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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

SOHO MAMA openable cover/vacuum seal mechanism

The requirements, design, and test results of an openable cover mechanism with a high-vacuum seal developed for the Multi-Anode Microchannel Array (MAMA) Detectors, aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. The mechanism, tested in summer/fall of 1991, has completed 1000 test cycles in an inert atmosphere at room temperature and pressure. Measured mechanism performance included: vacuum seal less than 5 x 10 exp -10 torr-liter/second, 103 degree angular range of travel, 20-minute cycle time, and successful latching functions. An openable cover mechanism that provides a clean, high-vacuum seal is vital to the success of a MAMA Detector operating over a full wavelength coverage from 500 to 1600 A.

Wiens, Mitchell T.↗
NASA NTRS1988

An Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO)

The Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO) is designed for low light level spectroscopy of both the day and night side of the earth. The instrument is composed of five spectrometers, each of which covers part of the total wavelength range of 30 to 1300 nm spanned by the instrument. Wavelength resolution varies between 0.2 and 0.6 nm over the spectral range. The five spectrometers are each optimized for a portion of the spectrum by the choice of mirror reflective coatings and detector photocathode materials. The full spectral range for each spectrometer is covered in a total of 11 grating steps. The Imaging Spectrometric Observatory was flown for the first time on the Spacelab 1 mission during which it acquired almost 40 hr of observations. The ISO investigation to be flown on the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS 1) mission will draw on the experience gained from the data gathered on Spacelab 1. The detector system in each spectrometer was upgraded to provide both higher sensitivity at low light levels and simultaneous imaging over larger spectral segments than was achieved on Spacelab 1. In addition, the instrument and the observing sequences were modified to allow observation of the sun in the extreme ultraviolet. A summary of ISO parameters for ATLAS 1 (scheduled for late 1990) is given.

Torr, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Forecasting Space Weather Events for a Neighboring World

Shortly after NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN) spacecraft entered Mars' orbit on 21 September 2014, scientists glimpsed the Martian atmosphere's response to a front of solar energetic particles (SEPs) and an associated coronal mass ejection (CME). In response to some solar flares and CMEs, streams of SEPs burst from the solar atmosphere and are further accelerated in the interplanetary medium between the Sun and the planets. These particles deposit their energy and momentum into anything in their path, including the Martian atmosphere and MAVEN particle detectors. MAVEN scientists had been alerted to the likely CME-Mars encounter by a space weather prediction system that had its origins in space weather forecasting for Earth but now forecasts space weather for Earth's neighboring planets. The two Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft and Solar Heliospheric Observatory observed a CME on 26 September, with a trajectory that suggested a Mars intercept. A computer model developed for solar wind prediction, the Wang-Sheeley-Arge-Enlil cone model [e.g., Zheng et al., 2013; Parsons et al., 2011], running in real time at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) located at NASA Goddard since 2006, showed the CME propagating in the direction of Mars (Figure 1). According to MAVEN particle detectors, the disturbance and accompanying SEP enhancement at the leading edge of the CME reached Mars at approximately 17 hours Universal Time on 29 September 2014. Such SEPs may have a profound effect on atmospheric escape - they are believed to be a possible means for driving atmospheric loss. SEPs can cause loss of Mars' upper atmosphere through several loss mechanisms including sputtering of the atmosphere. Sputtering occurs when atoms are ejected from the atmosphere due to impacts with energetic particles.

space weather↗
NASA NTRS1973

Energy spectra and pitch angle distributions of storm-time and substorm injected protons.

Discussion of the energy spectra and pitch angle distributions of ring current protons observed with the solid-state proton detector of Explorer 45 during the main and fast recovery phases of a storm on Dec. 17, 1971. Appearances of characteristic changes in the pitch angle distributions of roughly 100-eV protons are interpreted as pitch angle dispersion of rapidly injected protons during their azimuthal drift at L values above 5.

Konradi, A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Design considerations for soft X-ray television imaging detectors

Television sensors for X-rays can be coupled to converters and image intensifiers to obtain active areas, high flux capabilities, quantum efficiency, high time resolution, or ease of construction and operation that may not be obtained with a directly illuminated sensor. A general purpose system which makes use of these capabilities for a number of applications is decribed. Some of the performance characteristics of this type of system are examined, and the expected future developments for such systems are briefly addressed.

