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At least 577 records · Page 32

Taurus Lightweight Manned Spacecraft Earth orbiting vehicle

The Taurus Lightweight Manned Spacecraft (LMS) was developed by students of the University of Maryland's Aerospace Engineering course in Space Vehicle Design. That course required students to design an Alternative Manned Spacecraft (AMS) to augment or replace the Space Transportation System and meet the following design requirements: (1) launch on the Taurus Booster being developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation; (2) 99.9 percent assured crew survival rate; (3) technology cutoff date of 1 Jan. 1991; (4) compatibility with current space administration infrastructure; and (5) first flight by May 1995. The Taurus LMS design meets the above requirements and represents an initial step toward larger and more complex spacecraft. The Taurus LMS has a very limited application when compared to the space shuttle, but it demonstrates that the U.S. can have a safe, reliable, and low-cost space system. The Taurus LMS is a short mission duration spacecraft designed to place one man into low Earth orbit (LEO). The driving factor for this design was the low payload carrying capabilities of the Taurus Booster - 1300 kg to a 300-km orbit. The Taurus LMS design is divided into six major design sections. The Human Factors section deals with the problems of life support and spacecraft cooling. The Propulsion section contains the Abort System, the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS), the Reaction Control System (RCS), and Power Generation. The thermal protection systems and spacecraft structure are contained in the Structures section. The Avionics section includes Navigation, Attitude Determination, Data Processing, Communication systems, and Sensors. The Mission Analysis section was responsible for ground processing and spacecraft astrodynamics. The Systems Integration Section pulled the above sections together into one spacecraft, and addressed costing and reliability.

Bosset, M.↗

Martian carbon dioxide: Clues from isotopes in SNC meteorites

Attempts to unravel the origin and evolution of the atmosphere and hydrosphere on Mars from isotopic data have been hampered by the impreciseness of the measurements made by the Viking Lander and by Earth-based telescopes. The SNC meteorites which are possibly pieces of the Martian surface offer a unique opportunity to obtain more precise estimates of the planet's volatile inventory and isotopic composition. Recently, we reported results on oxygen isotopes of water extracted by pyrolysis from samples of Shergotty, Zagami, Nakhla, Chassigny, Lafayette, and EETA-79001. Now we describe complementary results on the stable isotopic composition of carbon dioxide extracted simultaneously from those same samples. We will also report on C-14 abundances obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for some of these CO2 samples.

Karlsson, H. R.↗

Al-26 production profile and model comparisons in Canyon Diablo

The large preatmospheric size of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, a radius of about 15 m, makes it especially suitable for systematic studies of cosmogenic nuclide production rates of iron objects in a 2 pi geometry. To reconstruct the exposure history of the meteoroid, Heymann et al. investigated several fragments recovered from known geographic locations around the crater for their shock features and cosmogenic nobel gases. They applied the Signer-Nier noble gas production rate model to establish the preatmospheric depth of the specimens in the meteoroid. Cosmic ray exposure ages suggested a multi-episodic irradiation, with 170 or 540 Ma being inferred for most of the samples studied while two anomalous specimens indicated a possible third exposure age at 940 Ma. Be-10 and Cl-36 have been measured in a number of these same samples by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), with use being made of the preatmospheric depths determined in Heymann et al. to construct production profiles. The present study extends the cosmogenic radionuclide data to Al-26 and compares the results with both the production rate model of Reedy and Arnold and production rates determined from the cross sections used by the Reedy-Arnold model (for the major nuclear reactions making Al-26) in combination with differential fluxes calculated using the Los Alamos High Energy Transport (LAHET) Code System. Model calculations for Be-10 and Cl-36 have also been obtained.

Michlovich, E.↗

Cold Reversal on Kodiak Island, Alaska, Correlated with the European Younger Dryas by Using Variations of Atmospheric C-14 Content

High-resolution AMS (accelerator-mass-spectrometer) radiocarbon dating was performed on late-glacial macrofossils in lake sediments from Kodiak Island, Alaska, and on shells in marine sediments from southwest Sweden. In both records, a dramatic drop in radiocarbon ages equivalent to a rise in the atmospheric C-14 by approximately 70%. coincides with the beginning of the cold period at 11000 yr B.P. (C-14 age). Thus our results show that a close correlation between climatic records around the globe is possible by using a global signature of changes in atmospheric C-14 content.

