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At least 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Experimental Reproduction of Olivine rich Type-I Chondrules

Ordinary chondritic meteorites are an abundant type of stony meteorite characterized by the presence of chondrules. Chondrules are small spheres consisting of silicate, metal, and sulfide minerals that experienced melting in the nebula before incorporation into chondritic meteorite parent bodies. Therefore, chondrules record a variety of processes that occurred in the early solar nebula. Two common types of unequilibrated chondrules with porphyritic textures include FeO-poor (type I) and FeO-rich (type II) each subdivided into an A (SiO2-poor) and B (SiO2-rich) series. Type IA chondrules include those with high proportions of olivine phenocrysts (>80% olivine) and type IB chondrules include those with high proportions of pyroxene phenocrysts (<20% olivine). An intermediate composition, type IAB chondrules include those chondrules in which the proportion of olivine phenocrysts is between 20-80%. We conducted high-temperature laboratory experiments (melting at 1550 C) to produce type I chondrules from average unequilibrated ordinary chondrite (UOC) material mixed with small amounts of additional olivine. The experiments were conducted by adding forsteritic rich olivine (San Carlos olivine, Fo 91) to UOC material (GRO 95544) in a 30/70 ratio, respectively. Results of these high temperature experiments suggest that we have replicated type IA chondrule textures and compositions with dynamic crystallization experiments in which a heterogeneous mixture of UOC (GRO 95544) and olivine (San Carlos olivine) were melted at 1550 C for 1 hr. and cooled at 5-1000 C/hr using graphite crucibles in evacuated silica tubes to provide a reducing environment.

Smith, Robert K.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Mineralogy of nakhlite Martian meteorites: Implications for their relative burial depths

Nakhlites are Martian cumulate rocks mainly composed of augite with variable amounts of olivine and groundmass (mesostasis). Currently seven samples are known: Nakhla (Nak), Governador Valadares (GV), Lafayette (Laf), NWA817, Y000593 (Y), NWA998 and MIL03346 (MIL). All the nakhlites show a similar unbrecciated cumulate texture, and their identical crystallization and exposure ages suggest that they originated from the same igneous body on Mars and were ejected by the same impact event. It is important to study difference of their mineralogy to reconstruct the igneous body from which nakhlites originated. Augite grains in all nakhlites have a nearly identical core composition (En39Fs22Wo39) and have thin Fe-rich rims. These Fe-rich rims are zoned to Ca-poor pyroxene compositions and the degree of chemical zoning varies from one sample to another. NWA998 has the most Mg-rich edge composition. The edge composition becomes more Fe-rich in the order of Laf, Nak/GV, Y and NWA817. Unlike other samples, the Fe-rich edge of MIL augite is zoned to the hedenbergite composition. Olivine grains in all samples except Laf and NWA998 show extensive chemical zoning whose degree is clearly related to the chemical zoning of pyroxenes. MIL and NWA817 have the widest compositional ranges (Fa54-93). Y has a slightly narrower compositional range of Fa58-85. Nak and GV have even narrower ranges (Fa58-72). In contrast to these samples, olivines in Laf and NWA998 are homogeneous (Fa66-67 and Fa61-62, respectively). Such chemical zoning (Fa and Ca) can be used to quantitatively estimate their cooling rates (burial depths) because it was clearly formed by interaction with the intercumulus melt. The obtained burial depths are 1-2 m for NWA817, 4 m for MIL, 7 m for Y, approx.10 m for Nak and GV, and >30 m for Laf and NWA998. This order is clearly related to the degree of pyroxene chemical zoning. The abundance and mineralogy of nakhlite groundmass are also consistent with this order. In Nak, GV and Laf, the groundmass abundance is about 7-8%. Y and NWA998 have a slightly higher abundance (10%), while NWA817 and MIL have much higher abundance (20-24%). The groundmass texture is also related to its abundance. The groundmass of Nak, GV, Laf and Y is mainly composed of feldspar laths. In contrast, NWA817 and MIL have glassy mesostasis without feldspar crystals. In NWA998, feldspar is a large blocky crystal with clear twinning, suggesting that it is even deeper than Laf.

