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At least 649 records · Page 36

Cruise-Efficient Short Takeoff and Landing (CESTOL): Potential Impact on Air Traffic Operations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is investigating technological and operational concepts for introducing Cruise-Efficient Short Takeoff and Landing (CESTOL) aircraft into a future US National Airspace System (NAS) civil aviation environment. CESTOL is an aircraft design concept for future use to increase capacity and reduce emissions. CESTOL provides very flexible takeoff, climb, descent and landing performance capabilities and a high-speed cruise capability. In support of NASA, this study is a preliminary examination of the potential operational impact of CESTOL on airport and airspace capacity and delay. The study examines operational impacts at a subject site, Newark Liberty Intemational Airport (KEWR), New Jersey. The study extends these KEWR results to estimate potential impacts on NAS-wide network traffic operations due to the introduction of CESTOL at selected major airports. These are the 34 domestic airports identified in the Federal Aviation Administration's Operational Evolution Plan (OEP). The analysis process uses two fast-time simulation tools to separately model local and NAS-wide air traffic operations using predicted flight schedules for a 24-hour study period in 2016. These tools are the Sen sis AvTerminal model and NASA's Airspace Concept Evaluation System (ACES). We use both to simulate conventional-aircraft-only and CESTOL-mixed-with-conventional-aircraft operations. Both tools apply 4-dimension trajectory modeling to simulate individual flight movement. The study applies AvTerminal to model traffic operations and procedures for en route and terminal arrival and departures to and from KEWR. These AvTerminal applications model existing arrival and departure routes and profiles and runway use configurations, with the assumption jet-powered, large-sized civil CESTOL aircraft use a short runway and standard turboprop arrival and departure procedures. With these rules, the conventional jet and CESTOL aircraft are procedurally separated from each other geographically and in altitude during tenninal airspace approach and departure operations, and each use a different arrival runway. AvTeminal implements its unique Focal-point Scheduling Process to sequence, space and delay aircraft to resolve spacing and overtake conflicts among flights in the airspace and airport system serving KEWR. This Process effectively models integrated arrival and departure operations. AvTerminal assesses acceptance rates and delay magnitude and causality at selected locations, including en route outer boundary fixes, tenninal airspace arrival and departure boundary fixes, terminal airspace arrival merge and departure diverge fixes, and runway landing and takeoff runways. The analysis compares the resulting capacity impacts, flight delays and delay sources between CESTOL and conventional KEWR operations. AvTerminal quantitative results showed that CESTOL has significant capability to increase airport arrival acceptance rates (35-40% at KEWR) by taking advantage of otherwise underused airspace and runways where available. The study extrapolates the AvTerminal-derived KEWR peak arrival and departure acceptance rates to estimate capacity parameter values for each of the OEP airports in the ACES modeling of traffic through the entire NAS network. The extrapolations of acceptance rates allow full, partial or no achievement of CESTOL capacity gains at an OEP airport as determined by assessments of the degree to which local procedures allow leveraging of CESTOL capabilities. These assessments consider each OEP airport's runway geometries, runway system configurations, airport and airspace operations, and potential CESTOL traffic loadings. The ACES modeling, simulates airport and airspace spacing constraints imposed by airport runway system, terminal and en route air traffic control and traffic flow management operations using airport acceptance rates representing conventional-aircraft-only and CESTOL-mixed operations. CEOL aircraft are assumed to have Mach 0.8, and alternatively Mach 0.7, cruise speeds to examine compatibility with conventional aircraft operations in common airspace. The ACES results provides estimates of CESTOL delay impact NAS-wide and at OEP airports due to changes in OEP airport acceptance rates and changes in en route airspace potential conflict rates. Preliminary results show meaningful nationwide delay reductions (20%) due to CESTOL operations at 34 major domestic airports.

Couluris, G. J.↗

Technology for Solar Array Production on the Moon

Silicon, aluminum, and glass are the primary raw materials that will be required for production of solar arrays on the moon. A process sequence is proposed for producing these materials from lunar regolith is proposed, consisting of separating the required materials from lunar rock with fluorine. Fluorosilane produced by this process is reduced to silicon; the fluorine salts are reduced to metals by reaction with metallic potassium. Fluorine is recovered from residual MgF and CaF2 by reaction with K2O. Aluminum, calcium oxide, and magnesium oxide are recovered to manufacture structural materials and glass.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗

Thermochemical production of hydrogen via multistage water splitting processes

This paper presents and reviews the fundamental thermodynamic principles underlying thermochemical water splitting processes. The overall system is considered first and the temperature limitation in process thermal efficiency is developed. The relationship to an ideal water electrolysis cell is described and the nature of efficient multistage reaction processes is discussed. The importance of the reaction entropy change and the relation of the reaction free energy change to the work of separation is described. A procedure for analyzing thermochemical water splitting processes is presented and its use to calculate individual stage efficiency is demonstrated. A number of processes are used to illustrate the concepts and procedures.