Hajdas, Irka↗

Late-Glacial to Early Holocene Climate Changes from a Central Appalachians Pollen and Macrofossil Record

A Late-glacial to early Holocene record of pollen, plant macrofossils and charcoal, based on two cores, is presented for Browns Pond in the central Appalachians of Virginia. An AMS radiocarbon chronology defines the timing of moist and cold excursions, superimposed upon the overall warming trend from 14,200 to 7,500 C-14 yr B.P. This site shows cold, moist conditions from approximately 14,200 to 12,700 C-14 yr B.P., with warming at 12,730, 11,280 and 10,050 C-14 yr B.P. A decrease in deciduous broad-leaved tree taxa and Pinus strobus (haploxylon) pollen, simultaneous with a re-expansion of Abies denotes a brief, cold reversal from 12,260 to 12,200 C-14 yr B.P. A second cold reversal, inferred from increases in montane conifers, is centered at 7,500 C-14 yr B.P. The cold reversals at Browns Pond may be synchronous with climate change in Greenland, and northwestern Europe. Warming at 11,280 C-14 yr B.P. shows the complexity of regional climate responses during the Younger Dryas chronozone.

Kneller, Margaret↗

Long-Term Arctic Peatland Dynamics, Vegetation and Climate History of the Pur-Taz Region, Western Siberia

Stratigraphic analyses of peat composition, LOI, pollen, spores, macrofossils, charcoal, and AMS ages are used to reconstruct the peatland, vegetation and climatic dynamics in the Pur-Taz region of western Siberia over 5000 years (9300 - 4500 BP). Section stratigraphy shows many changes from shallow lake sediment to different combinations of forested or open sedge, moss, and Equisetum fen and peatland environments. Macrofossil and pollen data indicate that Larix sibirica and Betula pubescens trees were first to arrive, followed by Picea obovata. The dominance of Picea macrofossils 6000-5000 BP in the Pur-Taz peatland along with regional Picea pollen maxima indicate warmer conditions and movement of the spruce treeline northward at this time. The decline of pollen and macrofossils from all of these tree species in uppermost peats suggests a change in the environment less favorable for their growth, perhaps cooler temperatures and/or less moisture. Of major significance is the evidence for old ages of the uppermost peats in this area of Siberia, suggesting a real lack of peat accumulation in recent millennia or recent oxidation of uppermost peat.

Peteet, Dorothy↗

NASA/NOAA: Earth Science Electronic Theater 1999

The Electronic Theater (E-theater) presents visualizations which span the period from the original Suomi/Hasler animations of the first ATS-1 GEO weather satellite images in 1966 to the latest 1999 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. Hot off the SGI-Onyx Graphics-Supercomputer are NASA's visualizations of Hurricanes Mitch, Georges, Fran and Linda. These storms have been recently featured on the covers of National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Popular Science. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on National and International network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1-min GOES images that appeared in the November BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the NASA Goddard Visualization and Analysis Laboratory (VAL/912), and Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS/930), as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the Earth Science E-Theater 1999 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu, Washington, New York, and Dallas. The presentation Jan 11-14 at the AMS meeting in Dallas used a 4-CPU SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation with 8 GB RAM and a Terabyte Disk at 3840 X 1024 resolution with triple synchronized BarcoReality 9200 projectors on a 60ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense HyperImage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, HyperImage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing HyperImage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed image SpreadSheet (DISS). The DISS is being used as a high performance testbed Next Generation Internet (NGI) VisAnalysis of: 1) El Nino SSTs and NDVI response 2) Latest GOES 10 5-min rapid Scans of 26 day 5000 frame movie of March & April '98 weather and tornadic storms 3) TRMM rainfall and lightning 4)GOES 9 satellite images/winds and NOAA aircraft radar of hurricane Luis, 5) lightning detector data merged with GOES image sequences, 6) Japanese GMS, TRMM, & ADEOS data 7) Chinese FY2 data 8) Meteosat & ERS/ATSR data 9) synchronized manipulation of multiple 3D numerical model views; and others will be illustrated. The Image SpreadSheet has been highly successful in producing Earth science visualizations for public outreach. Many of these visualizations have been widely disseminated through the world wide web pages of the HPCC/LTP/RSD program which can be found at http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/rsd The one min interval animations of Hurricane Luis on ABC Nightline and the color perspective rendering of Hurricane Fran published by TIME, LIFE, Newsweek, Popular Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and the "Weekly Reader" are some of the examples which will be shown.

Hasler, A. Fritz↗

NASA/NOAA: Earth Science Electronic Theater 1999. Earth Science Observations, Analysis and Visualization: Roots in the 60s - Vision for the Next Millennium

