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At least 523 records · Page 29

Chemical analyses of thirty-eight iron meteorites.

The contents of nickel, cobalt, phosphorus, and carbon are tabulated for 38 iron meteorites. The samples used in the analyses are splits taken from larger samples made by milling chips from the surface of each meteorite. Individual splits from these larger samples give excellent analytical reproducibility. Previously developed criteria (Moore, Lewis, and Nava, 1969) are used to evaluate the quality of old analyses. The results of the old analyses are also tabulated.

Lewis, C. F.↗

A math model for high velocity sensoring with a focal plane shuttered camera.

A new mathematical model is presented which describes the image produced by a focal plane shutter-equipped camera. The model is based upon the well-known collinearity condition equations and incorporates both the translational and rotational motion of the camera during the exposure interval. The first differentials of the model with respect to exposure interval, delta t, yield the general matrix expressions for image velocities which may be simplified to known cases. The exposure interval, delta t, may be replaced under certain circumstances with a function incorporating blind velocity and image position if desired. The model is tested using simulated Lunar Orbiter data and found to be computationally stable as well as providing excellent results, provided that some external information is available on the velocity parameters.

Morgan, P.↗

Multilayer insulation materials for reusable space vehicles.

Results of an extensive study conducted to evaluate multilayer insulation (MLI) materials suitable for repeated space vehicle operation are presented. Materials studied were radiation shields, shield spacers, blanket face sheets, fasteners, and adhesives. The Superfloc MLI concept - Kapton shields goldized on both sides as the radiation barrier with Dacron flock tufts as the spacers - appeared to be an excellent MLI for reusable cryogenic tankage. Superfloc configurations consisting of various combinations of film, spacer, and adhesive materials were manufactured and tested. Tensile, flexing, expansion, and cycling tests were performed on goldized Kapton and Mylar Superfloc and Beta glass reinforced Pyre ML face sheet material. A face sheet material that retains its shape was developed. Polyphenylene oxide material was selected for fabricating lightweight twin and tri-pin fasteners, together with grommets, face sheets, and reinforcement slabs. Measured material thermal conductivity values are tabulated.

Leonhard, K. E.↗

Peripheral venous scintillation angiocardiography in determination of left ventricular volume in man.

Left ventricular end-diastolic volume was determined by cardiac visualization after peripheral venous injection of a gamma-emitting isotope in 10 patients with organic heart disease. The left ventricular end-diastolic volume measured by the isotope method consistently averaged 9% less than that determined by the X-ray method. The mean difference in left ventricular end-diastolic volume was 21 ml. Excellent correlation between the two methods was observed. It is pointed out that peripheral venous scintillation angiocardiography compares well with left ventriculography in the determination of left ventricular end-diastolic volume in man.

Sullivan, R. W.↗

Tranquillity Base map.

A comparison of the qualities of photographs taken by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin from Tranquillity Base and of photographs taken from the Lunar Module window, in terms of valuable information. The latter, found to be more reliable than the former, are used as the primary source in compiling the Tranquillity Base Surface and Experiment Locations Map. The former are rated as excellent for identification purposes and are used in locating supplemental details. However, the geometry obtained on most of these latter frames is believed to be less reliable because of large changes in vertical angles.

Arant, W. H.↗

Development of MHD flow in the entrance region of a channel.

A general method has been developed for determining the developing magnetohydrodynamic flow in the entrance region of a parallel-plate channel. Closed form solutions are obtained. Numerical results are presented for the development of velocity distribution, pressure drop, and magnetohydrodynamic entrance length at different Hartmann numbers. At large Hartmann numbers, the magnetic field effect becomes dominant and the magnetohydrodynamic entrance length becomes negligible. Also, the pressure drop is enhanced by the magnetic field. Comparison of results with direct numerical analysis shows excellent agreement.-

Wu, S. T.↗

Gain and power of CO2 gasdynamic lasers.

