefit from fast, easy, and convenient access to CFD datasets. The CAS information archive hopes to serve as a useful resource to those interested in computational sciences. At present, only information that may be distributed internationally is made available via the archive. Studies are underway to determine security requirements and solutions to make additional information available. By providing access to the archive via the WWW, the process of information gathering can be more productive and fruitful due to ease of access and ability to manage many different types of information. As the archive grows, additional resources from outside NAS will be added, providing a dynamic source of research results.

Miceli, Kristina D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Amazon Rain Forest Classification Using J-ERS-1 SAR Data

The Amazon rain forest is a region of the earth that is undergoing rapid change. Man-made disturbance, such as clear cutting for agriculture or mining, is altering the rain forest ecosystem. For many parts of the rain forest, seasonal changes from the wet to the dry season are also significant. Changes in the seasonal cycle of flooding and draining can cause significant alterations in the forest ecosystem.Because much of the Amazon basin is regularly covered by thick clouds, optical and infrared coverage from the LANDSAT and SPOT satellites is sporadic. Imaging radar offers a much better potential for regular monitoring of changes in this region. In particular, the J-ERS-1 satellite carries an L-band HH SAR system, which via an on-board tape recorder, can collect data from almost anywhere on the globe at any time of year.In this paper, we show how J-ERS-1 radar images can be used to accurately classify different forest types (i.e., forest, hill forest, flooded forest), disturbed areas such as clear cuts and urban areas, and river courses in the Amazon basin. J-ERS-1 data has also shown significant differences between the dry and wet season, indicating a strong potential for monitoring seasonal change. The algorithm used to classify J-ERS-1 data is a standard maximum-likelihood classifier, using the radar image local mean and standard deviation of texture as input. Rivers and clear cuts are detected using edge detection and region-growing algorithms. Since this classifier is intended to operate successfully on data taken over the entire Amazon, several options are available to enable the user to modify the algorithm to suit a particular image.

J-ERS-1↗
NASA NTRS1981

A proposal for continuation of support for the application of remotely sensed data to state and regional problems. Part 1: Technical proposal

The objectives, procedures, accomplishments, plans, and ultimate uses of information from current projects at the Mississippi Remote Sensing Center are discussed for the following applications: (1) land use planning; (2) strip mine inventory and reclamation; (3) biological management for white tailed deer; (4) forest habitats in potential lignite areas; (5) change discrimination in gravel operations; (6) discrimination of freshwater wetlands for inventory and monitoring; and (7) remote sensing data analysis support systems. The initiation of a conceptual design for a LANDSAT based, state wide information system is proposed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1992

Preliminary analysis of thermal-infrared multispectral scanner data of the Iron Hill, Colorado carbonatite-alkalic rock complex

The Iron Hill carbonatite-alkalic igneous rock complex is in the Powderhorn mining district, approximately 40 km south-southwest of Gunnison, Colorado. The complex, which occupies about 30 sq km, was emplaced in metasedimentay and metavolcanic rocks during the later Precambrian or early Cambrian. The main rock types in the complex, from oldest to youngest, are fenite, pyroxenite, uncompahgrite, ijolite, nepheline syenite, and dolomitic carbonatite. The carbonatite is limonitic and forms an elliptially shaped 4 sq km stock. Calcitic and dolomitic carbonatite dikes are also numerous throughout the complex and in the pre-existing rocks. Pyroxenite is the most widespread rock type within the complex, but pyroxene is extensively altered to biotite, phlogopite, and vermiculite. Fenite, which formed through Na, K-metasomatism of the country rocks, typically contains more feldspar and less quartz than the equivalent unaltered country rocks. The other alkalic rock types are less widespread and less well exposed. Parts of the complex are covered by Oligocene ash-flow tuff and alluvial, colluvial, and glacial deposits. Sagebrush and grass cover is moderately dense to very dense at low to intermediate elevations; coniferous tree cover is dense at high elevations and on some north-facing slopes at lower elevations. A new algorithm was used to compute spectral emissivity ratios, independent of any emissivity assumptions. This algorithm has the advantage that any of the possible emissivity ratios can be computed and, thus, a large variety of composite ratio images can be constructed, which permits examination of various geologic hypotheses based on the spectral properties of the surface materials.

Rowan, Lawrence C.↗