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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 865 records · Page 48
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Precision orbit determination of altimetric satellites

The ability to determine accurate global sea level variations is important to both detection and understanding of changes in climate patterns. Sea level variability occurs over a wide spectrum of temporal and spatial scales, and precise global measurements are only recently possible with the advent of spaceborne satellite radar altimetry missions. One of the inherent requirements for accurate determination of absolute sea surface topography is that the altimetric satellite orbits be computed with sub-decimeter accuracy within a well defined terrestrial reference frame. SLR tracking in support of precision orbit determination of altimetric satellites is significant. Recent examples are the use of SLR as the primary tracking systems for TOPEX/Poseidon and for ERS-1 precision orbit determination. The current radial orbit accuracy for TOPEX/Poseidon is estimated to be around 3-4 cm, with geographically correlated orbit errors around 2 cm. The significance of the SLR tracking system is its ability to allow altimetric satellites to obtain absolute sea level measurements and thereby provide a link to other altimetry measurement systems for long-term sea level studies. SLR tracking allows the production of precise orbits which are well centered in an accurate terrestrial reference frame. With proper calibration of the radar altimeter, these precise orbits, along with the altimeter measurements, provide long term absolute sea level measurements. The U.S. Navy's Geosat mission is equipped with only Doppler beacons and lacks laser retroreflectors. However, its orbits, and even the Geosat orbits computed using the available full 40-station Tranet tracking network, yield orbits with significant north-south shifts with respect to the IERS terrestrial reference frame. The resulting Geosat sea surface topography will be tilted accordingly, making interpretation of long-term sea level variability studies difficult.

Shum, C. K.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Modeling of the Mode S tracking system in support of aircraft safety research

This report collects, documents, and models data relating the expected accuracies of tracking variables to be obtained from the FAA's Mode S Secondary Surveillance Radar system. The data include measured range and azimuth to the tracked aircraft plus the encoded altitude transmitted via the Mode S data link. A brief summary is made of the Mode S system status and its potential applications for aircraft safety improvement including accident analysis. FAA flight test results are presented demonstrating Mode S range and azimuth accuracy and error characteristics and comparing Mode S to the current ATCRBS radar tracking system. Data are also presented that describe the expected accuracy and error characteristics of encoded altitude. These data are used to formulate mathematical error models of the Mode S variables and encoded altitude. A brief analytical assessment is made of the real-time tracking accuracy available from using Mode S and how it could be improved with down-linked velocity.

Sorensen, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Station coordinates for GEOS-C altimeter calibration and experimentation

Station coordinates are given for the C-band radar GEOS-C altimeter calibration sites at Bermuda, Merritt, Grand Turk, and Wallops Islands. The coordinates were estimated in a multi-arc dynamic solution using GEOS-2 C-band radar and laser ranges with a priori information from the GSFC-1973 station coordinate solution. Comparisons with other solutions suggest a relative uncertainty of a few meters in each coordinate. Data reductions show that station coordinates of this quality can introduce a rapidly changing error into the altitude of a satellite whose orbit is determined from calibration area data alone. In contrast, global tracking constrains the orbit and results in slowly varying satellite position error.

Marsh, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Relative navigation for spacecraft formation flying

The Goddard Space Flight Center Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) is currently developing and implementing advanced satellite systems to provide autonomous control of formation flyers. The initial formation maintenance capability will be flight-demonstrated on the Earth-Orbiter-1 (EO-1) satellite, which is planned under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration New Millennium Program to be a coflight with the Landsat-7 (L-7) satellite. Formation flying imposes relative navigation accuracy requirements in addition to the orbit accuracy requirements for the individual satellites. In the case of EO-1 and L-7, the two satellites are in nearly coplanar orbits, with a small difference in the longitude of the ascending node to compensate for the Earth's rotation. The GNCC has performed trajectory error analysis for the relative navigation of the EO-1/L-7 formation, as well as for a more advanced tracking configuration using cross-link satellite communications. This paper discusses the orbit determination and prediction accuracy achievable for EO-1 and L-7 under various tracking and orbit determination scenarios and discusses the expected relative separation errors in their formation flying configuration.

Hartman, Kate R.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Relative Navigation for Spacecraft Formation Flying

The Goddard Space Flight Center Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) is currently developing and implementing advanced satellite systems to provide autonomous control of formation flyers. The initial formation maintenance capability will be flight-demonstrated on the Earth-Orbiter-1 (EO-l) satellite, which is planned under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration New Millennium Program to be a coflight with the Landsat-7 (L-7) satellite. Formation flying imposes relative navigation accuracy requirements in addition to the orbit accuracy requirements for the individual satellites. In the case of EO-1 and L-7, the two satellites are in nearly coplanar orbits, with a small difference in the longitude of the ascending node to compensate for the Earth's rotation. The GNCC has performed trajectory error analysis for the relative navigation of the EO-1/L-7 formation, as well as for a more advanced tracking configuration using cross- link satellite communications. This paper discusses the orbit determination and prediction accuracy achievable for EO-1 and L-7 under various tracking and orbit determination scenarios and discusses the expected relative separation errors in their formation flying configuration.

