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At least 1,009 records · Page 56
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NASA NTRS1991

Venus ionospheric 'clouds' - Relationship to the magnetosheath field geometry

The magnetic field control of Venus plasma 'clouds' relative to the planet has been analyzed by rotating the observed locations of the clouds into a coordinate system in which all of the transverse upstream magnetic fields were aligned. The results indicate that clouds are scattered around the periphery of the planet in the terminator plane. There is no evidence of a concentration of clouds where the magnetosheath magnetic field is most strongly 'draped'. On the other hand, statistics show that the change in the orientation of the transverse upstream magnetic field between the inbound and outbound bow shock crossings, for the orbits where clouds are seen is about 30 deg greater than the average upstream change at Venus over the same time intervals.

Ong, M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Orbital station-keeping for multiple spacecraft interferometry

This paper presents a three-satellite station-keeping strategy that is applicable to very long (1-100 km) baseline optical interferometry in space using the 'free-flyer' approach. The relative positions of the satellites in an arbitrarily oriented inertial coordinate system are described parametrically, and the continuous thrust vectors required to follow the paths are derived. The paths, which are constrained to be in the U-V plane of an astronomical source (a plane perpendicular to the direction of the source), are always chosen to maximize the use of gravity gradient forces and minimize the use of thrusting which can easily be provided by ion thrusters. Two different thrust programs are presented. One allows the interferometer to take data over an elliptic-shaped area of the U-V plane of arbitrary size for astronomical sources in any direction except close to the orbit plane of the system. The second thrust program reorients the U-V plane from one arbitrary source direction to another.

Decou, Anthony B.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Software For Processing Meteorological Data

GEMPAK general meterological software includes programs to analyze and display surface, upper-air, or gridded data, including outputs of mathematical models. Includes capabilities to derive meteorological parameters to perform vertical interpolations to different coordinate systems, and to compute extensive set of gridded diagnostic quantities. Graphics/transformation subsystem, GEMPLT, provides capability to display output in variety of map projections or overlaid on satellite imagery. Written in FORTRAN 77.

Desjardins, Mary L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Venus mapping

Semicontrolled image mosaics of Venus, based on Magellan data, are being compiled at 1:50,000,000, 1:10,000,000, 1:5,000,000, and 1:1,000,000 scales to support the Magellan Radar Investigator (RADIG) team. The mosaics are semicontrolled in the sense that data gaps were not filled and significant cosmetic inconsistencies exist. Contours are based on preliminary radar altimetry data that is subjected to revision and improvement. Final maps to support geologic mapping and other scientific investigations, to be compiled as the dataset becomes complete, will be sponsored by the Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program and/or the Venus Data Analysis Program. All maps, both semicontrolled and final, will be published as I-maps by the United States Geological Survey. All of the mapping is based on existing knowledge of the spacecraft orbit; photogrammetric triangulation, a traditional basis for geodetic control on planets where framing cameras were used, is not feasible with the radar images of Venus, although an eventual shift of coordinate system to a revised spin-axis location is anticipated. This is expected to be small enough that it will affect only large-scale maps.

Batson, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The control network of Mercury: April 1991

Features identified on Mariner 10 high resolution images of Mercury, acquired during three flybys between 1974 and 1975, form the basis of Mercury's planetwide control network. Although images from all three flybys are used in the net, the large amount of contiguous coverage from the second flyby, a southern bright-side pass, make these images the strongest contributors to the control net. Mercury is in synchronous rotation with a period of 58.6462 days and its spin axis is approximately normal to the equatorial plane. The 20 degree meridian is defined by the crater Hun Kal, located just south of the equator. The control network computations involve the photogrammetric determination of control point coordinates and an analytical triangulation solution. The current control network computations for Mercury are performed in the J2000 coordinate system according to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) convention. In recent years, updates to the control network have included improved trajectory solutions and modification of the standard radii (2439) at several points based on Earth-based radar altimetry data. The current status of the control network calculations is presented. Improvements were made to existing control points and new control points were added to the net to strengthen the overall network and improve the standard error of measurement.

Davies, Merton E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The control network of Mars: April 1991

The modern geodetic control network of Mars was first established based on Mariner 9 images with 1-2 km/pixel resolutions and covered almost the entire Martian surface. The introduction of higher resolution (10-200 meter/pixel) Viking Orbiter images greatly improved the accuracy and density of points in the control network. Analysis of the Viking Lander radio tracking data led to more accurate measurements of Mars' rotation period, spin axis direction, and the lander coordinates relative to the inertial reference frame. The prime meridian on Mars was defined by the Geodesy/Cartography Group of the Mariner 9 Television Team as the crater Airy-0, located about 5 degrees south of the equator. The Viking 1 Lander site was identified on a high resolution Viking frame. The control point measurements form the basis of a least squares solution determined by analytical triangulation after the pixel measurements are corrected for geometric distortions and converted to millimeter coordinates in the camera focal plane. Photogrammetric strips encircling Mars at the equator and at 60 degree north south were used to strengthen the overall net and improve the accuracy of the coordinates of points. In addition, photogrammetric strips along 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees longitude to the Viking 1 Lander site have all significantly strengthened the control network. Most recently, photogrammetric strips were added to the net along 30 degrees north latitude between 0 and 180 degrees, and along 30 degrees between 180 and 360 degrees. The Viking 1 Lander site and Airy-0 are linked through photogrammetric strips occurring along the 0 degree meridian from Airy-0 to 65 degrees north, from that point through the Viking 1 Lander site to the equator, and along the equator to 180 degrees longitude. The Viking 1 lander site is thus a well calibrated area with coordinates of points accurate to approximately 200 meters relative to the J2000 inertial coordinate system. This will be a useful calibration region for upcoming missions. The current status of the control network calculations is presented.

