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NASA NTRS1992

Styles of crater gradation in Southern Ismenius Lacus, Mars: Clues from Meteor Crater, Arizona

Impact craters on the Earth and Mars provide a unique opportunity to quantify the gradational evolution of instantaneously created landforms in a variety of geologic settings. Unlike most landforms, the initial morphology associated with impact craters on both planets is uncomplicated by competition between construction and degradation during formation. Furthermore, pristine morphologies are both well-constrained and similar to a first order. The present study compares styles of graduation at Meteor Crater with those around selected craters (greater than 1-2 km in diameter) in southern Ismenius Lacus. Emphasis is placed on features visible in images near LANDSAT TM resolution (30-50 m/pixel) which is available for both areas. In contrast to Mars, vegetation on the Earth can modify gradation, but appears to influence overall rates and styles by 2X-3X rather than orders of magnitude. Further studies of additional craters in differing settings will refine the effects of this and other factors (e.g., substrate). Finally, by analogy with results from other terrestrial gradational surfaces this study should help provide constraints on climate over crater histories.

Grant, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Analysis, review, and documentation of the activation data from LDEF material

Samples removed from Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF-1) are being studied at various laboratories to determine the specific activity(pCi/kg) produced in orbit by exposure to protons and neutrons in near-Earth orbit. These activities are being corrected for efficiency, self-attenuation, and background. The activities and associated gamma-ray spectra are being collected, analyzed, documented and reviewed by faculty and graduate students at Eastern Kentucky University. The currently available activation results have been tabulated and reviewed in this report. Approximately 500 spectra have been accumulated for future archival and analysis. The effect of the changing satellite orbit on the activation is reported herein and was calculated using more recent estimates of the flux of Van Allen belt protons.

Laird, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Status report, June 1988 - April 1992

The Mars Mission Research Center (MMRC) is one of nine University Space Engineering Research Centers established in June 1988 by NASA's Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology to broaden the nation's engineering capability to meet the critical needs fo the civilian space program. It includes North Carolina State University (NCSU) at Raleigh and on North Carolina A&T State University at Greensboro. The goal of the Center is to focus on research and educational technologies necessary for planetary exploration, especially transportation to and from our moon and Mars. The research combines mission analysis and design, hypersonic aerodynamics, structures and controls, composite materials, and fabrications. Covered here are activities of the Center from June to April 1992. The Center supports 26 graduate students, 29 undergraduates, 27 faculty and 6 staff. An additional 88 undergraduates worked on four special projects. Three facilities at A&T were renovated and a new 7,000 square foot facility was occupied at NCSU in October 1991. Five laboratories have been developed for composite processing and fabrication facility (A&T), materials testing (A&T), weaving (NCSU), braiding (NCSU), and structures (NCSU). During the past two years, the Center added a new dimension to its program - special projects which involve analysis, design, construction, and testing. The first two projects were full-scale research models of a Mars aerobrake and the HL-20 Personnel Launch System. Both projects received considerable new coverage and appeared in national publications. Additional projects include a model of a Mars Exclusion Vehicle, an Orbiter Ejector, and a Remotely Operated Vehicle. The Orbiter Ejector is scheduled to fly on Shuttle Flight STS-47 in October 1992. Special projects have increased undergraduate student participation and provided a mechanism for more interaction between the universities, NASA centers, and industries. The faculty developed 26 new courses related to the activities of the Center. They conducted four workshops on interplanetary spacecraft, lunar/Mars aerobrakes, spacecraft controls, and aerodynamic heating. The Outreach Program developed into a significant component of the Center. Faculty and students have conducted 12 tours of facilities and given 67 lectures to schools (grade k-12) and civic organizations.

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NASA NTRS1990

Neurocomputing

The present work is intended to give technologists, research scientists, and mathematicians a graduate-level overview of the field of neurocomputing. After exploring the relationship of this field to general neuroscience, attention is given to neural network building blocks, the self-adaptation equations of learning laws, the data-transformation structures of associative networks, and the multilayer data-transformation structures of mapping networks. Also treated are the neurocomputing frontiers of spatiotemporal, stochastic, and hierarchical networks, 'neurosoftware', the creation of neural network-based computers, and neurocomputing applications in sensor processing, control, and data analysis.

Hecht-Nielsen, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1992

Applied aerodynamics experience for secondary science teachers and students

The Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mechanics & Engineering Science at the University of Florida in conjunction with the Alachua County, Florida School Board has embarked on a four-year project of university-secondary school collaboration designed to enhance mathematics and science instruction in secondary school classrooms. The goals are to provide teachers with a fundamental knowledge of flight sciences, and to stimulate interest among students, particularly women and minorities, toward careers in engineering, mathematics, and science. In the first year of the project, all thirteen of the eighth grade physical science teachers and all 1200 of the eighth grade physical science students in the county participated. The activities consisted of a three-day seminar taught at the college level for the teachers, several weeks of classroom instruction for all the students, and an airport field trip for a subgroup of about 430 students that included an orientation flight in a Cessna 172 aircraft. The project brought together large numbers of middle school students, teachers, undergraduate and graduate engineering students, school board administrators, and university engineering faculty.

