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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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Results of an ongoing program set up to evaluate solar terrestrial photovoltaic power sources. The results of this program, which now includes a solar array encapsulant and materials test and a solar-powered buoy study, are updated, and the results of efforts to study the dynamic interaction of a solar photovoltaic array and a water electrolysis system coupled to produce hydrogen are reported for the first time.
The development, capabilities, and products of the computer-based retrieval system of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library are described. The system handles books and documents, produces a book catalog, and provides a machine search capability. Programs and documentation are available to the public through NASA's computer software dissemination program.
Report describes evolution of photovoltaic power systems designed and built for terrestrial use. Discussion focuses on technological problems impeding further systems development. Experiments and test data on seven types of solar panels and six material test specimens are described in detail.
Modifications to the individual components in the solar simulation system to improve performance and reduce costs are described. The improvements include: an increase in lamp power from 20 KW to 30 KW; a family of solar beams from 8 to 18.5 feet in diameter at intensities related to beam size with a maximum intensity of 12 solar constants over a 9 ft. diameter; and up to 1.1 megawatts of simulated solar energy in the lamp array.
An Activated Carbon Treatment System (ACTS) was developed for sewage treatment and is being applied to a one-million gallon per day sewage treatment pilot plant in Orange County California. Activities reported include pyrolysis and activation of carbon-sewage sludge, and activated carbon treatment of sewage to meet ocean discharge standards. The ACTS Sewage treatment operations include carbon-sewage treatment, primary and secondary clarifiers, gravity (multi-media) filter, filter press dewatering, flash drying of carbon-sewage filter cake, and sludge pyrolysis and activation. Tests were conducted on a laboratory scale, 10,000 gallon per day demonstration plant and pilot test equipment. Preliminary economic studies are favorable to the ACTS process relative to activated sludge treatment for a 175,000,000 gallon per day sewage treatment plant.
A Kevlar 49/epoxy chamber has been developed for the advanced propulsion module motor. This chamber was successfully designed, fabricated, and hydroproof-tested at 511.6 N/sq cm. The fabrication, interior dimensional inspection, and proof test are discussed, showing that the chamber will be capable of achieving the design burst pressure of 639.8 N/sq cm. The projected chamber growth at 448.2 N/sq cm is presented based on the strain gage and volumetric growth data collected in that proof test.
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Data collected at the Finney County, Kansas test site as part of the Joint Soil Moisture Experiment (JSME) are presented here, prior to analysis, to provide all JSME investigators with an immediate source of primary information. The ground-truth measurements were taken to verify and complement soil moisture data taken by microwave and infrared sensors during aircraft overflights. Measurements were made of meteorological variables (air speed, temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall), surface reflectivity, and temperatures at and below the surface.
Current status, projected goals, and results of 49 research and advanced development programs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are reported in abstract form. Areas of investigation include: aerodynamics and fluid mechanics, applied mathematics and computer sciences, environment protection, materials science, propulsion, electric and solar power, guidance and navigation, communication and information sciences, general physics, and chemistry.
Exposures of personnel to noise pollution at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Pasadena, California, were investigated. As a result of the study several protective measures were taken: (1) employees exposed to noise hazards were required to wear ear-protection devices, (2) mufflers and air diversion devices were installed around the wind tunnels; and (3) all personnel that are required to wear ear protection are given annual audimeter tests.
Several techniques of a digital image-processing nature are illustrated which have proved useful in visual analysis of astronomical pictorial data. Processed digital scans of photographic plates of Stephans Quintet and NGC 4151 are used as examples to show how faint nebulosity is enhanced by high-pass filtering, how foreground stars are suppressed by linear interpolation, and how relative color differences between two images recorded on plates with different spectral sensitivities can be revealed by generating ratio images. Analyses are outlined which are intended to compensate partially for the blurring effects of the atmosphere on images of Stephans Quintet and to obtain more detailed information about Saturn's ring structure from low- and high-resolution scans of the planet and its ring system. The employment of a correlation picture to determine the tilt angle of an average spectral line in a low-quality spectrum is demonstrated for a section of the spectrum of Uranus.