Davies, Merton E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Low thrust viscous nozzle flow fields prediction

A Navier-Stokes code was developed for low thrust viscous nozzle flow field prediction. An implicit finite volume in an arbitrary curvilinear coordinate system lower-upper (LU) scheme is used to solve the governing Navier-Stokes equations and species transportation equations. Sample calculations of carbon dioxide nozzle flow are presented to verify the validity and efficiency of this code. The computer results are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

Liaw, G. S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Programmable remapper for image processing

A video-rate coordinate remapper includes a memory for storing a plurality of transformations on look-up tables for remapping input images from one coordinate system to another. Such transformations are operator selectable. The remapper includes a collective processor by which certain input pixels of an input image are transformed to a portion of the output image in a many-to-one relationship. The remapper includes an interpolative processor by which the remaining input pixels of the input image are transformed to another portion of the output image in a one-to-many relationship. The invention includes certain specific transforms for creating output images useful for certain defects of visually impaired people. The invention also includes means for shifting input pixels and means for scrolling the output matrix.

Juday, Richard D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in a thin liquid film over a stationary and rotating disk and comparison with experimental data

In the first section, improvements in the theoretical model and computational procedure for the prediction of film height and heat-transfer coefficient of the free surface flow of a radially-spreading thin liquid film adjacent to a flat horizontal surface of finite extent are presented. Flows in the presence and absence of gravity are considered. Theoretical results are compared to available experimental data with good agreement. In the presence of gravity, a hydraulic jump is present, isolating the flow into two regimes: supercritical upstream from the jump and subcritical downstream of it. In this situation, the effects of surface tension are important near the outer edge of the disk where the fluid experiences a free fall. A region of flow separation is present just downstream of the jump. In the absence of gravity, no hydraulic jump or separated flow region is present. The variation of the heat-transfer coefficient for flows in the presence and absence of gravity are also presented. In the second section, the results of a numerical simulation of the flow field and associated heat transfer coefficients are presented for the free surface flow of a thin liquid film adjacent to a horizontal rotating disk. The computation was performed for different flow rates and rotational velocities using a 3-D boundary-fitted coordinate system. Since the geometry of the free surface is unknown and dependent on flow rate, rate of rotation, and other parameters, an iterative procedure had to be used to ascertain its location. The computed film height agreed well with existing experimental measurements. The flow is found to be dominated by inertia near the entrance and close to the free surface and dominated by centrifugal force at larger radii and adjacent to the disk. The rotation enhances the heat transfer coefficient by a significant amount.

Faghri, Amir↗
NASA NTRS1991

Hierarchic Extensions in the Static and Dynamic Analysis of Elastic Beams

Approximate solutions of static and dynamic beam problems by the p-version of the finite element method are investigated. Within a hierarchy of engineering beam idealizations, rigorous formulations of the strain and kinetic energies for straight and circular beam elements are presented. These formulations include rotating coordinate system effects and geometric nonlinearities to allow for the evaluation of vertical axis wind turbines, the motivating problem for this research. Hierarchic finite element spaces, based on extensions of the polynomial orders used to approximate the displacement variables, are constructed. The developed models are implemented into a general purpose computer program for evaluation. Quality control procedures are examined for a diverse set of sample problems. These procedures include estimating discretization errors in energy norm and natural frequencies, performing static and dynamic equilibrium checks, observing convergence for qualities of interest, and comparison with more exacting theories and experimental data. It is demonstrated that p-extensions produce exponential rates of convergence in the approximation of strain energy and natural frequencies for the class of problems investigated.

Watson, Robert A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A new method for recognizing quadric surfaces from range data and its application to telerobotics and automation

A feature set of two dimensional curves is obtained after intersecting symmetric objects like spheres, cones, cylinders, ellipsoids, paraboloids, and parallelepipeds with two planes. After determining the location and orientation of the objects in space, these objects are aligned so as to lie on a plane parallel to a suitable coordinate system. These objects are then intersected with a horizontal and a vertical plane. Experiments were carried out with range images of sphere and cylinder. The 3-D discriminant approach was used to recognize quadric surfaces made up of simulated data. Its application to real data was also studied.