Mikouchi, T.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Magnetoelastic vibration damping properties of TbDy alloys

Damping of axial and bending mode vibrations in giant magnetoelastic polycrystalline TbDy alloys was studied at cryogenic temperatures. All specimens of TbDy were arc-melted in the proper composition ratio and dropped into a chilled copper mold. Additional treatments consisted of cold plane-rolling to induce crystallographic texture and then heat-treating to relieve internal stress. Mechanical hysteretic losses were measured at various strains, frequencies, and loading configurations down to 77 K. Both as-cast and textured polycrystalline TbDy samples were tested along with an aluminum specimen for comparison. Loss factors at multiple natural vibration frequencies of the samples were measured for axial modes. Larger damping rates were measured for axial mode vibrations than for bending mode vibrations, possibly reflecting the larger specimen volume contributing to magnetoelastic damping. At LN2 temperatures TbDy materials demonstrated q > 0.05 at 0.01 Hz and q > 0.1 at higher frequencies from 0.6-1.5 kHz.

magnetoelastic TbDy↗
NASA NTRS2007

Terrain Portrayal for Synthetic Vision Systems Head-Down Displays Evaluation Results

A critical component of SVS displays is the appropriate presentation of terrain to the pilot. At the time of this study, the relationship between the complexity of the terrain presentation and resulting enhancements of pilot SA and pilot performance had been largely undefined. The terrain portrayal for SVS head-down displays (TP-HDD) simulation examined the effects of two primary elements of terrain portrayal on the primary flight display (PFD): variations of digital elevation model (DEM) resolution and terrain texturing. Variations in DEM resolution ranged from sparsely spaced (30 arc-sec) to very closely spaced data (1 arc-sec). Variations in texture involved three primary methods: constant color, elevation-based generic, and photo-realistic, along with a secondary depth cue enhancer in the form of a fishnet grid overlay.

Hughes, Monica F.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Linking Home Plate and Algonquin Class Rocks through Microtextural Analysis: Evidence for Hydrovolcanism in the Inner Basin of Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater

Examining the his-tory of a rock as the summed history of its constituent grains is a proven and powerful strategy that has been used on Earth to maximize the information that can be gleaned from limited samples. Grain size, sorting, roundness, and texture can be observed at the handlens scale, and may reveal clues to transport regime (e.g. fluvial, glacial, eolian) and transport distance. Diagenetic minerals may be of a form and textural context to allow identification, and to point to dominant diagenetic processes (e.g. evaporitic concentration, intermittent dissolution, early vs. late diagenetic emplacement). Handlens scale features of volcaniclastic particles may be diagnostic of primary vs recycled (by surface processes) grains and may provide information about eruptive patterns and processes. When the study site is truly remote, such as Mars, and when there are severe limitations on sample return or sample analysis with other methods, examination at the hand lens scale becomes critical both for extracting a maximum of information, and for best utilizing finite analytical capabilities.

Mittlefehldt, David W.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Petrology and Geochemistry of New Ureilites and Ureilite Genesis

Ureilites are C-bearing, basalt-depleted olivine+pyroxene achondrites from a differentiated asteroid. The group is heterogeneous, exhibiting ranges in O isotopic composition, Fe/Mg, Fe/Mn, pyx/ol, siderophile and lithophile trace element content, and C content and isotopic composition [1]. Some of these characteristics are nebular in origin; others were strongly overprinted by asteroidal igneous processes. The consensus view is that most ureilites are melt-residues, but some are partial cumulates or have interacted with a melt [1,2]. An "unroofing" event occurred while the parent asteroid was hot that froze in mineral core com-positions and resulted in FeO reduction at olivine grain margins. We have studied several new ureilites, but will focus here on two anomalous stones; LAR 04315 and NWA 1241. LAR 04315 is texturally unusual. It contains olivine with angular subdomains, and low-Ca pyroxene riddled with wormy inclusions of metal+troilite, graphite, and possibly other phases, and irregular inclusions of high-Ca pyroxene. Reduction occurred along olivine grain margins and internal fractures, but not along subdomain boundaries. Although texturally odd, LAR 04351 is a typical ureilite in mineral and bulk composition. The olivine is Fo80.8 and falls on the ureilite Fe/Mn-Fe/Mg trend. Its olivine composition falls within the range of the majority of ureilites, and it is typical of these ureilites in bulk rock lithophile and siderophile element contents.

Mittlefehldt, David W.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Development and Processing Improvement of Aerospace Aluminum Alloys

This final report, in multiple presentation format, describes a comprehensive multi-tasked contract study to improve the overall property response of selected aerospace alloys, explore further a newly-developed and registered alloy, and correlate the processing, metallurgical structure, and subsequent properties achieved with particular emphasis on the crystallographic orientation texture developed. Modifications to plate processing, specifically hot rolling practices, were evaluated for Al-Li alloys 2195 and 2297, for the recently registered Al-Cu-Ag alloy, 2139, and for the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy, 7050. For all of the alloys evaluated, the processing modifications resulted in significant improvements in mechanical properties. Analyses also resulted in an enhanced understanding of the correlation of processing, crystallographic texture, and mechanical properties.