The Etheater presents visualizations which span the period from the original Suomi/Hasler animations of the first ATS-1 GEO weather satellite images in 1966, to the latest 1999 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. Hot off the SGI-Onyx Graphics-Supercomputer are NASA''s visualizations of Hurricanes Mitch, Georges, Fran and Linda. These storms have been recently featured on the covers of National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Popular Science. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on National and International network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1-min GOES images that appeared in the November BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the NASA Goddard Visualization & Analysis Laboratory, and Scientific Visualization Studio, as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the Earth Science ETheater 1999 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu, Washington, New York, and Dallas. The presentation Jan 11-14 at the AMS meeting in Dallas used a 4-CPU SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation with 8 GB RAM and a Terabyte Disk at 3840 X 1024 resolution with triple synchronized BarcoReality 9200 projectors on a 60ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense HyperImage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, HyperImage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing HyperImage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed Image SpreadSheet (DISS). The DISS is being used as a high performance testbed Next Generation Internet (NGI) VisAnalysis of: 1) El Nino SSTs and NDVI response 2) Latest GOES 10 5-min rapid Scans of 26 day 5000 frame movie of March & April 198 weather and tornadic storms 3) TRMM rainfall and lightning 4)GOES 9 satellite images/winds and NOAA aircraft radar of hurricane Luis, 5) lightning detector data merged with GOES image sequences, 6) Japanese GMS, TRMM, & ADEOS data 7) Chinese FY2 data 8) Meteosat & ERS/ATSR data 9) synchronized manipulation of multiple 3D numerical model views; etc. will be illustrated. The Image SpreadSheet has been highly successful in producing Earth science visualizations for public outreach.

Hasler, A. Fritz↗

Late Pleistocene Interstadial Environment on Faddeyevskiy Island, East-Siberian Sea, Russia

Pollen, plant macrofossil, LOI and radiocarbon analyses of a 1.4-m section from Faddeyevskiy Island, Novosibirskie Ostrova archipelago (75 deg 20 min N, 143 deg 50 min E, 30m elevation) provide new information on the Late Pleistocene interstadial environmental history of this high Arctic region. Bulk radiocarbon dates of 25,700 +/- 1000, 32,780 +/- 500, 35,200 +/- 650 and two AMS dates of 29,950 +/- 660 and 42,990 +/- 1280 indicate that the deposits accumulated during the Kargian (Boutellier) interval. Numerous mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) remains collected in the vicinity of the site were radiocarbon dated to 36,700-18,500 yr. BP. Rare bison (Bison priscus) bones were dated to 32,200 +/- 600 and 33,100 +/- 320. Poaceae, Cyperaceae, and Artemisia pollen dominate the pollen spectra with some Ranunculaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Rosaceae, and Compositae. These pollen spectra reflect a tundra-steppe vegetation which probably was dominant on the exposed shelf of the Arctic Ocean. The presence of Carex macrofossils infer a summer climate two degrees warmer than today. The productivity of this local vegetation during the Kargian interstadial was apparently high enough to feed the grass-eater herds.

Andreev, Andrei A.↗

Earth Science Multimedia Theater

The presentation will begin with the latest 1998 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. A compilation of the 10 days of animations of Hurricane Georges which were supplied daily on NASA to Network television will be shown. NASA's visualizations of Hurricane Bonnie which appeared in the Sept 7 1998 issue of TIME magazine. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1 -min GOES images that will appear in the October BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the Goddard Visualization & Analysis Laboratory, and Scientific Visualization Studio, as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the "Digital-HyperRes-Panorama" Earth Science ETheater'98 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris and Phoenix. The presentation in Paris used a SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation at 2560 X 1024 resolution with dual synchronized video Epson 71 00 projectors on a 20ft wide screen. Earth Science Electronic Theater '999 is being prepared for a December 1 st showing at NASA HQ in Washington and January presentation at the AMS meetings in Dallas. The 1999 version of the Etheater will be triple wide with at resolution of 3840 X 1024 on a 60 ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense Hyperimage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, Hyperimage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing Hyperimage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed Image SpreadSheet (DISS).

Hasler, A. F.↗

Late Holocene Environmental Changes from NY-NJ Estuaries

High-resolution records of environmental change in the lower Hudson estuary are quite rare. We present preliminary data from several marshes in the New York- New Jersey region in order to understand the late Holocene environmental history of this region. Our project includes salt marsh cores from Hackensack, Piermont, Staten Island, and Jamaica Bay. Our preliminary research has focused on a 11.15 m sediment core from Piermont Marsh, New York (40 deg N, 74 deg W) in an attempt to document the Holocene environmental history of the region. Lithology, loss -on -ignition (LOI), pollen, plant macrofossils, charcoal, and foraminifera were analyzed. Core lithology consists of peat, silts, and clays that vary in color and texture. The base of the core is AMS C-14 dated to 4190 yr BP. Preliminary low-resolution analysis of the core to date includes sampling at the 1-meter interval throughout the core. LOI of the sediments ranges from 1% to 85%. Average rate of deposition is about .26 cm/yr. Major changes in pollen percentages are visible throughout the core.

