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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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Navigational system for manned lunar vehicles is intended for travel totaling 30 km within 5 km of home base, total distance traveled must be indicated with 2 percent accuracy. Hardware includes two two-degrees-of-freedom gyroscopes, odometers, tachometers, and signal processing equipment.
Squeeze film lubrication for gyroscope wheels and behavior of hydrodynamic spiral grooved spin axis bearing
Piezoelectric pump for supplying fluid at high frequencies to gyroscope fluid suspension system
Skylab control moment gyroscope inner gimbal design and thermal vacuum and environmental tests
Design, fabrication and tests of alumina ceramic envelope for cryogenic electrically-suspended gyroscope
Service life and manufacturing yield of Apollo 25-IRIG /inertial reference integrating gyroscope/ ball bearing
Delta booster second stage packaged attitude control three-axis system, discussing electronic implementation for gyroscopic action control
Orbiting gyroscope de Sitter precession in different versions of Brans-Dicke theory, discussing term arising from anomalous scalar force in equations of motion
Subdomain magnetic particles ferrofluid colloidal dispersions, for energy conversion devices, viscous dampers, accelerometers, gyroscope supports and specific gravity meters
Pioneer Jupiter spacecraft, noting low weight, radioisotope thermoelectric generators and gyroscopic stabilization by spinning with antenna pointed at earth
The dynamic behavior of the mercury nutation damper is investigated. Particular attention is paid to the eccentric annular mercury configuration, which is the final continuous ring phase that occurs in the operation of all mercury dampers. In this phase, damping is poorest, and the system is closely linear. During the investigation, the hydrodynamic problem is treated as three dimensional, and extensive use is made of a variational principle of least-viscous frictional power loss. A variational principle of least-constraint is also used to advantage. Formulas for calculating the behavior of the mercury damper are obtained. Some confirmatory experiments were performed with transparent ring channels on a laboratory gyroscope. Selected movie frames taken during wobble damping are shown along with the results of film measurements.
Coning motion can prevent photographic and TV cameras and other oriented spacecraft experiments from maintaining a steady scan, and it can introduce a ripple in the high-gain communication system. Nutation dampers are used to remove this type of spacecraft instability. The first nutation damper flown in a missile for the stabilization of the gyroscope consisted of a hollow ring that was partially filled with mercury, and the sloshing of the mercury dissipated the nutational energy. A similar mercury-ring damper was used in the Pioneer 1 lunar probe in 1958 and became the first nutation damper to be used in space. Since then many types of nutation dampers have been designed for spin-stabilized spacecraft ranging in size from small scientific satellites to large space stations.
Metric theories of gravity are presented, including the definition of metric theory, evidence for its existence, and response of matter to gravity with test body trajectories, gravitational red shift, and stressed matter responses. Parametrized post-Newtonian framework and interpretations are reviewed. Gamma, beta and gamma, and varied other parameters were measured. Deflection of electromagnetic waves, radar time delay, geodetic gyroscope precession, perihelion shifts, and periodic effects in orbits are among various studies carried out for metric theory experimentation.
Low temperature technology applications are presented for relativity experiments, improved signal to noise ratio performance, and helium studies in space. The large scale, low magnetic field facility is described, as well as the principle of the London moment for relativity gyroscopes.
A stellar attitude reference system concept for satellites was studied which promises to permit continuous precision pointing of payloads with accuracies of 0.001 degree without the use of gyroscopes. It is accomplished with the use of a single, clustered star tracker assembly mounted on a non-orthogonal, two gimbal mechanism, driven so as to unwind satellite orbital and orbit precession rates. A set of eight stars was found which assures the presence of an adequate inertial reference on a continuous basis in an arbitrary orbit. Acquisition and operational considerations were investigated and inherent reference redundancy/reliability was established. Preliminary designs for the gimbal mechanism, its servo drive, and the star tracker cluster with its associated signal processing were developed for a baseline sun-synchronous, noon-midnight orbit. The functions required of the onboard computer were determined and the equations to be solved were found. In addition detailed error analyses were carried out, based on structural, thermal and other operational considerations.
Equations for angles of attack and sideslip relative to both a rolling and nonrolling body axis system are derived for a flight vehicle for which radar and gyroscopic attitude data are available. The method is limited to application where a flat, nonrotating earth may be assumed. The gyro measures attitude relative to an inertial reference in an Euler angle sequence. In particular, a pitch, yaw, and roll sequence is used as an example in the derivation. Sample calculations based on flight data are presented to illustrate the method. Results obtained with the present gyro method are compared with another technique that uses onboard camera data.
A first-order thrust load analysis that considers centrifugal forces but which neglects gyroscopics, elastohydrodynamics, and thermal effects was performed. The analysis was applied to a 150-mm-bore angular-contact ball bearing. Fatigue life, contact loads, and contact angles are shown for conventional and arched bearings. The results indicate that an arched bearing is highly desirable for high-speed applications. In particular, at an applied load of 4448 n (1000 lb) and a DN value of 3 million (20,000 rpm) the arched bearing shows an improvement in life of 306 percent over that of a conventional bearing.
Two basic types of strapdown gyroscope rebalance-electronics were analyzed and compared. These two types were a discrete-pulse ternary system and a width-modulated binary system. In the analyses, major emphasis was placed on the logic sections, the H-switches, the precision voltage reference loops, the noise performance, common-mode rejection, and loop compensation. Results of the analyses were used in identifying specific advantages and disadvantages of system details and in making accuracy and resolution comparisons. Sound engineering principles were applied in the development of both systems; however, it was concluded that each system has some disadvantages that are amenable to improvement.