Lisagor, W. Barry↗
NASA NTRS2006

Feldspathic Clasts in Yamato 86032: Remnants of the Lunar Crust with Implications for its Formation and Impact History

Yamato (Y)-86032 is a relatively large, feldspathic lunar highlands meteorite composed of a variety of highland lithologies. Low bulk contents of Th and Fe indicated that it came from a region of the moon far distant from the Procellarum KREEP Terrain (PKT) and the Apollo landing sites, perhaps from the farside. A large (5.2 x 3.6 cm) slab was cut from Y-86032 . We report results from coordinated textural, mineralogical-petrological, chemical, and isotopic studies of lithologies identified in the slab, emphasizing the results of Ar-39/Ar-40, Rb-Sr, and Sm-Nd chronological studies as well as Sm-isotopic studies. These studies characterize the history of Y-86032 and its precursors in the farside mega-regolith, leading to inferences about the formation and evolution of the lunar crust. Textural studies establish that the Y-86032 breccia is composed of a variety of highland components including feldspathic breccias, and other components, such as possible VLT mare basalts. Impact melt veins smoothly abut the other lithologies. Thus, Y-86032 experienced at least two impact events. These impacts occurred on a predominantly feldspathic protolith, which formed 4.43+/-0.03 Ga ago as determined from a Sm-Nd isochron for mineral clasts separated from the two dominant lithologies. Initial Nd-143/Nd-144 in the protolith at that time was -0.64+/-0.13 epsilon-units below Nd-143/Nd-144 in reservoirs having chondritic Sm/Nd ratios, consistent with prior fractionation of mafic cumulates from the LMO. Although the mineral chemistry of these clasts differs in detail from that of minerals in Apollo 16 Ferroan Anorthosites (FANs), the Rb-Sr studies establish that the initial Sr-87/Sr-86 in them was the same as in the FANs.

Nyquist, L.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd Isotopic Studies of Antarctic Nakhlite MIL 03346

Nakhlites are olivine-bearing clinopyroxenites with cumulate textures, and probably came from Mars [e.g., 1]. A total of seven nakhlites have been identified so far. Unlike other martian meteorites (e.g., shergottites), nakhlites have been only moderately shocked and their original igneous textures are still well-preserved. Also, these meteorites have similarly older crystallization ages of approx.1.3 Ga compared to shergottites with ages of approx.0.18-0.57 Ga [e.g., 2]. MIL 03346 is characterized by abundant (approx.20 vol %) glassy mesostasis, indicating that it cooled rapidly and probably formed near the top [3] or at the bottom [4] of the chilled margin of a thick intrusive body. The mesostasis quenched from the trapped intercumulus liquid may provide information on the parent magma compositions of the nakhlites. In this report, we present Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd isotopic data for MIL 03346, discuss correlation of its age with those of other nakhlites and the nature of their source regions in the Martian mantle.

Shih, C.-Y.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Windy Mars: A Dynamic Planet as Seen by the HiRISE Camera

With a dynamic atmosphere and a large supply of particulate material, the surface of Mars is heavily influenced by wind-driven, or aeolian, processes. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provides a new view of Martian geology, with the ability to see decimeter-size features. Current sand movement, and evidence for recent bedform development, is observed. Dunes and ripples generally exhibit complex surfaces down to the limits of resolution. Yardangs have diverse textures, with some being massive at HiRISE scale, others having horizontal and cross-cutting layers of variable character, and some exhibiting blocky and polygonal morphologies. 'Reticulate' (fine polygonal texture) bedforms are ubiquitous in the thick mantle at the highest elevations.

Mars↗
NASA NTRS2008

Fatigue Crack Growth in Peened Friction Stir Welds

Friction stir welding induces residual stresses that accelerates fatigue crack growth in the weld nugget. Shot peening over the weld had little effect on growth rate. Laser peening over the weld retarded the growth rate: Final crack growth rate was comparable to the base, un-welded material. Crack tunneling evident from residual compressive stresses. 2195-T8 fracture surfaces were highly textured. Texturing makes comparisons difficult as the material system is affecting the data as much as the processing. Material usage becoming more common in space applications requiring additional work to develop useful datasets for damage tolerance analyses.