Kalata, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRS2004

Wire insulation defect detector

Wiring defects are located by detecting a reflected signal that is developed when an arc occurs through the defect to a nearby ground. The time between the generation of the signal and the return of the reflected signal provides an indication of the distance of the arc (and therefore the defect) from the signal source. To ensure arcing, a signal is repeated at gradually increasing voltages while the wire being tested and a nearby ground are immersed in a conductive medium. In order to ensure that the arcing occurs at an identifiable time, the signal whose reflection is to be detected is always made to reach the highest potential yet seen by the system.

Greulich, Owen R.↗
NASA NTRS2019

IceSat 2 ATLAS Photon-Counting Receiver - Initial On-Orbit Performance

Photon-counting receivers are deployed on the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat2) Advance Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS). The ATLAS laser altimeter design has total six ground tracks with three strong and three weak tracks. The strong track has nominally 4 times more laser power than the weak track. The receiver is operated in photon counting mode. There are 16 photon-counting channels for each strong track and 4 photon-counting channels for each weak track. Hamamatsu photomultiplier with a 4x4-array anode was used as photon counting detector. This receiver design has high counting efficiency (>15%) at 532 nm, low dark count rate (<400 counts per second), low jitter (less than 285ps), short dead time (<3 ns), long lifetime under large solar background radiation, radiation harden for space operation, and ruggedized for survives the harsh vibration during the launch. In this paper, we will present the initial on-orbit performance of this photon-counting receiver.

Yang, Guangning↗
NASA NTRS2012

Sample-Clock Phase-Control Feedback

To demodulate a communication signal, a receiver must recover and synchronize to the symbol timing of a received waveform. In a system that utilizes digital sampling, the fidelity of synchronization is limited by the time between the symbol boundary and closest sample time location. To reduce this error, one typically uses a sample clock in excess of the symbol rate in order to provide multiple samples per symbol, thereby lowering the error limit to a fraction of a symbol time. For systems with a large modulation bandwidth, the required sample clock rate is prohibitive due to current technological barriers and processing complexity. With precise control of the phase of the sample clock, one can sample the received signal at times arbitrarily close to the symbol boundary, thus obviating the need, from a synchronization perspective, for multiple samples per symbol. Sample-clock phase-control feedback was developed for use in the demodulation of an optical communication signal, where multi-GHz modulation bandwidths would require prohibitively large sample clock frequencies for rates in excess of the symbol rate. A custom mixedsignal (RF/digital) offset phase-locked loop circuit was developed to control the phase of the 6.4-GHz clock that samples the photon-counting detector output. The offset phase-locked loop is driven by a feedback mechanism that continuously corrects for variation in the symbol time due to motion between the transmitter and receiver as well as oscillator instability. This innovation will allow significant improvements in receiver throughput; for example, the throughput of a pulse-position modulation (PPM) with 16 slots can increase from 188 Mb/s to 1.5 Gb/s.

Quirk, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Development of a Sodium LIDAR for Spaceborne Missions

We are currently developing laser and electro-optic technologies to remotely measure Sodium (Na) by adapting existing lidar technology with space flight heritage. The developed instrumentation will serve as the core for the planning of a Heliophysics mission targeted to study the composition and dynamics of Earths mesosphere based on a spaceborne lidar that will measure the mesospheric Na layer. There is a pressing need in the Ionosphere Thermosphere - Mesosphere (ITM) community for high-resolution measurements that can characterize small-scale dynamics (i.e. Gravity Waves with wavelengths smaller than a few hundred km) and their effects in the Mesosphere-Lower-Termosphere (MLT) on a global basis. This is compelling because they are believed to be the dominant contributors to momentum transport and deposition in the MLT, which largely drive the global circulation and thermal structure and interactions with the tides and planetary waves in this region. We are developing a spaceborne remote sensing technique that will enable acquisition of global Na density, temperature and wind measurements in the MLT with the spatial and temporal resolution required to resolve issues associated with the structure, chemistry, dynamics, and energetics of this regionA nadir-pointing spaceborne Na Doppler resonance fluorescence LIDAR on board of the ISS will essentially make high-resolution, in time and space, Na density, temperature and vertical wind measurements, from 75-115 km (MLT region). Our instrument concept consisted of a high-energy laser transmitter at 589 nm and highly sensitive photon counting detector that allows for range-resolved atmospheric-sodium-temperature profiles. The atmospheric temperature is deduced from the linewidth of the resonant fluorescence from the atomic sodium vapor D2 line as measured by our tunable laser. We are currently developing a high power energy laser that allows for some day time sodium lidar observations with the help of a narrow bandpass filter based on etalon or atomic sodium Faraday filter with 5 to 10 pm optical bandwidth. The current baseline detector for the lidar instrument is a 16-channel Photomultiplier Tube with receiver electronics that has been space-qualified for the ICESat-2ATLAS mission. Our technique uses the 16-channels as a photon-number-resolving single detector to provide the required full-spectroscopic sodium lineshape waveform for recovering Mesospheric temperature profiles. In this paper, we will describe our instrument concept for a future Heliophysics space mission based on board of the International Space Station (ISS).

