Performance tests of a 1/2-millipound /2.2 mN/ ammonia resistojet thrustor system
Performance tests of ammonia resistojet thrustor system for various spacecraft control maneuvers
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Performance tests of ammonia resistojet thrustor system for various spacecraft control maneuvers
Mean age of galactic cosmic rays technique based on manganese isotope half life passing through interstellar hydrogen
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A method for obtaining cryogenic toughness in an Fe-12Mn-0.2Ti alloy by a controlled cooling technique is presented. The intergranular fracture surface of the quenched alloy, using an AES, revealed no significant difference from that obtained by the bulk transgranular fracture surface, indicating the absence of large-scale grain boundary segregation during the austenitizing treatment. Attention is given to the step cooling method, using a furnace at temperatures of 100 to 120 C, followed by fast cooling to ambient temperature, which in turn produces a high-impact toughness without intergranular brittleness. It is concluded that the sources of brittle intergranular fracture in the alloy are both chemical, operating in martensitic structure, and nonchemical, active during quenching from the austenitizing treatment.
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It is found that, since 1800, the mean discrepancy in epoch between maxima in temperature and maxima in the Drought Area Index (DAI) for the western United States with respect to maxima in the lunar modal tide is 0.9 and 0.1 year, respectively. It is suggested, in light of the fact that a cluster of nine stations in western Canada yields the 18.6-year lunar nodal term out of phase with 30 stations in eastern North America, that (1) enhanced drought conditions in the western United States are neither recurrent nor rhythmic on a time scale of 20 years, but rather periodic with a period of 18.6 years, and (2) the Rocky Mountain system is an influence for atmospheric tidal phenomena at epochs of maximum in the lunar nodal tide as well as for maxima in the temperature records of the DAI.
The FeMnAlC alloys may hold potential as Cr-free replacements for high strategic material iron base superalloys, but little is known about their intermediate temperature (650 C to 870 C) mechanical properties. The effects of alloying elements on the mechanical properties of model FeMnAlC alloys were studied. Results showed that modified FeMnAlC alloys had promising short term, intermediate temperature properties but had relatively poor stress rupture lives at 172 MPa and 788 C. Room temperature and 788 C tensile strength of FeMnAlC alloys were better than common cast stainless steels. Changes in room temperature tensile and 788 C tensile strength and ductility, and 788 C stress rupture life were correlated with changes in Ni, Mo, Ti, and Si levels due to alloying effects on interstitial carbon levels and carbide morphology. Fe-25Mn-5Al-2C had a very poor stress rupture life at 172 MPa and 788 C. Addition of carbide-forming elements improved the stress rupture life.
The analysis of optically-thin far-ultraviolet and X-ray emission lines of multiply-charged ions is one of the basic methods for determining the temperatures and densities of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. In addition, the energy balance in these plasmas can be significantly influenced by the emission of radiation from relatively low concentrations of multiple-charged atomic ions. Because the populations of the excited levels are expected to depart substantially from their local thermodynamic equilibrium values a detailed treatment of the elementary collisional and radiative processes must be employed in order to predict the emission line intensities. In this investigation the authors present the results of calculations based on a corona equilibrium model in which a detailed evaluation is made of the dielectronic recombination rate coefficients. The ionization and autoionization following inner-shell electron excitation from each ground state are balanced by direct radiative and dielectronic recombination. The spectral line intensities emitted by the low-lying excited states, which are assumed to undergo spontaneous radiative decay in times that are short compared with the collision time, are evaluated in terms of the corona ionization equilibrium distributions of the ground states and their electron-impact excitation states.
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Extensive in situ thermal measurements using Peltier Interface Demarcation (PID) during directional solidification of eutectic Bi/MnBi were carried out. Observations indicate that significant thermal transients occur throughout the sample as a result of the Peltier pulsing. The contributions of the Peltier, Thomson, and Joule heats were separated and studied as a function of pulse intensity and polarity. The Joule and the combined Peltier and Thomson thermal contributions were determined as a function of time during and after the current pulses, close to the solid/liquid interface. Variations of the Bi/MnBi particle morphology clearly reveal the interface shape, changes in interface velocity, meltback, and temporary loss of cooperative growth, as a result of the pulsing.
