Variational equations derived from the Herrick variation of parameters method
Variational equations from Herrick variation of parameters method for Icarus encounter with earth
Liu, A. S.↗
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Photometric and polarimetric properties of the Bruderheim chondritic meteorite
Photometric and polarimetric laboratory measurements were made as a function of phase angle in the U(0.36 microns), G(0.54 microns) and R(0.67 microns) bands for 0, 30 and 60 deg incident illumination on four particle size ranges of Bruderheim, an L6 olivine-hypersthene chondritic meteorite. The four particle size ranges were: 0.25-4.76 mm coated with less than 74 microns powder, 74-250 microns, and less than 37 microns. In addition, normal reflectance measurements were made in the spectral range from 0.31 to 1.1 microns. Comparison with astronomical data reveals that none of the asteroids in the main belt for which adequate observations exist can be matched with Bruderheim, which is representative of the most common meteoritic material encountered by the Earth. However, it appears from the polarization and photometry data that the surface of the Apollo asteroid Icarus is consistent with an ordinary chondrite composition. This suggests the possibility that this material, although common in Earth-crossing orbits, is rare as a surface constituent in the main asteroid belt.
Egan, W. G.↗
A study of the applicability of solar electric propulsion
A summary is given of a one-year study to determine the applicability of solar electric propulsion as a means of primary propulsion for the unmanned exploration of the solar system. Missions to a wide variety of solar system targets were investigated, including Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ceres, Eros, Geographos, Icarus, D'Arrest, and Encke.
Mann, F. I.↗
Photometric and polarimetric properties of the Bruderheim chondritic meteorite.
Study of the spectral, photometric, and polarimetric properties of the Bruderheim olivine-hypersthene chondritic meteorite. This meteorite is representative of the most common meteoritic material recovered on earth, and, hence, could also be the most common in interplanetary space. Yet, comparison with astronomical data indicates that none of the asteroids in the main belt for which adequate observations exist can be matched with Bruderheim properties. Only the surface of the Apollo asteroid Icarus does, in light of polarization and photometry data, appear to be consistent with an ordinary chondrite composition. This suggests the possibility that this material, although common in earth-crossing orbits, is rare as a surface constituent in the main asteroid belt.
Egan, W. G.↗
Comment on radar scattering from Saturn's rings
Strong 12.5 cm-wavelength radar echoes from Saturn's rings have been observed recently. The observed radar cross section of 0.62 (plus or minus 0.15) times the geometric area occupied by the optically observed A, B, and C rings seems too high based on radar experience with the terrestrial planets and the asteroids Icarus and Toro. An explanation of this phenomenon is proposed, based on the fact that backscattering from transparent spheres can show considerable gain over the simple external reflection from the front surface of an equivalent dielectric sphere. It is shown that only 10% of the optically observed material in the A, B, and C rings need consist of smooth ice fragments larger than 8 cm in radius to yield the radar results.
Pettengill, G. H.↗
A study of unmanned mission opportunities to comets and asteroids
Several unmanned multiple-target mission opportunities to comets and asteroids were studied. The targets investigated include Grigg-Skjellerup, Giacobini-Zinner, Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, Borrelly, Halley, Schaumasse, Geographos, Eros, Icarus, and Toro, and the trajectories consist of purely ballistic flight, except that powered swingbys and deep space burns are employed when necessary. Optimum solar electric rendezvous trajectories to the comets Giacobini-Zinner/85, Borrelly/87, and Temple (2)/83 and /88 employing the 8.67 kw Sert III spacecraft modified for interplanetary flight were also investigated. The problem of optimizing electric propulsion heliocentric trajectories, including the effects of geocentric launch asymptote declination on launch vehicle performance capability, was formulated, and a solution developed using variational calculus techniques. Improvements were made to the HILTOP trajectory optimization computer program. An error analysis of high-thrust maneuvers involving spin-stabilized spacecraft was developed and applied to a synchronous meteorological satellite mission.