This paper presents experimental and theoretical studies of the small signal gain and the radiant power for one configuration of CO2 gasdynamic lasers to define the optimum-gas temperature, pressure and gas compositions for the gain and the laser power. The laser was operated with two gas mixtures (CO2-N2-He and CO2-N2-H2O) at temperatures of 800-2200 deg K, pressures of 2-16 atm, and a wide range of gas compositions. For this laser optimum gas temperatures were roughly 1500-1600 deg K for gain and more than 2200 deg K for power. It was found that the gasdynamic laser would not oscillate for He or H2O concentrations of less than 10% and 1%, respectively. The various kinetic processes for establishing gain and the various laser cavity parameters that determine laser power were examined. The theories were assessed for their ability to predict gain and power. In most cases, the gain theory gave excellent quantitative results whereas the power theory gave only qualitative results. Laser power of nearly 2 kw was obtained.

Lee, G.↗

Correlation of irradiation data using activation fluences and irradiation temperature.

Nil-ductility transition temperature data for A302-B ferritic steel were analyzed by using multiple regression. Four independent variables were used - i.e., specimen temperature during irradiation, and time-integrated specific activations (activation fluences) of fast-, intermediate-, and thermal-neutron detectors. The results of these analyses were predictive equations having the increase in transition temperature as the dependent variable. For a reference point, a similar analysis was also performed using the flux integral above 1 MeV and the irradiation temperature as independent variables. Also, the effect of excluding irradiation temperature from these analyses was studied. The results of the analyses showed that excellent correlation was achieved by using activation fluences and irradiation temperature as the independent variables. Irradiation temperature was found to account for from 29 to 46% of the data variability depending on the model used.

Lynch, J. H.↗

Mars radar observations - A preliminary report.

Radar observations of a narrow belt of the surface of Mars, centered at 16 deg south latitude, show a very rugged terrain, with elevation differences greater than 13 kilometers from peak to valley. For nearby points, the relative altitude is measured to 40 meters at best; the precision is worse for points at different latitudes, or widely separated in longitude, because of orbital uncertainties. Some of the larger craters have been resolved, and their depth and, in some cases, the height of the raised rim have been measured. Where high resolution photographs are available, the correlation is excellent.

Downs, G. S.↗

Enrichment of very heavy nuclei in the composition of solar accelerated particles.

Measurement of the abundances of the nuclei C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, Ar, and Ca and the group Cr-Co relative to oxygen from seven solar energetic-particle events in the energy range from about 14 to 61 MeV per nucleon with a solid-state detector telescope on the OGO-5 satellite, 1968-1971. The differential energy spectra of O (14 to 29 MeV per nucleon) and Cr-Co (3 to 61 MeV per nucleon) have a spectral index of about (-3) for a power law in kinetic energy. The relative abundances of C, N, O, and Ne are in excellent agreement with emulsion studies. However, when compared with the solar photospheric and coronal abundances, the OGO-5 measurements show a large enhancement of relative abundances beginning with Si, and extending to the Cr-Co group. The enhancement over the solar and universal abundances is in rough agreement with the composition of the galactic cosmic radiation.

Mogro-Campero, A.↗

Elevation-relief ratio, hypsometric integral, and geomorphic area-altitude analysis.

Mathematical proof establishes identity of hypsometric integral and elevation-relief ratio, two quantitative topographic descriptors developed independently of one another for entirely different purposes. Operationally, values of both measures are in excellent agreement for arbitrarily bounded topographic samples, as well as for low-order fluvial watersheds. By using a point-sampling technique rather than planimetry, elevation-relief ratio (defined as mean elevation minus minimum elevation divided by relief) is calculated manually in about a third of the time required for the hypsometric integral.

Pike, R. J.↗

A ten-stage electrostatic depressed collector for improving klystron efficiency.

A ten-stage electrostatic depressed collector, designed with the aid of an analog computer, was tested on a 1-kW CW 750-MHz klystron. Excellent correlation was achieved between computed and measured performance under varying conditions of RF drive. At full RF power output approximately 60 per cent of the spent beam energy was recovered by use of the depressed collector. The net power conversion efficiency of the tube was raised from its undepressed value of 54.3 per cent to approximately 70.9 per cent. At one-half full power output, a collector efficiency of 70 per cent was measured. At zero RF power output collector efficiency was 80 per cent. To achieve these results it was necessary to install a small focusing coil between the final drift tube and the collector. No spurious oscillations or instabilities were detected when collector depression was employed, nor was electron backstreaming increased significantly. Intentional short circuiting of adjacent collector electrode pairs was shown to cause only minor degradation in collector performance.