Forth, Scott C.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Ultrafast Phase Mapping of Thin-Sections from An Apollo 16 Drive Tube - a New Visualisation of Lunar Regolith

Polished thin-sections of samples extracted from Apollo drive tubes provide unique insights into the structure of the Moon's regolith at various landing sites. In particular, they allow the mineralogy and texture of the regolith to be studied as a function of depth. Much has been written about such thin-sections based on optical, SEM and EPMA studies, in terms of their essential petrographic features, but there has been little attempt to quantify these aspects from a spatial perspective. In this study, we report the findings of experimental analysis of two thin-sections (64002, 6019, depth range 5.0 - 8.0 cm & 64001, 6031, depth range 50.0 - 53.1 cm), from a single Apollo 16 drive tube using QEMSCAN . A key feature of the method is phase identification by ultrafast energy dispersive x-ray mapping on a pixel-by-pixel basis. By selecting pixel resolutions ranging from 1 - 5 microns, typically 8,500,000 individual measurement points can be collected on a thin-section. The results we present include false colour digital images of both thin-sections. From these images, information such as phase proportions (major, minor and trace phases), particle textures, packing densities, and particle geometries, has been quantified. Parameters such as porosity and average phase density, which are of geomechanical interest, can also be calculated automatically. This study is part of an on-going investigation into spatial variation of lunar regolith and NASA's ISRU Lunar Simulant Development Project.

Botha, Pieter↗
NASA NTRS2009

Stress Concentration and Fracture at Inter-variant Boundaries in an Al-Li Alloy

Delamination fracture has limited the use of lightweight Al-Li alloys. Studies of secondary, delamination cracks in alloy 2090, L-T fracture toughness samples showed grain boundary failure between variants of the brass texture component. Although the adjacent texture variants, designated B(sub s1) and B(sub s2), behave similarly during rolling, their plastic responses to mechanical tests can be quite different. EBSD data from through-thickness scans were used to generate Taylor factor maps. When a combined boundary normal and shear tensor was used in the calculation, the delaminating grains showed the greatest Taylor Factor differences of any grain pairs. Kernel Average Misorientation (KAM) maps also showed damage accumulation on one side of the interface. Both of these are consistent with poor slip accommodation from a crystallographically softer grain to a harder one. Transmission electron microscopy was used to confirm the EBSD observations and to show the role of slip bands in the development of large, interfacial stress concentrations. A viewgraph presentation accompanies the provided abstract.

Crooks, Roy↗
NASA NTRS2009

Sm-Nd, Rb-Sr, and Mn-Cr Ages of Yamato 74013

Yamato 74013 is one of 29 paired diogenites having granoblastic textures. The Ar-39 - Ar-40 age of Y-74097 is approximately 1100 Ma. Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd analyses of Y-74013, -74037, -74097, and -74136 suggested that multiple young metamorphic events disturbed their isotopic systems. Masuda et al. reported that REE abundances were heterogeneous even within the same sample (Y-74010) for sample sizes less than approximately 2 g. Both they and Nyquist et al. reported data for some samples showing significant LREE enrichment. In addition to its granoblastic texture, Y-74013 is characterized by large, isolated clots of chromite up to 5 mm in diameter. Takeda et al. suggested that these diogenites originally represented a single or very small number of coarse orthopyroxene crystals that were recrystallized by shock processes. They further suggested that initial crystallization may have occurred very early within the deep crust of the HED parent body. Here we report the chronology of Y-74013 as recorded in chronometers based on long-lived Rb-87 and Sm-147, intermediate- lived Sm-146, and short-lived Mn-53.

Nyquist, L. E.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Flightspeed Integral Image Analysis Toolkit

The Flightspeed Integral Image Analysis Toolkit (FIIAT) is a C library that provides image analysis functions in a single, portable package. It provides basic low-level filtering, texture analysis, and subwindow descriptor for applications dealing with image interpretation and object recognition. Designed with spaceflight in mind, it addresses: Ease of integration (minimal external dependencies) Fast, real-time operation using integer arithmetic where possible (useful for platforms lacking a dedicated floatingpoint processor) Written entirely in C (easily modified) Mostly static memory allocation 8-bit image data The basic goal of the FIIAT library is to compute meaningful numerical descriptors for images or rectangular image regions. These n-vectors can then be used directly for novelty detection or pattern recognition, or as a feature space for higher-level pattern recognition tasks. The library provides routines for leveraging training data to derive descriptors that are most useful for a specific data set. Its runtime algorithms exploit a structure known as the "integral image." This is a caching method that permits fast summation of values within rectangular regions of an image. This integral frame facilitates a wide range of fast image-processing functions. This toolkit has applicability to a wide range of autonomous image analysis tasks in the space-flight domain, including novelty detection, object and scene classification, target detection for autonomous instrument placement, and science analysis of geomorphology. It makes real-time texture and pattern recognition possible for platforms with severe computational restraints. The software provides an order of magnitude speed increase over alternative software libraries currently in use by the research community. FIIAT can commercially support intelligent video cameras used in intelligent surveillance. It is also useful for object recognition by robots or other autonomous vehicles