Funk, J. E.↗

Status and outlook of flow separation control

Under certain conditions, wall-bounded flows separate. To improve the performance of natural or man-made flow systems, it may be beneficial to delay or advance this detachment process. The present article reviews the status and outlook of separation control for both steady and unsteady flows. Both passive and active techniques to prevent or to provoke flow detachment are considered and suggestions are made for further research.

Gad-El-hak, Mohamed↗

Reflective insulator layers separated by bonded silica beads

Nonconductive silica beads are bonded to metallic reflecting insulation sheets prior to fabrication of multilayer reflectors. This eliminates the need for separate nonconductive sheets and simplifies the fabrication process.

Zuver, N. T., Jr.↗

Interdisciplinary applications and interpretations of ERTS data within the Susquehanna River Basin (resource inventory, land use, and pollution)

The author has identified the following significant results. An interdisciplinary group at Penn State University is analyzing ERTS-1 data. The geographical area of interest is that of the Susquehanna River Basin in Pennsylvania. The objectives of the work have been to ascertain the usefulness of ERTS-1 data in the areas of natural resources and land use inventory, geology and hydrology, and environmental quality. Specific results include a study of land use in the Harrisburg area, discrimination between types of forest resources and vegetation, detection of previously unknown geologic faults and correlation of these with known mineral deposits and ground water, mapping of mine spoils in the anthracite region of eastern Pennsylvania, and mapping of strip mines and acid mine drainage in central Pennsylvania. Both photointerpretive techniques and automatic computer processing methods have been developed and used, separately and in a combined approach.

Mcmurtry, G. J.↗

Snow survey and vegetation growth in the Swiss Alps

The author has identified the following significant results. Analog processing of S190A and B color and infrared color transparencies showed that it is possible to evaluate the courses of the temporary snow line and the upper limit of vegetation growth over large areas. By transferring the results from S190A onto a topo-map 1:200,000, an accuracy of + or - 50 m could be achieved. With S190B transferred onto a map 1:100,000, an accuracy of + or - 20 m was reached. Digital processing of S192 multispectral data allowed a separation of snow and clouds by combining the information from channels 9, 15, and 18.

Haefner, H.↗

Thermophysical properties of foodstuffs

Minimum overall nutritional deterioration of foodstuffs is generally attained by maximizing the rate of heat input and minimizing the duration of heating. Measurement of thermophysical data for foodstuffs is discussed in terms of specific heat, latent energy, enthalpy, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and density. Since phase change in foodstuffs occurs over a temperature range rather than at a discrete temperature, enthalpy is preferred over sensible and latent energy measurements as it can be used to fix the state of a sample very accurately; also, in the fusion process there is no precise way of separating sensible and latent energies. The first step in determining property data for foodstuffs is to describe the material in conventionally accepted terms. Future work should be concentrated in the area of thermal diffusivity and enthalpy measurements.

Witte, L. C.↗

Relations between transverse electric fields and field-aligned currents

A model for the field-aligned propagation of transverse electric fields and associated field-aligned sheet currents is presented which takes into account the wave nature of the process. The model is applied to the separate cases of ionospheric and magnetospheric sources, and the resulting ionospheric electric field to field-aligned sheet current ratios are determined for comparison with experimental observations. It is found that the magnetospheric wave 'conductivity' for shear mode Alfven waves is small with respect to typical values of the height-integrated ionospheric Pedersen conductivity. For plasma convecting across a stationary disturbance a dynamic equilibrium is achieved in which field-aligned currents flow continuously away from the source on convecting field lines. Consistency with typical ionospheric electric fields requires that the field-aligned sheet currents are limited to around 0.1 A/m for ionospheric polarization sources, while magnetospheric sources are easily capable of 1 A/m or more.

Mallinckrodt, A. J.↗

Multispectral Resource Sampler - An experimental satellite sensor for the mid-1980s

An experimental pushbroom scan sensor, the Multispectral Resource Sampler (MRS), being developed by NASA for a future earth orbiting flight is presented. This sensor will provide new earth survey capabilities beyond those of current sensor systems, with a ground resolution of 15 m over a swath width of 15 km in four bands. The four arrays are aligned on a common focal surface requiring no beamsplitters, thus causing a spatial separation on the ground which requires computer processing to register the bands. Along track pointing permits stereo coverage at variable base/height ratios and atmospheric correction experiments, while across track pointing will provide repeat coverage, from a Landsat-type orbit, of every 1 to 3 days. The MRS can be used for experiments in crop discrimination and status, rock discrimination, land use classification, and forestry.