Abbitt, John D., III↗

NASA NTRS1992

Applications of robust control theory - Educational implications

A survey is made of applications of robust control theory to problems of flight control, control of flexible space structures, and engine control which have appeared in recent conferences and journals. An analysis is made of which theoretical techniques are most commonly used and what implications this has for graduate and undergraduate education in aerospace engineering.

Dorato, P.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Development and integration of modern laboratories in aerospace education

This paper describes the development and integration of a suite of laboratories in an aerospace engineering program. The program's approach to undergraduate education is described as the source for the development of the supporting laboratories. Nine laboratories supporting instruction were developed and installed. The nine laboratories include most major flight-vehicle disciplines. The purpose and major equipments/experiments of each laboratory are briefly described, as is the integration of the laboratory with coursework. The laboratory education provided by this program successfully achieves its purpose of producing competitive aerospace engineering graduates and advancing the level of undergraduate education.

Desautel, D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Photonics and other approaches to high speed communications

Our research group of 4 faculty and about 10-15 graduate students was actively involved (as a group) in the development of computer communication networks for the last five years. Many of its individuals have been involved in related research for a much longer period. The overall research goal is to extend network performance to higher data rates, to improve protocol performance at most ISO layers and to improve network operational performance. We briefly state our research goals, then discuss the research accomplishments and direct your attention to attached and/or published papers which cover the following topics: scalable parallel communications; high performance interconnection between high data rate networks; and a simple, effective media access protocol system for integrated, high data rate networks.

Maly, Kurt↗

NASA NTRS1992

Spaceflight payload design flight experience G-408

Worcester Polytechnic Institute's first payload of spaceflight experiments flew aboard Columbia, STS-40, during June of 1991 and culminated eight years of work by students and faculty. The Get Away Special (GAS) payload was installed on the GAS bridge assembly at the aft end of the cargo bay behind the Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-1) laboratory. The Experiments were turned on by astronaut signal after reaching orbit and then functioned for 72 hours. Environmental and experimental measurements were recorded on three cassette tapes which, together with zeolite crystals grown on orbit, formed the basis of subsequent analyses. The experiments were developed over a number of years by undergraduate students meeting their project requirements for graduation. The experiments included zeolite crystal growth, fluid behavior, and microgravity acceleration measurement in addition to environmental data acquisition. Preparation also included structural design, thermal design, payload integration, and experiment control. All of the experiments functioned on orbit and the payload system performed within design estimates.

Durgin, William W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Small planetary mission plan: Report to Congress

This document outlines NASA's small planetary projects plan within the context of overall agency planning. In particular, this plan is consistent with Vision 21: The NASA Strategic Plan, and the Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) Strategic Plan. Small planetary projects address focused scientific objectives using a limited number of mature instruments, and are designed to require little or no new technology development. Small missions can be implemented by university and industry partnerships in coordination with a NASA Center to use the unique services the agency provides. The timeframe for small missions is consistent with academic degree programs, which makes them an excellent training ground for graduate students and post-doctoral candidates. Because small missions can be conducted relatively quickly and inexpensively, they provide greater opportunity for increased access to space. In addition, small missions contribute to sustaining a vital scientific community by increasing the available opportunities for direct investigator involvement from just a few projects in a career to many.

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NASA NTRS1990

Research summary, January 1989 - June 1990

The Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) was established at NASA ARC in June of 1983. RIACS is privately operated by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a consortium of 62 universities with graduate programs in the aerospace sciences, under a Cooperative Agreement with NASA. RIACS serves as the representative of the USRA universities at ARC. This document reports our activities and accomplishments for the period 1 Jan. 1989 - 30 Jun. 1990. The following topics are covered: learning systems, networked systems, and parallel systems.

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NASA NTRS1991

Telerobotic control of a mobile coordinated robotic server

Results from the Master's Degree Thesis of Mr. Robert Stanley, a graduate student supervised by the principal investigator on this project is reported. The goal of this effort is to develop advanced control methods for flexible space manipulator systems. As such, a fuzzy logic controller has been developed in which model structure as well as parameter constraints are not required for compensation. A general rule base is formulated using quantized linguistic terms; it is then augmented to a traditional integral control. The resulting hybrid fuzzy controller stabilizes the structure over a broad range of uncertainties, including unknown initial conditions. An off-line tuning approach using phase portraits gives further insight into the algorithm. The approach was applied to a three-degree-of-freedom manipulator system - the prototype of the coordinated flexible manipulator system currently being designed and built at North Carolina State University.