Peteet, Dorothy M.↗

Late Holocene Environmental Changes from NY-NJ Estuaries

High-resolution records of environmental change in the lower Hudson estuary are quite rare. We present preliminary data from several marshes in the New York- New Jersey region in order to understand the late Holocene environmental history of this region. Our project includes salt marsh cores from Hackensack, Piermont, Staten Island, and Jamaica Bay. Our preliminary research has focused on a 11.15 m. sediment core from Piermont Marsh, New York (40 N, 74 W) in an attempt to document the Holocene environmental history of the region. Lithology, loss-on-ignition (LOI), pollen, plant macrofossils, charcoal, and foraminifera were analyzed. Core lithology consists of peat, silts, and clays that vary in color and texture. The base of the core is AMS C-14 dated to 4190 yr BP. Preliminary low-resolution analysis of the core to date includes sampling at the 1-meter interval throughout the core. LOI of the sediments ranges from 1% to 85%. Average rate of deposition is about .26 cm/yr. Major changes in pollen percentages are visible throughout the core.

Peteet, Dorothy M.↗

High and Mid-Latitude Wetlands, Climate Change, and Carbon Storage

Pollen and macrofossil stratigraphy from wetlands associated with AMS chronology provides a vegetational and climatic history over thousands of years. From these records we establish a record of climate change which can be compared with independent records of carbon accumulation rates in these same wetlands. In this way, inferences can be made concerning carbon storage during different climatic regimes. One focus of our research has been high-latitude regions such as Alaskan and Siberian tundra, from which we have paleorecords which span the last 10,000 years. We will present records from the Malaspina Glacier region, Alaska and the Pur-Taz region of Western Siberia. A second focus of our research is in mid-latitude eastern North America. We will present paleorecords from wetlands in Vermont, New York, and Virginia showing the relationship between carbon accumulation rates and climatic changes since the late Pleistocene.

Peteet, Dorothy↗

BOREAS TE-21 Daily Surface Meteorological Data

The Boreal Ecosystem-Atmospheric Study (BOREAS) TE-21 (Terrestrial Ecology) team collected data sets in support of its efforts to characterize and interpret information on the meteorology of boreal forest areas. Daily meteorological data were derived from half-hourly BOREAS tower flux (TF) and Automatic Meteorological Station (AMS) mesonet measurements collected in the Southern and Northern Study Areas (SSA and NSA) for the period of 01 Jan 1994 until 31 Dec 1994. The data were stored in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Kimball, John↗

In-Situ Measurements of Cosmogenic Radionuclides on the Surface of Mars

Cosmogenic nuclides are produced by cosmic-ray nuclear interactions with target nuclei in rocks, soils, ice, and the atmosphere. Cosmogenic nuclides have been widely used for investigation of solar system matter for several decades. Stable nuclides, such as He-1, Ne-21, and Ar-38, are built up over time as the surface is exposed to cosmic rays. The concentrations of cosmogenic radionuclides, such as Be-10 (halflife = 1.5 Myr), Al-26 (0.705 Myr), and C-14 (5,730 yr) also build up with exposure time but reach saturation values after several half-lives. Especially after development of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), cosmogenic nuclides in terrestrial samples are routinely used for geomorphic studies such as glaciation, surface erosion, and tectonics, and studies of atmospheric and ocean circulation. Cosmogenic nuclides on Mars will be able to answer questions of exposure ages, erosion rates, tectonic events, and deposition rates of sediments and/or volatiles. The concentrations of cosmogenic stable nuclides gives the integrated exposure time of the rock/mineral, and the activities of radionuclides give recent records for times back as long as a few half-lives.

Nishiizumi, K.↗

A Multi-Mission Testbed for Advanced Technologies

The mission of the Center for Space Integrated Microsystem (CSIM) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is to develop advanced avionics systems for future deep space missions. The Advanced Micro Spacecraft (AMS) task is building a multi-mission testbed facility to enable the infusion of CSIM technologies into future missions. The testbed facility will also perform experimentation for advanced avionics technologies and architectures to meet challenging power, performance, mass, volume, reliability, and fault tolerance of future missions. The testbed facility has two levels of testbeds: (1) a Proof-of-Concept (POC) Testbed and (2) an Engineering Model Testbed. The methodology of the testbed development and the process of technology infusion are presented in a separate paper in this conference. This paper focuses only on the design, implementation, and application of the POC testbed. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Chau, S. N.↗

Challenging Technology, and Technology Infusion into 21st Century

In preparing for the space exploration challenges of the next century, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Center for Integrated Space Micro-Systems (CISM) is chartered to develop advanced spacecraft systems that can be adapted for a large spectrum of future space missions. Enabling this task are revolutions in the miniaturization of electrical, mechanical, and computational functions. On the other hand, these revolutionary technologies usually have much lower readiness levels than those required by flight projects. The mission of the Advanced Micro Spacecraft (AMS) task in CISM is to bridge the readiness gap between advanced technologies and flight projects. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Chau, S. N.↗