lidar↗
NASA NTRS2021

Diving below the Spin-down Limit: Constraints on Gravitational Waves from the Energetic Young Pulsar PSR J0537-6910

We present a search for quasi-monochromatic gravitational-wave signals from the young, energetic X-ray pulsar PSR J0537−6910 using data from the second and third observing runs of LIGO and Virgo. The search is enabled by a contemporaneous timing ephemeris obtained using Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) data. The NICER ephemeris has also been extended through 2020 October and includes three new glitches. PSR J0537−6910 has the largest spin-down luminosity of any pulsar and exhibits fRequent and strong glitches. Analyses of its long-term and interglitch braking indices provide intriguing evidence that its spin-down energy budget may include gravitational-wave emission from a time-varying mass quadrupole moment. Its 62 Hz rotation frequency also puts its possible gravitational-wave emission in the most sensitive band of the LIGO/Virgo detectors. Motivated by these considerations, we search for gravitational-wave emission at both once and twice the rotation frequency from PSR J0537−6910. We find no signal, however, and report upper limits. Assuming a rigidly rotating triaxial star, our constraints reach below the gravitational-wave spin-down limit for this star for the first time by more than a factor of 2 and limit gravitational waves from the l = m = 2 mode to account for less than 14% of the spin-down energy budget. The fiducial equatorial ellipticity is constrained to less than about 3 ×10^(−5), which is the third best constraint for any young pulsar.

R. Abbott↗
NASA NTRS2000

Indicator Devices for Detection of Trace Gaseous Hydrazines

The relatively recent decrease in the acceptable time-weighted-average for hydrazines from 100 parts-per-billion (ppb) to 10 ppb rendered many trace hydrazine detectors either insensitive or inaccurate. Development of a rapid detection method for hydrazines at the new 10-ppb concentration was necessary so that test area personnel could reliably assess airborne hydrazines concentrations of a potentially contaminated area prior to entry. The reduction of Au(III) to Au(0) by hydrazines is a well characterized reaction and application of the corresponding yellow to purple color change was selected as a potentially useful means for detection of trace hydrazines in air. Tests with small quantities of KAuCl4 deposited on a variety of substrates were conducted using verified sources of 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, methylhydrazine, and hydrazine at approximately 10 ppb in air. Substrates tested were glass fiber filter paper, glass beads, anion exchange resin (AuCl4- form), and diatomaceous earth. The most successful of these substrates were glass fiber filter paper and diatomaceous earth. The KAuC14 impregnated glass fiber filter paper appeared to be somewhat light sensitive so further tests were conducted using the diatomaceous earth substrate. KAuCl4 concentration, substrate particle size, and sampler configuration were evaluated. Based on these tests, the device selected for further evaluation was a 5mm OD by 50mm glass tube containing 0.02-0.03g of 45/60 mesh diatomaceous earth coated with 2 percent KAuCl4. When connected to a sampling pump, response of the device to changes in relative humidity, ambient light, and high levels of other fluids, which might also be found in a propellant test area, was evaluated. False positive responses were not detected for exposures to relative humidity changes from 10 to 80 percent, sunlight for greater than 10 minutes, or percent levels of ammonia, isopropyl alcohol, nitrogen dioxide, and hydrogen. In addition, body emissions did not produce a false positive response in view of potential application for use inside protective clothing. The device was shown to reliably detect less than 10 ppb of the hydrazines tested using a 10 to 20L sample followed by a 2 to 5 minute color development time. Some field tests were conducted in parallel with conventional acidic firebrick sorbent tubes. There was generally very good agreement between the devices and firebrick sorbent tubes when greater than 10 ppb of a hydrazine was present.

Dee, Lou A.↗
NASA NTRS1971

The gamma ray experiment for the Small Astronomy Satellite B (SAS-B)

A magnetic core digitized spark chamber gamma ray telescope has been developed for satellite use. The detector has the following characteristics: effective area = 500 cu/cm, solid angle = 1/4 SR; efficiency (high energy) = 0.29; and time resolution of better than two milliseconds.