Mann, F. I.↗
Ion drive performance and trajectories
The use of Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) for the Solar Probe Mission is addressed. The dependence of the payload mass on the site of the SEP and the flight time are described on the basis of preliminary data. The range of hardware expected to be available in the 1980's is summarized. There are several classes of optimal low-thrust trajectories for the Solar Probe Mission. These are trajectory types A, B, C corresponding to one, two, or three orbital revolutions, respectively. Plots of transfer trajectories corresponding to type-A, type-A with a Venus Swingby, type-B, and type-C with ab Icarus Rendezvous are shown. A summary of the SEP performance is given.
Yen, C. L.↗
Interplanetary and interstellar dust
Several processed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) samples were produced to date. The Raman spectra and D/H ratios of these samples will be studied in the near future. A manuscript was sent to Icarus which gives a detailed discussion of the possibility of using solar flare tracks in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) to determine a cometary vs. asteroidal source of the IDPs. The technique looks promising and a program was started to measure the large number of IDP track density necessary to address the issue of the source(s) of the dust. The results could potentially tell a great deal about comets and/or asteroids.
Sandford, S.↗
Definition and testing of the hydrologic component of the pilot land data system
The specific aim was to develop within the Pilot Land Data System (PLDS) software design environment, an easily implementable and user friendly geometric correction procedure to readily enable the georeferencing of imagery data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the NOAA series spacecraft. A software subsystem was developed within the guidelines set by the PLDS development environment utilizing NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Image Analysis Facility's (IAF's) Land Analysis Software (LAS) coding standards. The IAS current program development environment, the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE), operates under a VAX VMS operating system and was used as the user interface. A brief overview of the ICARUS algorithm that was implemented in the set of functions developed, is provided. The functional specifications decription is provided, and a list of the individual programs and directory names containing the source and executables installed in the IAF system are listed. A user guide is provided for the LAS system documentation format for the three functions developed.
Ragan, Robert M.↗
Speckle interferometry of asteroids
This final report for NASA Contract NAGw-867 consists of abstracts of the first three papers in a series of four appearing in Icarus that were funded by the preceding contract NAGw-224: (1) Speckle Interferometry of Asteroids I. 433 Eros; (2) Speckle Interferometry of Asteroids II. 532 Herculina; (3) Speckle Interferometry of Asteroids III. 511 Davida and its Photometry; and the fourth abstract attributed to NAGw-867, (4) Speckle Interferometry of Asteroids IV. Reconstructed images of 4 Vesta; and a review of the results from the asteroid interferometry program at Steward Observatory prepared for the Asteroids II book, (5) Speckle Interferometry of Asteroids. Two papers on asteroids, indirectly related to speckle interferometry, were written in part under NAGw-867. One is in press and its abstract is included here: Photometric Geodesy of Main-Belt Asteroids. II. Analysis of Lightcurves for Poles, Periods and Shapes; and the other paper, Triaxial Ellipsoid Dimensions and Rotational Pole of 2 Pallas from Two Stellar Occultations, is included in full.
Drummond, Jack↗
Future applications of artificial intelligence to Mission Control Centers
Future applications of artificial intelligence to Mission Control Centers are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: basic objectives of the NASA-wide AI program; inhouse research program; constraint-based scheduling; learning and performance improvement for scheduling; GEMPLAN multi-agent planner; planning, scheduling, and control; Bayesian learning; efficient learning algorithms; ICARUS (an integrated architecture for learning); design knowledge acquisition and retention; computer-integrated documentation; and some speculation on future applications.