The levels-of-edit concept, which can be used to specify the amount of editorial effort involved in the preparation of a manuscript for publication, is discussed. Nine types of editing are identified and described. These include coordination edit (preparing estimates, gathering cost data, monitoring production processes), policy edit, integrity edit (making sure that parts of a publication match in a physical or numerical sense), screening edit (ensuring that the quality of camera-ready copy is sufficient for external publication), copy clarification edit, format edit, mechanical style edit, language edit, and substantive edit (reviewing the manuscript for content coherence, emphasis, subordination and parallelism). These functions are grouped into five levels of edit. An edit-level number is assigned to each manuscript, providing a quantitative and qualitative indicator of the editing to be done which is clearly understood by authors, managers, and editors alike. In addition, clear boundaries are drawn between normal and extraordinary editing tasks. Individual organizations will group various edits in different ways to reflect their needs and priorities; the essential element of the system is unambiguous definition and coding of the types and amount of work to be done.
The general objective was to make a continuing assessment of current automotive technology development programs and of the prospects for new concepts. The study embraced alternative engines, advanced powertrain components, and related energy conserving vehicle modifications which could be implemented by the end of this century. Vehicle level projections of the fuel economy and emissions potential of alternative power systems were key elements of this assessment.
In accordance with study requirements, two antennas are described: a 30 meter standard antenna and a 34 meter modified antenna, along with a candidate array configuration for each. Modified antenna trade analyses are summarized, risks analyzed, costs presented, and a final antenna array configuration recommendation made.
The engineering manual provides a complete companion documentation about the structure of the main program and subroutines, the preparation of input data, the interpretation of output results, access and use of the program, and the detailed description of all the analytic, logical expressions and flow charts used in computations and program structure. A numerical example is provided and solved completely to show the sequence of computations followed. The program is carefully structured to reduce both user's time and costs without sacrificing accuracy. The user would expect a cost of CPU time of approximately $5.00 per building zone excluding printing costs. The accuracy, on the other hand, measured by deviation of simulated consumption from watt-hour meter readings, was found by many simulation tests not to exceed + or - 10 percent margin.
A million (two to the 20th power) channel, 300 MHz bandwidth, digital spectrum analyzer was considered. The design, fabrication, and maintenance philosophy of the modular, pipelined, fast fourier transform (FFT) hardware are described. The spectrum analyzer will be used to examine the region from 1.4 GHz to 26 GHz for radio frequency interference which may be harmful to present and future tracking missions of the Deep Space Network. The design has application to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence signals and radio science phenomena.
The Seasat-A spacecraft, scheduled for launch in May 1978, will produce a global ocean data set covering a one-year nominal mission. Because this is a proof-of-concept mission, data processing algorithms are expected to evolve as the data base grows. To support the evolution and evaluation of algorithms, and to experiment with various techniques for processing the data, an algorithm development facility (ADF) is being developing. The ADF will provide access to the data base and to highly modularized processing programs. The processing programs will be subject to easy and frequent modification by a remote user community of sensor managers and experiment teams, who will use this capability to evaluate the overall performance of the sensors and the algorithms using surface truth data. The ADF concepts of software standardization and interface control are expected to have general applicability for adaptive data processing systems.
Color enhancement techniques were applied to LACIE LANDSAT segments to determine if such enhancement can assist analysis in crop identification. The procedure involved increasing the color range by removing correlation between components. First, a principal component transformation was performed, followed by contrast enhancement to equalize component variances, followed by an inverse transformation to restore familiar color relationships. Filtering was applied to lower order components to reduce color speckle in the enhanced products. Use of single acquisition and multiple acquisition statistics to control the enhancement were compared, and the effects of normalization investigated. Evaluation is left to LACIE personnel.