Samples of rod eutectics Bi/MnBi were directionally solidified in a growth-up Bridgman-Stockbarger configuration in the presence of a transverse magnetic field up to 3 kg to determine whether gravity-driven convective effects could be reduced or eliminated. The experiments were carried out over a range of furnace velocities, V, of 0.2 to 50 cm per hour with a thermal gradient at the liquid-solid interface of 100 C/cm and 150 C/cm. Morphological, thermal and magnetic analyses were carried out on samples grown with and without an applied magnetic field. For samples grown at V greater than 3 cm per hour in a transverse magnetic field, reduced mean rod diameter and interrod spacing occurred as well as undercooling and increased coercive strength. The data agreed with that obtained for low-g growth at 50 cm per hour and 30 cm per hour.
Microprobe analyses of ureilite and pigeonite cores are studied. The Fe/Mn-Fe/Mg relationship in the olivine core is examined. It is observed that magnetic processs such as fractional crystallization and partial melting, and FeO reduction contribute to the olivine core composition. The study of the Mg/Mn and Fe/Mn distributions reveals that these two distributions are not in equilibrium in the olivine and pigeonite cores. The effect of a reducing agent, carbon, on the ureilite genesis is investigated. It is concluded that fractional crystallization and FeO reduction are the major processes of ureilite genesis.
The machine-readable version of the multiplet table, as it is currently being distributed from the Astronomical Data Center, is described. The computerized version of the table contains data on excitation potentials, J values, multiplet terms, intensities of the transitions, and multiplet numbers. Files ordered by multiplet and by wavelength are included in the distributed version.
Eucrites, howardites, and diogenites have Fe/Mn ratios between 30 and 45, while carbonaceous chondrites have much higher values between 90 and 150. Stolper (1977) first showed that basaltic achondrites could evolve from a precursor chondritic material through simple partial melting. These experiments indicated that chondritic material heated to temperatures near 1180 C with a fugacity of one log unit below the iron-wustite buffer curve, produced a eucritic mineralogy that contained olivine, pigeonite, plagioclase, spinel, glass, and metal. The partial melting experiments of Jurewicz et al. (1992) on an hydrous Murchison and Allende also showed that HED compositions were produceable at temperatures between 1130 C and 1325 C with fugacities below and above the iron-wustite buffer curve. However, the MnO abundances of Jurewicz were too low to produce suitable Fe/Mn ratios for HED's. We present below our results of partial melting experiments on Murchison analogues that involved temperatures between 1180 C and 1580 C and fugacities below the iron-wustite buffer curve. Our experiments resulted in MnO abundances nearly twice that of Jurewicz and indicate that the production of basaltic achondrite-like Fe/Mn ratios from precursor chondritic material are possible.
Angrite meteorites are a type of basaltic achondrites that are noted for their very old cyrstallization ages (4.55 b.y.) and unusual chemical and mineralogical properties. In spite of great interest, only four angrites have been found. LEW87051 is the smallest one which weighs 0.6 g. It is a porphyritic rock with coarse subhedral to euhedral olivines set in a fine-grained groundmass which clearly represents a crystallized melt. The largest uncertainty about the petrogenesis of LEW87051 is the relationship between the large olivine crystals and the groundmass. Prinz et al. suggests that olivines are xenocrysts, while McKay et al. proposed a fractional cyrstallization model based on experimental studies. However, the crystals have Cr-rich and Ca-poor cores which do not match experimental olivines. Although Jurewicz and McKay tried to explaine the zoning of the rim by diffusion, some features are not explained. There also exists a definite composition boundary of Fe(2+) and MnO between the core and the rim. To clarify the origin of these olivines, we have performed experiments using LEW87051 analogs to measure the effects of oxygen fugacity on distribution coefficients of various elements in an angritic system.
Pyroxene chemistries from the Earth, Moon, Mars, and 4 Vesta show indications of planetary parentage. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
High precision techniques have been developed for the measurement of Cr isotopes on the Triton mass spectrometer, at JPL. It is clear that multiple Faraday cup, simultaneous ion collection may reduce the uncertainty of isotope ratios relative to single Faraday cup ion collection, by the elimination of uncertainties from ion beam instabilities (since ion beam intensities for single cup collection are interpolated in time to calculate isotope ratios), and due to a greatly increased data collection duty cycle, for simultaneous ion collection. Efforts to measure Cr by simultaneous ion collection have not been successful in the past. Determinations on Cr-50-54Cr, by simultaneous ion collection on the Finnigan/ MAT 262 instrument at Caltech, resulted in large variations in extrinsic precision, for normal Cr, of up to 1% in Cr-53/Cr-52 (data corrected for mass fractionation, using Cr-50/Cr-52).