Hartman, Kate R.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Efficient flexible characterization of quantum processors with nested error models

We present a simple and powerful technique for finding a good error model for a quantum processor. The technique iteratively tests a nested sequence of models against data obtained from the processor, and keeps track of the best-fit model and its wildcard error (a metric of the amount of unmodeled error) at each step. Each best-fit model, along with a quantification of its unmodeled error, constitutes a characterization of the processor. We explain how quantum processor models can be compared with experimental data and to each other. We demonstrate the technique by using it to characterize a simulated noisy two-qubit processor.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1989

Photon statistical limitations for daytime optical tracking

Tracking of interplanetary spacecraft equipped with optical communication systems by using astrometric instruments is being investigated by JPL. Existing instruments are designed to work at night and, for bright sources, are limited by tropospheric errors. To provide full coverage of the solar system, astrometric tracking instruments must either be capable of daytime operation or be space-based. The integration times necessary for the ground-based daytime photon statistical errors to reach a given accuracy level (5 to 50 nanoradians) were computed for an ideal astrometric instrument. The required photon statistical integration times are found to be shorter than the tropospheric integrations times for the ideal detector. Since the astrometric need not be limited by photon statistics even under daytime conditions, it may be fruitful to investigate instruments for daytime optical tracking.

Folkner, W. M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulating self-powered neutron detector responses to infer burnup-induced power distribution perturbations in next-generation light water reactors

Understanding how 3D power distribution will be monitored throughout reactor core volumetric space in next-generation nuclear power reactors is crucial to the design, deployment, and licensing of these reactors. Although numerous techniques exist for 3D power distribution monitoring based on the response of both in situ and ex situ sensors currently implemented or proposed for use in the US reactor fleet, crucial details about these techniques are often unclear. The publicly available documentation does not include information such as how well these techniques are characterized and optimized in their implementations and the levels of uncertainty in the inferred 3D power distribution. The work described herein investigated a recently developed 3D power distribution inferencing method as applied to two next-generation reactor simulations: (1) the NuScale small modular reactor design and (2) the Westinghouse AP1000 design, both of which contain in-core strings of vanadium self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs). This investigation considered a range of SPND string sensor densities, as well as a range of 3D power distribution axial segment sizes. In this work, SPND response simulation is informed by neutron flux calculations in representative homogenized cores. For the different sensor densities and power distribution axial segment sizes in these simulations, the average solution error, solver iterations, and run time were tracked to parameterize the sensor-core configuration.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

BEYOND THE MAIN SEQUENCE: TESTING THE ACCURACY OF STELLAR MASSES PREDICTED BY THE PARSEC EVOLUTIONARY TRACKS

Characterizing the physical properties of exoplanets and understanding their formation and orbital evolution requires precise and accurate knowledge of their host stars. Accurately measuring stellar masses is particularly important because they likely influence planet occurrence and the architectures of planetary systems. Single main-sequence stars typically have masses estimated from evolutionary tracks, which generally provide accurate results due to their extensive empirical calibration. However, the validity of this method for subgiants and giants has been called into question by recent studies, with suggestions that the masses of these evolved stars could have been overestimated. We investigate these concerns using a sample of 59 benchmark evolved stars with model-independent masses (from binary systems or asteroseismology) obtained from the literature. We find very good agreement between these benchmark masses and the ones estimated using evolutionary tracks. The average fractional difference in the mass interval ∼0.7–4.5 M{sub ⊙} is consistent with zero (−1.30 ± 2.42%), with no significant trends in the residuals relative to the input parameters. A good agreement between model-dependent and -independent radii (−4.81 ± 1.32%) and surface gravities (0.71 ± 0.51%) is also found. The consistency between independently determined ages for members of binary systems adds further support for the accuracy of the method employed to derive the stellar masses. Taken together, our results indicate that determination of masses of evolved stars using grids of evolutionary tracks is not significantly affected by systematic errors, and is thus valid for estimating the masses of isolated stars beyond the main sequence.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

AutoUncertainties: A Python Package for Uncertainty Propagation

Propagation of uncertainties is of great utility in the experimental sciences. While the rules of (linear) uncertainty propagation are straightforward, managing many variables with uncertainty information can quickly become complicated in large scientific software stacks. Often, this requires programmers to keep track of many variables and implement custom error propagation rules for each mathematical operator and function. The Python package AutoUncertainties, described here, provides a solution to this problem.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Calculating the dissociation chemistry and equation of state properties of materials [Slides]