Alvertos, Nicolas↗
NASA NTRS1992

Three dimensional tracking with misalignment between display and control axes

Human operators confronted with misaligned display and control frames of reference performed three dimensional, pursuit tracking in virtual environment and virtual space simulations. Analysis of the components of the tracking errors in the perspective displays presenting virtual space showed that components of the error due to visual motor misalignment may be linearly separated from those associated with the mismatch between display and control coordinate systems. Tracking performance improved with several hours practice despite previous reports that such improvement did not take place.

Ellis, Stephen R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A case of poor substructure diagnostics

The NASTRAN Manuals in the substructuring area are all geared toward instant success, but the solution paths are fraught with many traps for human error. Thus, the probability of suffering a fatal abort is high. In such circumstances, the necessity for diagnostics that are user friendly is paramount. This paper is written in the spirit of improving the diagnostics as well as the documentation in one area where the author felt he was backed into a blind corner as a result of his having committed a data oversight. This topic is aired by referring to an analysis of a particular structure. The structure, under discussion, used a number of local coordinate systems that simplified the preparation of input data. The principle features of this problem are introduced by reference to a series of figures.

Butler, Thomas G.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Interface of an uncoupled boundary layer algorithm with an inviscid core flow algorithm for unsteady supersonic engine inlets

An uncoupled boundary layer algorithm was combined with an inviscid core flow algorithm to model flows within supersonic engine inlets. The inviscid flow algorithm that was used was the LArge Perturbation INlet Code (LAPIN). The boundary layer and inviscid core flow algorithms were formulated in different manners. The boundary layer algorithm was two dimensional and solved in nonconservation form, while the core flow algorithm was one dimensional and solved in conservation form. In order to interface the two codes, the following modifications were important. The coordinate system was set up to maintain the parabolic nature of the boundary layer algorithm while approaching the one dimensional core flow solution far from a wall. The pressure gradient used in the boundary layer equation was calculated using the core flow values and the boundary layer equations, so the boundary layer solution smoothly approached the core flow values far from the wall. Flaring was used for the advection terms perpendicular to the core flow to maintain the stability of the algorithm. With these modifications, the combined viscous/inviscid algorithm matched well with experimental observations of pressure distributions with a supersonic inlet.

Darling, Douglas↗
NASA NTRS1992

Delaunay triangulation and computational fluid dynamics meshes

In aerospace computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations, the Delaunay triangulation of suitable quadrilateral meshes can lead to unsuitable triangulated meshes. Here, we present case studies which illustrate the limitations of using structured grid generation methods which produce points in a curvilinear coordinate system for subsequent triangulations for CFD applications. We discuss conditions under which meshes of quadrilateral elements may not produce a Delaunay triangulation suitable for CFD calculations, particularly with regard to high aspect ratio, skewed quadrilateral elements.

Posenau, Mary-Anne K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A new method for recognizing quadric surfaces from range data and its application to telerobotics and automation

Pose and orientation of an object is one of the central issues in 3-D recognition problems. Most of today's available techniques require considerable pre-processing such as detecting edges or joints, fitting curves or surfaces to segment images, and trying to extract higher order features from the input images. We present a method based on analytical geometry, whereby all the rotation parameters of any quadric surface are determined and subsequently eliminated. This procedure is iterative in nature and was found to converge to the desired results in as few as three iterations. The approach enables us to position the quadric surface in a desired coordinate system, and then to utilize the presented shape information to explicitly represent and recognize the 3-D surface. Experiments were conducted with simulated data for objects such as hyperboloid of one and two sheets, elliptic and hyperbolic paraboloid, elliptic and hyperbolic cylinders, ellipsoids, and quadric cones. Real data of quadric cones and cylinders were also utilized. Both of these sets yielded excellent results.

Alvertos, Nicolas↗
NASA NTRS1991

Constant covariance in local vertical coordinates for near-circular orbits

A method is presented for devising a covariance matrix that either remains constant or grows in keeping with the presence of a period error in a rotating local-vertical coordinate system. The solution presented may prove useful in the initialization of simulation covariance matrices for near-circular-orbit problems. Use is made of the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations and the travelling-ellipse formulation.

Shepperd, Stanley W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Studies of the effects of curvature on dilution jet mixing

An analytical program was conducted using both three-dimensional numerical and empirical models to investigate the effects of transition liner curvature on the mixing of jets injected into a confined crossflow. The numerical code is of the TEACH type with hybrid numerics; it uses the power-law and SIMPLER algorithms, an orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system, and an algebraic Reynolds stress turbulence model. From the results of the numerical calculations, an existing empirical model for the temperature field downstream of single and multiple rows of jets injected into a straight rectangular duct was extended to model the effects of curvature. Temperature distributions, calculated with both the numerical and empirical models, are presented to show the effects of radius of curvature and inner and outer wall injection for single and opposed rows of cool dilution jets injected into a hot mainstream flow.

Holdeman, James D.↗