Friedland, Peter↗
Asteroidal versus cometary meteoroid impacts on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF)
Meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere at low velocities will tend to impact the apex side (that surface facing the spacecraft direction of motion) of a spacecraft at a very high rate compared to the rate with which they will impact an antapex-facing surface. This ratio -- apex to antapex impact rates -- will become less as meteoroid entry velocities increase. The measured ratio, apex to antapex, for 500 micron diameter impact craters in 6061-T6 aluminum on LDEF seems to be about 20 from the work of the meteoroid SIG group and from the work of Humes that was presented at the first LDEF symposium. Such a ratio is more consistent with the meteoroid velocity distributions derived by Erickson and by Kessler, than it is with others that have been tested. These meteoroid velocity distributions have mean entry velocities into the Earth's atmosphere of 16.5 to 16.9 km/s. Jackson and Zook (in a paper submitted to Icarus) have numerically simulated the orbital evolution of small dust grains emitted from asteroids and comets. For those asteroidal grains small enough (below about 100 microns diameter) to drift from the asteroid belt to the orbit of the Earth, under P-R and solar wind drag, without suffering collisional destruction, the following results are found: as their ascending or descending nodes cross the Earth's orbit (and when they might collide with the Earth), their orbital eccentricities and inclinations are quite low (e less than 0.3, i less than 20 degrees), and their mean velocity with respect to the Earth is about 5 or 6 km/s. When gravitational acceleration of the Earth is taken into account, the corresponding mean velocities relative to the top of the Earth's atmosphere are 12 to 13 km/s. This means that, at best, these small asteroidal particles can not comprise more than 50 percent of the particles entering the Earth's atmosphere. And when gravitational focusing is considered, they cannot comprise more than a few percent of those in heliocentric orbit at 1 AU. The rest are presumably of cometary origin.
Zook, Herbert A.↗
SO2 on Venus: A final cross-calibration with Pioneer Venus
In our previous report, we noted that we had successfully completed all of the IUE observations which were proposed. A total of 7 Venus spectra were obtained. In the present reporting period, essentially all of the associated data reduction and analysis activities were completed, and Drs. Stern, Barker, and Na met to collaborate on data interpretation. The model atmosphere used in this analysis is similar to the one used in the analysis of the Pioneer Venus observations (Esposito, et al. 1979, 1988) and the previous IUE observations (Na, et al. 1990). In this model, sulfuric acid aerosols with a radius of about 1 micron are mixed uniformly with Rayleigh scattering gases throughout the cloud layer. There are two wavelength-independent absorbers. First, the aerosols are assumed to have a single scattering albedo of 0.98, and second a pure absorbing layer with an optical depth of 0.2 is added at an altitude of 75 mbar. The variable parameters in this model are the mixing ratios of SO2 at the cloud top (40 mbar level), and the scale height of SO2 at the same altitude. Model spectra were calculated using a radiative transfer code utilizing a Markov Chain method. Each model calculation takes into account the multiple scattering and the vertical inhomogeneity of the atmosphere. We reported those initial results at the 1992 meeting of the AAS Division of Planetary Sciences (Barker, Stern, and Na 1992) The important finding we have reached is that the 1991 IUE observations indicate that the long-term decline in Venus SO2 abundance has either halted or reversed. Our simultaneous groundbased measurements made on the McDonald Observatory 2.7 m corroborate this result. We are now preparing a paper describing these IUE results for publication in Icarus. With the IUE results reduced, we are also beginning a project to compare the 1991 IUE results to Pioneer Venus UV spectra made on the same dates.
Stern, S. Alan↗
Numerical simulations of cometary dust
Most observations of comets are done photometrically or spectrophotometrically. The interpretation of the aperture-averaged flux is relatively simple for an isotropic, radially expanding coma of infinite extent - the canonical model. However, the interpretation of the observations is not so clear when the motion of the dust is affected by radiation pressure, or when the emission is time-varying and anisotropic. For example, in a sample of CCD images of 10 comets, Jewitt and Meech (1987, Ap.J. 317, 992) found that the photometric profiles of only three comets were consistent, within the observational errors, with the profiles predicted form the canonical model. Photometric observations with large apertures, however, seem to suggest that the canonical model may be quite adequate (c.f. Osip, Schleicher, and Millis, 1992, Icarus 98, 115). The dust itself is characterized by a size distribution, with size dependencies on the expansion velocity, the scattered and thermal radiation, the response to radiation pressure, and probably the density. How good then are the approximations normally used in determining the production rates of the dust when these effects are present? As part of a program to better understand the dynamics of cometary dust and gas, a computer program has been developed which numerically simulates the emission of both dust and gas from a tilted rotating nucleus.