Many experimental techniques are accurate enough to reveal glaring weaknesses in the material models used by physics codes to design them. This is requiring ever more stringent equation of state (EOS) development. Formerly, EOS models were built using limited gas gun shock data and a few general physics assumptions. With the ever increasing computer power available, we began using density functional theory (DFT) to approximate other EOS regimes such as the principal isentrope, critical point, and sometimes melt. With Sequoia, and only because of Sequoia’s capacity, we are now calculating a limited range, general EOS table and then deriving the above EOS properties based on that table, often on a shorter time frame and more thoroughly than we used to compute just the EOS sections listed above. The first project was to calculate a limited range EOS for CO 2 and specifically track the dissociated species present at each density and temperature. We would not see all of the possible species due to our small sample size and limited time, however, we should see the dominant species and general trends. This work was done to support a new, chemistry aware EOS model that is still under development at LANL. The second project was done for two reasons. The first is LANL and SNL are developing a new amorphous SiO 2 EOS for use in hydrocodes. There is extensive principal Hugoniot and isentrope data, but very little lower density data. There is also no real estimate of the critical point so we found the approximate value of that as well. The second reason for lower density SiO 2 is to test a new method for calculating the Hugoniot of porous materials. Because aerogel (low density SiO 2 ) is used extensively in many shock experiments, there was a large data set to compare with. As can be seen in the figure, the new method appears to work well and is tracking the porous Hugoniot within the experimental error bars (not shown). Finally, SNL is developing a new EOS for LiF because we were seeing discrepancies with the SESAME table. DFT has some issues calculating EOS values for LiF, so we will make some corrections, however, our first attempt appears to have very good results which confirm several experimentally seen properties, as seen on the previous slide.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Smart Pixels: towards on-sensor inference of charged particle track parameters and uncertainties

The combinatorics of track seeding has long been a computational bottleneck for triggering and offline computing in High Energy Physics (HEP), and remains so for the HL-LHC. Next-generation pixel sensors will be sufficiently fine-grained to determine angular information of the charged particle passing through from pixel-cluster properties. This detector technology immediately improves the situation for offline tracking, but any major improvements in physics reach are unrealized since they are dominated by lowest-level hardware trigger acceptance. We will demonstrate track angle and hit position prediction, including errors, using a mixture density network within a single layer of silicon as well as the progress towards and status of implementing the neural network in hardware on both FPGAs and ASICs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1979

Accuracy aspects of stereo side-looking radar

The geometry of the radar stereo model and factors affecting visual radar stereo perception are reviewed. Limits to the vertical exaggeration factor of stereo radar are defined. Radar stereo model accuracies are analyzed with respect to coordinate errors caused by errors of radar sensor position and of range, and with respect to errors of coordinate differences, i.e., cross-track distances and height differences.

Leberl, F. W.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A review of some head-up display formats

Two alternate head-up display devices (HUD) were compared for properties relevant to the accurate performance of concurrent tasks in real flight conditions and in various flight modes. The comparisons were made to find the disorientation resistance of the HUDs along with the tracking accuracy, interference resistance, fixation resistance, and error resistance. The use of displacement and flight path information for vertical control is discussed in terms of flight stability. Several combinations of symbols and driving signals are described, including a compensated control law, which were used in simulated flight to deal with wind shear.

Naish, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The accuracy of altimetric surfaces

Estimates of the shape of the sea surface as determined from satellite altimeters have become of increasing importance in geophysics, geodesy and physical oceanography. The most effective error reduction procedures used in producing these surfaces have been some version of a crossing-arc analysis. The problem with this procedure is the absence of an easy means of evaluating the noise structure of the final result. By recasting the problem as one of objective mapping (optimal estimation) the error reduction is optimized and an explicit estimate is obtained of the wave-number structure of the final altimetric surface. Examples, suitable to a small computer, have been generated to show that the error reduction along the sub-satellite tracks is very great, with most of the residual lying in long wavelengths.

Wunsch, C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

High-dynamic GPS tracking

The results of comparing four different frequency estimation schemes in the presence of high dynamics and low carrier-to-noise ratios are given. The comparison is based on measured data from a hardware demonstration. The tested algorithms include a digital phase-locked loop, a cross-product automatic frequency tracking loop, and extended Kalman filter, and finally, a fast Fourier transformation-aided cross-product frequency tracking loop. The tracking algorithms are compared on their frequency error performance and their ability to maintain lock during severe maneuvers at various carrier-to-noise ratios. The measured results are shown to agree with simulation results carried out and reported previously.

Hinedi, S.↗
NASA NTRS1987

High gain feedback and telerobotic tracking

Asymptotically stable linear time invariant systems are capable of tracking arbitrary reference signals with a bounded error proportional to the magnitude of the reference signal (and its derivatives). It is shown that a similar property holds for a general class of nonlinear dynamical systems which includes all robots. As in the linear case, the error bound may be made arbitrarily small by increasing the magnitude of the feedback gains which stabilize the system.

Koditschek, D. E.↗