Lee, Gordon↗

NASA NTRS1992

The atmospheric structures of the companion stars of eclipsing binary x ray sources

This investigation was aimed at determining structural features of the atmospheres of the massive early-type companion stars of eclipse x-ray pulsars by measurement of the attenuation of the x-ray spectrum during eclipse transitions and in deep eclipse. Several extended visits were made to ISAS in Japan by G. Clark and his graduate student, Jonathan Woo to coordinate the Ginga observations and preliminary data reduction, and to work with the Japanese host scientist, Fumiaki Nagase, in the interpretation of the data. At MIT extensive developments were made in software systems for data interpretation. In particular, a Monte Carlo code was developed for a 3-D simulation of the propagation of x-rays from the neutron star through the ionized atmosphere of the companion. With this code it was possible to determine the spectrum of Compton-scattered x-rays in deep eclipse and to subtract that component from the observed spectra, thereby isolating the software component that is attributable in large measure to x-rays that have been scattered by interstellar grains. This research has culminated in the submission of paper to the Astrophysical Journal on the determination of properties of the atmosphere of QV Nor, the BOI companion of 4U 1538-52, and the properties of interstellar dust grains along the line of sight from the source. The latter results were an unanticipated byproduct of the investigation. Data from Ginga observations of the Magellanic binaries SMC X-1 and LMC X-4 are currently under investigation as the PhD thesis project of Jonathan Woo who anticipated completion in the spring of 1993.

Clark, George W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Low bandwidth robust controllers for flight

During the final reporting period (Jun. - Dec. 1992), analyses of the longitudinal and lateral flying qualities were made for propulsive-only flight control (POFC) of a Boeing 720 aircraft model. Performance resulting from compensators developed using Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) is documented and analyzed. This report is a first draft of a thesis to be presented by graduate student Hwei-Lan Chou. The final thesis will be presented to NASA when it is completed later this year. The latest landing metrics related to bandwidth criteria and based on the Neal-Smith approach to flying qualities prediction were used in developing performance criteria for the controllers. The compensator designs were tested on the NASA simulator and exhibited adequate performance for piloted flight. There was no significant impact of QFT on performance of the propulsive-only flight controllers in either the longitudinal or lateral modes of flight. This was attributed to the physical limits of thrust available and the engine rate of response, both of whiih severely limited the available bandwidth of the closed-loop system.

Biezad, Daniel J.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Pipeline issues

The declining pool of graduates, the lack of rigorous preparation in science and mathematics, and the declining interest in science and engineering careers at the precollege level promises a shortage of technically educated personnel at the college level for industry, government, and the universities in the next several decades. The educational process, which starts out with a large number of students at the elementary level, but with an ever smaller number preparing for science and engineering at each more advanced educational level, is in a state of crisis. These pipeline issues, so called because the educational process is likened to a series of ever smaller constrictions in a pipe, were examined in a workshop at the Space Grant Conference and a summary of the presentations and the results of the discussion, and the conclusions of the workshop participants are reported.

Eisley, Joe T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

University-industry interaction

It is posited that university industry interaction is highly desirable from the viewpoint of the long term economic development of the country as well as being desirable for the Space Grant Programs. The present and future possible interactions are reviewed for the three university levels namely, undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research.

Hastings, Daniel E.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Coupled structural, thermal, phase-change and electromagnetic analysis for superconductors, volume 1

This research program has dealt with the theoretical development and computer implementation of reliable and efficient methods for the analysis of coupled mechanical problems that involve the interaction of mechanical, thermal, phase-change and electromagnetic subproblems. The focus application has been the modeling of superconductivity and associated quantum-state phase-change phenomena. In support of this objective the work has addressed the following issues: (1) development of variational principles for finite elements; (2) finite element modeling of the electromagnetic problem; (3) coupling of thermal and mechanical effects; and (4) computer implementation and solution of the superconductivity transition problem. The research was carried out over the period September 1988 through March 1993. The main accomplishments have been: (1) the development of the theory of parametrized and gauged variational principles; (2) the application of those principled to the construction of electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical finite elements; and (3) the coupling of electromagnetic finite elements with thermal and superconducting effects; and (4) the first detailed finite element simulations of bulk superconductors, in particular the Meissner effect and the nature of the normal conducting boundary layer. The grant has fully supported the thesis work of one doctoral student (James Schuler, who started on January 1989 and completed on January 1993), and partly supported another thesis (Carmelo Militello, who started graduate work on January 1988 completing on August 1991). Twenty-three publications have acknowledged full or part support from this grant, with 16 having appeared in archival journals and 3 in edited books or proceedings.

Felippa, Carlos A.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Viewgraph description of Penn State's Propulsion Engineering Research Center: Activity highlights and future plans

Viewgraphs are presented that describe the progress and status of Penn State's Propulsion Engineering Research Center. The Center was established in Jul. 1988 by a grant from NASA's University Space Engineering Research Centers Program. After two and one-half years of operation, some 16 faculty are participating, and the Center is supporting 39 graduate students plus 18 undergraduates. In reviewing the Center's status, long-term plans and goals are reviewed and then the present status of the Center and the highlights and accomplishments of the past year are summarized. An overview of plans for the upcoming year are presented.

Merkle, Charles L.↗