A satellite system for radio navigation.
Radio navigation satellite system for aircraft, ships and land equipment providing position data at low cost in all weather
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Radio navigation satellite system for aircraft, ships and land equipment providing position data at low cost in all weather
Plans, schedules, and operations and support data for optimized cost orbital space transportation system design
Onboard automatic checkout systems for manned space vehicles, investigating data management development costs for thorough tradeoff studies
Cost and weight data for space shuttle booster heat sink structural concept
A survey of wind tunnel research facilities in the United States is presented. The inventory includes all subsonic, transonic, and hypersonic wind tunnels operated by governmental and private organizations. Each wind tunnel is described with respect to size, mechanical operation, construction, testing capabilities, and operating costs. Facility performance data are presented in charts and tables.
The program, project, system level cost and schedule data for the modular space station development are presented.
ERTS-1 images of two federal reservoirs in Kansas exhibit good correlation with suspended load. The major reservoirs in Kansas, as well as in other Great Plains states, are playing increasingly important roles in flood control, recreation, agriculture, and urban water supply. Satellite imagery may prove useful for acquiring timely low cost water quality data required for optimum management of these fresh water resources.
The supporting cost and schedule data for the second half of the Space Shuttle System Phase B Extension Study is summarized. The major objective for this period was to address the cost/schedule differences affecting final selection of the HO orbiter space shuttle system. The contending options under study included the following booster launch configurations: (1) series burn ballistic recoverable booster (BRB), (2) parallel burn ballistic recoverable booster (BRB), (3) series burn solid rocket motors (SRM's), and (4) parallel burn solid rocket motors (SRM's). The implications of varying payload bay sizes for the orbiter, engine type for the ballistics recoverable booster, and SRM motors for the solid booster were examined.
This experiment was designed to determine the types and amounts of information valuable to petroleum exploration extractable from ERTS data and the cost of obtaining the information using traditional or conventional means. It was desired that an evaluation of this new petroleum exploration tool be made in a geologically well known area in order to assess its usefulness in an unknown area. The Anadarko Basin lies in western Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas. It was chosen as a test site because there is a great deal of published information available on the surface and subsurface geology of the area, and there are many known structures that act as traps for hydrocarbons. This basin is similar to several other large epicontinental sedimentary basins. It was found that ERTS imagery is an excellent tool for reconnaissance exploration of large sedimentary basins or new exploration provinces. For the first time, small and medium size oil companies can rapidly and effectively analyze exploration provinces as a whole.
Analyses of ERTS-1 MSS computer compatible tapes of reservoir scenes in Kansas along with ground truth show that MSS bands and band ratios can be used for reliable prediction of suspended loads up to at least 900 ppm. The major reservoirs in Kansas, as well as in other Great Plains states, are playing increasingly important roles in flood control, recreation, agriculture, and urban water supply. Satellite imagery is proving useful for acquiring timely low cost water quality data required for optimum management of these fresh water resources.
Capabilities and limitations of modern imaging electromagnetic sensor systems are outlined, and the products of such systems are compared with those of the traditional aerial photographic system. Focus is given to the interface between the rapidly developing remote sensing technology and the information needs of operational agencies, and communication gaps are shown to retard early adoption of the technology by these agencies. An assessment is made of the current status of imaging remote sensors and their potential for the future. Public sources of remote sensor data and several cost comparisons are included.
The principal barrier to routine use of the ERTS multispectral scanner computer compatible tapes, rather than photointerpretation examination of the images, has been the high computing costs involved due to the large quantity of information (4 Mbytes) contained in a scene. STANSORT, the interactive program package developed at Stanford Remote Sensing Laboratories alleviates this problem, providing an extremely rapid, flexible and low cost tool for data reduction, scene classification, species searches and edge detection. The primary classification procedure, utilizing a search with variable gate widths, for similarities in the normalized, digitized spectra is described along with associated procedures for data refinement and extraction of information. The more rigorous statistical classification procedures are also explained.
Planetary-orbit mission capabilities will be greatly improved by the advent of space-storable retropropulsion systems with liquid fluorine and hydrazine as bipropellants even when the Shuttle/Tug is used as launch vehicle. Having a specific impulse as large as 375 sec, a multimission propulsion module using space-storable propellants with Pioneer or Mariner spacecraft as payload can perform Mercury, Saturn, and Uranus orbiter missions, and even some comet rendezvous missions, more cost effectively and flexibly than one using earth-storable propellants. It also can reduce trip time to the outer planets significantly. This paper presents mission requirements, technology status, system design and performance, development schedules, and costs based on data derived in a recent design and feasibility study.
Operating costs based on data of actual and proposed airships for conventional lighter than air craft (LTA) are presented. An economic comparison of LTA with the B-47F is included, and possible LTA economic trends are discussed.
This paper considers the control of a continuous linear plant disturbed by white plant noise when the control is constrained to be a piecewise constant function of time; i.e. a stochastic sampled-data system. The cost function is the integral of quadratic error terms in the state and control, thus penalizing errors at every instant of time while the plant noise disturbs the system continuously. The problem is solved by reducing the constrained continuous problem to an unconstrained discrete one. It is shown that the separation principle for estimation and control still holds for this problem when the plant disturbance and measurement noise are Gaussian.
The NASA Lunar Polar Orbiter, to be launched by a Delta vehicle in 1980, is designed to perform a global exploration of such moon properties as the gravity field, figure, and surface composition, as well as a lunar resource survey. The paper reviews the mission, spacecraft, and data system concepts in terms of baseline mission sequence, choice of orbits, spacecraft configuration requirements, mission sequence requirements and data system and operations. Scientific experiments planned for the Orbiter mission include geophysical altimetry and gravity experiments, heat flow experiment, magnetic field experiments, measurements of the moon's natural gamma-ray spectrum, X-ray fluorescence of lunar surface materials, sunlight reflectance spectroscopy, and spectro-stereo imaging. Characteristics of instruments designed for use in these investigations are examined. Through the use of advanced sensors and data-system techniques, coupled with well-developed spacecraft systems, the mission promises to return a very large quantity and variety of lunar data at a cost comparable with that of simpler missions in the past.
A standard size set of shuttle payload transportation equipment was defined that will substantially reduce the cost of payload transportation and accommodate a wide range of payloads with minimum impact on payload design. The system was designed to accommodate payload shipments between the level 4 payload integration sites and the launch site during the calendar years 1979-1982. In addition to defining transportation multi-use mission support equipment (T-MMSE) the mode of travel, prime movers, and ancillary equipment required in the transportation process were also considered. Consistent with the STS goals of low cost and the use of standardized interfaces, the transportation system was designed to commercial grade standards and uses the payload flight mounting interfaces for transportation. The technical, cost, and programmatic data required to permit selection of a baseline system of MMSE for intersite movement of shuttle payloads were developed.
A unified framework for comparing intercity passenger and freight transportation systems is presented. Composite measures for cost, service/demand, energy, and environmental impact were determined. A set of 14 basic measures were articulated to form the foundation for computing the composite measures. A parameter dependency diagram, constructed to explicitly interrelate the composite and basic measures is discussed. Ground rules and methodology for developing the values of the basic measures are provided and the use of the framework with existing cost and service data is illustrated for various freight systems.