Schnetzler, C. C.↗

The Jupiter hot plasma torus - Observed electron temperature and energy flows

The detection of the optical emission /O I/ 6300 A (8 + or - 4 R) and /S III/ 6312 A (48 + or - 5 R) is reported. It is noted that these emissions are indicators of the ion source morphology and the plasma physical state and that the S III emitters have a kinetic temperature of approximately 10 to the 6th K. When combined with observations of UV lines from the same species, the optical measurements separately imply effective electron temperatures for radiative processes that are mutually consistent (approximately 50,000 K).

Brown, R. A.↗

Model studies in catalysis with uhv-deposited metal particles and clusters

Small supported metal particles have become a popular area of intense research interest, and important contributions to the considered problems are being made from the fields of uhv technology, thin film physics surface science, and surface and thin film instrumentation. Attention is given to insulating supports, particulate metal deposits and their properties, metal/support interactions and gas exposures, and integrated experimental approaches. It is concluded that major contributions to the field of model catalysis should be forthcoming in the near future from uhv-based methods of research. Catalysis and catalysis-related problem areas expected to benefit from advanced model studies include catalyst preparation processing, sintering mechanisms for metals and alloys, separation of initial and final state effects for supported clusters, and the influence of particle and/or support morphologies.

Poppa, H.↗

Precision geodesy using the Mark-III very-long-baseline interferometer system

Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) has been used to make precise measurements of the vector separation between widely separated antennas. The system for acquiring and processing VLBI data known as Mark-III is described. Tests of the system show it to have millimeter-level accuracy on short baselines; measurements of baselines longer than a few hundred kilometers suggest that accuracy is limited by the uncertainty in the calibration of tropospheric path delay to the level of a few centimeters. VLBI experiments conducted between 1976 and 1983 have demonstrated the stability of the North American plate by showing that there is no change in the distance between eastern California and Massachusetts at the level of a few millimeters per year or greater. Experiments made from 1980 to 1984 indicate that the distance from Massachusetts to Sweden is increasing by 1.7 + or - 1 cm/year where the quoted standard deviation includes the estimated effects of systematic errors.

Clark, T. A.↗

Hormone Purification by Isoelectric Focusing

Various ground-based research approaches are being applied to a more definitive evaluation of the natures and degrees of electroosmosis effects on the separation capabilities of the Isoelectric Focusing (IEF) process. A primary instrumental system for this work involves rotationally stabilized, horizontal electrophoretic columns specially adapted for the IEF process. Representative adaptations include segmentation, baffles/screens, and surface coatings. Comparative performance and development testing are pursued against the type of column or cell established as an engineering model. Previously developed computer simulation capabilities are used to predict low-gravity behavior patterns and performance for IEF apparatus geometries of direct project interest. Three existing mathematical models plus potential new routines for particular aspects of simulating instrument fluid patterns with varied wall electroosmosis influences are being exercised.

Bier, M.↗

Evaluation of existing and proposed computer architectures for future ground-based systems

Parallel processing architectures and techniques used in current supercomputers are described and projections are made of future advances. Presently, the von Neumann sequential processing pattern has been accelerated by having separate I/O processors, interleaved memories, wide memories, independent functional units and pipelining. Recent supercomputers have featured single-input, multiple data stream architectures, which have different processors for performing various operations (vector or pipeline processors). Multiple input, multiple data stream machines have also been developed. Data flow techniques, wherein program instructions are activated only when data are available, are expected to play a large role in future supercomputers, along with increased parallel processor arrays. The enhanced operational speeds are essential for adequately treating data from future spacecraft remote sensing instruments such as the Thematic Mapper.

Schulbach, C.↗

Impact vaporization: Late time phenomena from experiments

While simple airflow produced by the outward movement of the ejecta curtain can be scaled to large dimensions, the interaction between an impact-vaporized component and the ejecta curtain is more complicated. The goal of these experiments was to examine such interaction in a real system involving crater growth, ejection of material, two phased mixtures of gas and dust, and strong pressure gradients. The results will be complemented by theoretical studies at laboratory scales in order to separate the various parameters for planetary scale processes. These experiments prompt, however, the following conclusions that may have relevance at broader scales. First, under near vacuum or low atmospheric pressures, an expanding vapor cloud scours the surrounding surface in advance of arriving ejecta. Second, the effect of early-time vaporization is relatively unimportant at late-times. Third, the overpressure created within the crater cavity by significant vaporization results in increased cratering efficiency and larger aspect ratios.

Schultz, P. H.↗