Neugebauer, W.↗

Reflecting ablating heat shields for planetary entry.

Heat shielding for planetary entry probes of future Jovian and Venusian missions will encounter heating levels well beyond those previously experienced. These entries are typically dominated by radiative heating from the shock layer. This paper demonstrates the potential of reflecting this incident radiation diffusely from an ablating material. This technique contrasts with the absorption experienced by char-forming or graphitic ablators. Two dielectric materials, Teflon (polytetra-fluoroethylene) and boron nitride, are examined for their ablative performance, including reflection, in a combined convective- and radiative-heating environment. For Teflon, at the conditions obtained, superimposition of radiative heating upon a convective stream causes no additional increase in surface recession over the convective only results. For boron nitride, an excellent room-temperature reflector in the visible spectrum, a decrease in reflectivity from 90 to 55 percent is experienced when the surface undergoes sublimation at high temperatures. The process of reflection in each of these materials is described in terms of backscattering from crystals. The significance of a sizable reflection as a mode of energy accommodation is demonstrated for Venusian entries as a potential reduction in mass loss due to ablation.

Peterson, D. L.↗

Comparison of characteristics and shock capturing methods with application to the space shuttle vehicle.

A critical appraisal is presented of a method-of-characteristics (MOC) and a shock-capturing technique (SCT) for calculating three-dimensional supersonic flow. Detailed comparisons are made for pointed and blunt-nosed bodies with a thick delta wing at angles of attack from 5 to 15 deg. The results show excellent agreement between the methods and with experiment. It is established that the SCT code yields accurate shock locations and jump conditions. The SCT code typically requires about three times as many mesh points as the MOC code in order to resolve the bow shock, but the total computation time is about the same. On a point for point basis, the SCT code is about four times faster than the MOC code.

Rakich, J. V.↗

The farfield structure of aircraft wake turbulence.

Detailed mean flow measurements were obtained at stations up to thirty chordlengths downstream in an airfoil trailing vortex using a yawhead pressure probe in the Virginia Tech Six-Foot Subsonic Tunnel. Mass injection at the wingtip was shown to hasten the vortex decay. A theoretical method has been developed to show the effect of wing circulation distribution on the structure of the outer portion of the vortex and excellent agreement with the experimental data is demonstrated. Experimental results indicate a much slower decay and higher tangential velocities than previously expected.

Mason, W. H.↗

Guidance technique for automated air traffic control.

A guidance technique has been developed for flying an aircraft automatically along curved trajectories. The technique consists of a set of algorithms for automatically synthesizing flight profiles, i.e., the horizontal trajectory, the altitude and speed profiles, and a time sequence of commands. The flyability of the synthesized profile under wind disturbances and initial conditions error is verified by closing the loop around the synthesized trajectory and flying it in a computer-simulated jet aircraft. A control law having longitudinal, lateral, and heading deviation from the synthesized profile in the feedback loops is used for the simulated flight. The performance of the system is excellent, errors that are initially zero never exceed 230 ft, and large initial errors are reduced rapidly. The system also behaves quite well under wind disturbance.

Lee, H. Q.↗

Radiation from a parallel-plate waveguide into a dielectric or plasma layer.

An analytical solution for radiation from a truncated parallel-plate waveguide into a dielectric or plasma slab is obtained by solving the Hilbert problem associated with a certain singular integral equation. The technique has the advantage that the edge condition is easily shown to be satisfied, and numerical results can be obtained with excellent accuracy. Numerical results are presented for a variety of dielectric and plasma slabs, parallel-plate separations, and aperture-to-slab distances.

Kostelnicek, R. J.↗

Processing on-board optical data for planetary approach navigation.

The Mariner 9 spacecraft's science television camera provided an optical navigation experiment with TV pictures containing images of Mars' natural satellites against star backgrounds. Required TV image data and spacecraft engineering data were extracted from the spacecraft telemetry stream in this near-real time experiment designed to validate the navigation content of spacecraft-based optical data. This paper discusses the computer programs developed to prepare optical data for use in a navigation filter. Ground and in-flight calibration allowed pointing knowledge of better than 6 arc seconds. System performance during Mars approach was excellent, leading to extremely accurate trajectory estimates. The experiment provides a basis for the design of equivalent systems for future missions.

Acton, C. H., Jr.↗