Fichtel, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Noncontacting device to indicate deflection of turbopump internal rotating parts

Phase 2 (development) which was concluded for the ultrasonic Doppler device and the light-pipe-reflectance device is reported. An ultrasonic Doppler breadboard system was assembled which accurately measured runout in the J-2 LOX pump impeller during operation. The transducer was mounted on the outside of the pump volute using a C-clamp. Vibration was measured by conducting the ultrasonic wave through the volute housing and through the fluid in the volute to the impeller surface. The impeller vibration was also measured accurately using the light-pipe probe mounted in an elastomeric-gland fitting in the pump case. A special epoxy resin developed for cryogenic applications was forced into the end of the fiber-optic probe to retain the fibers. Subsequently, the probe suffered no damage after simultaneous exposure to 2150 psi and 77 F. Preliminary flash X-radiographs were taken of the turbine wheel and the shaft-bearing-seal assembly, using a 2-megavolt X-ray unit. Reasonable resolution and contrast was obtained. A fast-neutron detector was fabricated and sensitivity was measured. The results demonstrated that the technique is feasible for integrated-time measurements requiring, perhaps, 240 revolutions to obtain sufficient exposure at 35,000 rpm. The experimental verification plans are included.

Hamilton, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Methods of measurement for semiconductor materials, process control, and devices

Activities directed toward the development of methods of measurement for semiconductor materials, process control, and devices are described. Topics investigated include: measurements of transistor delay time; application of the infrared response technique to the study of radiation-damaged, lithium-drifted silicon detectors; and identification of a condition that minimizes wire flexure and reduces the failure rate of wire bonds in transistors and integrated circuits under slow thermal cycling conditions. Supplementary data concerning staff, standards committee activities, technical services, and publications are included as appendixes.

Bullis, W. M.↗
NASA NTRS1972

A quantitative investigation of the solar modulation of cosmic-ray protons and helium nuclei

The differential energy spectra of cosmic ray protons and He nuclei were measured at energies up to 315 MeV/nucleon using balloon-borne and satellite-borne instruments. These spectra are presented for solar quiet times for the years 1966 through 1970. The data analysis is verified by extensive accelerator calibrations of the detector systems and by calculations and measurements of the production of secondary protons in the atmosphere. The spectra of protons and He nuclei in this energy range are dominated by the solar modulation of the local interstellar spectra. Numerical solutions to the transport equation are presented for a wide range of parameters.

Garrard, T. L.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Two high resolution velocity vector analyzers for cosmic dust particles

Methods are described to measure velocities and angles of incidence of charged cosmic dust particles with precisions of about 1 percent and 1 degree, respectively. Both methods employ four one-dimensional position-sensitive detectors in series. The first method utilizes a charge-dividing technique while the second utilizes a time-of-flight technique for determining the position of a particle inside the instrument. The velocity vectors are measured although mechanical interaction between the particle and the instrument is completely avoided. Applications to cosmic dust composition and collection experiments are discussed. The range of radii of measurable particles is from about 0.01 to 100 microns at velocities from 1 to 80 km/s.

Aver, S.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Two high resolution velocity vector analyzers for cosmic dust particles

Two new methods are described to measure velocities and angles of incidence of charged cosmic dust particles with precisions of about 1% and 1 deg, respectively. Both methods employ four one-dimensional position-sensitive detectors in series. The first method utilizes a charge-dividing technique while the second utilizes a time-of-flight technique for determining the position of a particle inside the instrument. The velocity vectors are measured although mechanical interaction between the particle and the instrument is completely avoided. Applications to cosmic dust composition and collection experiments are discussed. The range of radii of measurable particles is from about 0.01 to 100 microns at velocities from 1 to 80 km/sec.

Auer, S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Measurements of radon concentrations in the lunar atmosphere

The radon concentrations in the lunar atmosphere were determined by measuring the Po-210 progeny activity in artifacts returned from the moon. Experiments performed on a section of the polished aluminum strut from Surveyor 3 and data obtained from the Apollo 16 Cosmic Ray Detector Experiment Teflon thermal shield are compared with other values of the lunar radon concentration obtained at different times and different locations and by various techniques. Possible sources and release mechanisms compatible with all of the data are discussed. An experimental procedure to determine the relative retention coefficients of various types of material for radon progeny in a simulated lunar environment is described. The results of several experiments are given, and their effect on lunar radon progeny measurements is discussed. An analytical procedure is given for the analysis of a Teflon matrix for trace constituents.

Brodzinski, R. L.↗