Thompson, David R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Mineralogy of Pyroxene and Olivine in the Almahata Sitta Ureilite

The Almahata Sitta meteorite (hereafter "Alma") is the first example of a recovered asteroidal sample that fell to earth after detection still in the orbit (2008TC3 asteroid), and thus is critical to understand the relationship between meteorites and their asteroidal parent bodies [1]. Alma is a polymict ureilite showing a fine-grained brecciated texture with variable lithologies from black, porous to denser, white stones [1]. It is an anomalous ureilite because of wide compositional ranges of silicates with abundant pores often coated by vapor-deposit crystals [1]. Nevertheless, Alma has general similarities to all ureilites because of reduction textures of silicates suggestive of rapid cooling from high temperature as well as heterogeneous oxygen isotope compositions [e.g., 1-5]. Alma is especially unique because it spans the compositional range of known ureilites [1]. In this abstract we report detailed mineralogical and crystallographic investigations of two different fragments to further constrain its thermal history with regards to the nature of the ureilite parent body.

Mikouchi, T.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hematite-Rich Fracture Fill at Meridiani Planum, Mars: Implications for Fluid Chemistry

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been operating at the surface of Mars for over 2100 sols and has driven a distance of approximately 20 km. Throughout the traverse, outcrop rocks with margins and fracture fill resistant to erosion have been imaged and analyzed in detail by the Moessbauer (MB) spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). A recent APXS analysis of an outcrop block excavated by a young impact crater shows a coating with the highest concentration of iron measured by either rover, not including the iron-nickel meteorites. Texturally, this sample (referred to as "Chocolate Hills -Aloya") appears as a cemented collection of partially fragmented \blueberries." With the exception of an elevated sulfur content, the elemental chemistry of this particular sample is entirely consistent with other analyses of hematite spherules at Merdiani Planum. As a result, it is difficult to determine whether this coating, which may have been filling a fracture in outcrop rocks prior to disruption by the impact, was simply an agglomeration of spherules or a result of a more complicated aqueous process. In contrast, a number of other fracture-filling exposures and erosion-resistant rinds have been analyzed by the APXS and MB instruments showing significant concentrations of iron in the form of hematite without the texture of spherule fragments. In one of these samples, a broken piece of fracture fill within Victoria crater referred to as "Dorsal," showed over 50% of the iron in hematite, the highest Mn concentration of any sample measured by the rovers, and elevated levels of Cl and Br. While the Fe:Mn ratio of the Dorsal analyses are comparable to that of Gusev and Meridiani basalts, it is clear that chemistry of this sample cannot be completely explained by a simple mixing of outcrop and blueberry compositions

Yen, Albert↗
NASA NTRS2004

Handling Procedures of Vegetable Crops

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is working towards future long duration manned space flights beyond low earth orbit. The duration of these missions may be as long as 2.5 years and will likely include a stay on a lunar or planetary surface. The primary goal of the Advanced Food System in these long duration exploratory missions is to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious, and safe food system while minimizing volume, mass, and waste. Vegetable crops can provide the crew with added nutrition and variety. These crops do not require any cooking or food processing prior to consumption. The vegetable crops, unlike prepackaged foods, will provide bright colors, textures (crispy), and fresh aromas. Ten vegetable crops have been identified for possible use in long duration missions. They are lettuce, spinach, carrot, tomato, green onion, radish, bell pepper, strawberries, fresh herbs, and cabbage. Whether these crops are grown on a transit vehicle (e.g., International Space Station) or on the lunar or planetary surface, it will be necessary to determine how to safely handle the vegetables while maintaining acceptability. Since hydrogen peroxide degrades into water and oxygen and is generally recognized as safe (GRAS), hydrogen peroxide has been recommended as the sanitizer. The objective of th is research is to determine the required effective concentration of hydrogen peroxide. In addition, it will be determined whether the use of hydrogen peroxide, although a viable sanitizer, adversely affects the quality of the vegetables. Vegetables will be dipped in 1 % hydrogen peroxide, 3% hydrogen peroxide, or 5% hydrogen peroxide. Treated produce and controls will be stored in plastic bags at 5 C for up to 14 days. Sensory, color, texture, and total plate count will be measured. The effect on several vegetables including lettuce, radish, tomato and strawberries has been completed. Although each vegetable reacts to hydrogen peroxide differently, the data suggest that 5% hydrogen peroxide reduces the shelf life of the vegetable. A dip of either 1 % or 3% hydrogen peroxide helps reduce the microbial total count while not adversely affecting the quality of the vegetable.

Perchonok, Michele↗