Lien, David J.↗
Quasi-periodic atmosphere-regolith-cap CO2 redistribution in the martian past
Our earlier Mars regolith-atmosphere-cap CO2 distribution model (Fanale et al., 1982, Icarus 50, 381-407) has been improved, revised, and extended back over Mars' mid to late history. The present model takes into account four new factors: (1) a more realistic long-term obliquity cycle, (2) thermal conduction as it affects the surface energy balance, (3) the changing solar constant, and (4) atmospheric erosion 3.5 byr ago to the present. Solar insolation and temperatures are computed for the full range of obliquities, latitudes, and epochs, and a CO2 adsorption relation is used, together with a conservation of mass constraint, to calculate atmospheric pressures and exchangeable CO2 mass as functions of obliquity and epoch for the regolith, atmosphere, and polar caps for two assumed thicknesses of a basalt regolith. It is found that the heat conduction term in the surface boundary condition has an important effect in reducing the range of atmospheric pressures over the obliquity cycle at all epochs.
Fanale, Fraser P.↗
Mid-IR Spectroscopy of the Jovian Stratosphere perturbed by comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact
The objective was to obtain spectra from 5 to 14 micron before, during, and after the impacts. We were awarded 2 flights of the KAO which was based in Melbourne, Australia for the events. Impacts R and W were covered, and the observations were completely successful. A paper reporting the observation of water vapor is in press, and other work is in progress as limited funding permits. The text of this report is adapted from that of the Icarus paper.
Hunten, Don M.↗
Coronagraphic Observations of Lunar Sodium
This grant supported an investigation of lunar sodium by our coronagraph and spectrograph on nearby Mount Lemmon. We report successful operation and data analysis during International Lunar Atmosphere Week, September 15 - 22, 1995, and submittal of a paper to Icarus. The core of the proposed work was to observe the lunar sodium atmosphere with our classical Lyot coronagraph and specially-built grating spectrograph on Mount Lemmon, a 9400-foot peak about an hour's drive from Tucson. It is optimized for low scattered light and for observing from the Moon's limb to an altitude of approx.1 lunar radius. The grating has 600 lines/mm and a blaze angle of 49 deg., and is used with a somewhat wide slit at a resolving power of about 5000. It is called DARRK for the initials of the people who designed it. The rejection of stray light from the Moon's disk is spectacularly good: when the sky is clear this light is absent right up to a few arcsec from the limb. We use an excellent 1024 by 1024 pixel CCD camera, operated at -100 C; the exposures are 10 to 30 min. Data reduction is done with IRAF running on a Sun Sparcstation.
Hunten, D. M.↗
Stellar Occultation Probe of Triton's Atmosphere
The goals of this research were (i) to better characterize Triton's atmospheric structure by probing a region not well investigated by Voyager and (ii) to begin acquiring baseline data for an investigation of the time evolution of the atmosphere which will set limits on the thermal conductivity of the surface and the total mass of N2 in the atmosphere. Our approach was to use observations (with the Kuiper Airborne Observatory) of a stellar occultation by Triton that was predicted to occur on 1993 July 10. As described in the attached reprint, we achieved these objectives through observation of this occultation and a subsequent one with the KAO in 1995. We found new results about Triton's atmospheric structure from the analysis of the two occultations observed with the KAO and ground-based data. These stellar occultation observations made both in the visible and infrared, have good spatial coverage of Triton including the first Triton central-flash observations, and are the first data to probe the 20-100 km altitude level on Triton. The small-planet light curve model of Elliot and Young (AJ 103, 991-1015) was generalized to include stellar flux refracted by the far limb, and then fitted to the data. Values of the pressure, derived from separate immersion and emersion chords, show no significant trends with latitude indicating that Triton's atmosphere is spherically symmetric at approximately 50 km altitude to within the error of the measurements. However, asymmetry observed in the central flash indicates the atmosphere is not homogeneous at the lowest levels probed (approximately 20 km altitude). From the average of the 1995 occultation data, the equivalent-isothermal temperature of the atmosphere is 47 +/- 1 K and the atmospheric pressure at 1400 km radius (approximately 50 km altitude) is 1.4 +/- 0.1 microbar. Both of these are not consistent with a model based on Voyager UVS and RSS observations in 1989 (Strobel et al, Icarus 120, 266-289). The atmospheric temperature from the occultation is 5 K colder than that predicted by the model and the observed pressure is a factor of 1.8 greater than the model.
Elliot, James L.↗