Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “AgO”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,135 records · Page 63
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

STK/Lifetime as a Replacement for Heritage Orbital Lifetime Software

The Flight Dynamics Analysis Branch (FDAB) of NASNGSFC is tasked with determining the orbital lifetime of several developmental and operational satellites, which include the Hubble Space Telescope. A DOS based program developed by the FDAB many years ago, called PC Lifetime, is used to determine a satellite s lifetime and could soon be in need of a replacement. STK s Lifetime Object Tool is a possible candidate. Due to the reduced support of the PC Lifetime program, and the growing incompatibility of older programs with new operating systems, a comparative analysis was done to determine if STWLifetime could meet the stringent requirements that were laid before it. The use of highly accurate numerical propagators such as STK s High Precision Orbit Propagator ( OP) and the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS) provided a basis on which to compare STWLifetime s results. Several test cases were run, but the main four test cases would determine whether or not STWLifetime could be PC- Lifetime s replacement. These four cases include a geotransfer orbit, two circular LEOS, and a Poiar LEO. Following rigorous testmg procedures, a conclusion will be determined. STK has proved to be a versatile program on many satellite missions and the FDAB has high hopes that it can pass FDAB s requirements for orbital lifetime prediction.

Dove, Edwin↗
NASA NTRS2004

Did a Gamma-Ray Burst Initiate the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?

Gamma-ray bursts (hereafter GRB) produce a flux of radiation detectable across the observable Universe. A GRB within our own galaxy could do considerable damage to the Earth's biosphere; rate estimates suggest that a dangerously near GRB should occur on average several times per billion years. At leastfive times in the history of lfe, the Earth experienced mass extinctions that eliminated a large percentage of the biota. Many possible causes have been documented, and GRB may also have contributed. The late Ordovician mass extinction approximately 440 million years ago may be at least partly the result of a GRB. Due to severe depletion of the ozone layer, intense solar ultraviolet radiation is expected to result from a nearby GRB, and some of the patterns of extinction and survivorship at this time may be attributable to elevated levels of UV radiation reaching the Earth. In addition a GRB could trigger the global cooling which occurs at the end of the Ordovician period that follows an interval of relatively warm climate. Intense rapid cooling and glaciation at that time, previously identijied as the probable cause of this mass extinction, may have resultedfiom a GRB.

Melott, A. L.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Assimilation of SBUV Version 8 Radiances into the GEOS Ozone DAS

In operational weather forecasting, the assimilation of brightness temperatures from satellite sounders, instead of assimilation of 1D-retrievals has become increasingly common practice over the last two decades. Compared to these systems, assimilation of trace gases is still at a relatively early stage of development, and efforts to directly assimilate radiances instead of retrieved products have just begun a few years ago, partially because it requires much more computation power due to the employment of a radiative transport forward model (FM). This paper will focus on a method to assimilate SBUV/2 radiances (albedos) into the Global Earth Observation System Ozone Data Assimilation Scheme (GEOS-03DAS). While SBUV-type instruments cannot compete with newer sensors in terms of spectral and horizontal resolution, they feature a continuous data record back to 1978, which makes them very valuable for trend studies. Assimilation can help spreading their ground coverage over the whole globe, as has been previously demonstrated with the GEOS-03DAS using SBUV Version 6 ozone profiles. Now, the DAS has been updated to use the newly released SBUV Version 8 data. We will compare pre]lmlnarv results of SBUV radiance assimilation with the assimilation of retrieved ozone profiles, discuss methods to deal with the increased computational load, and try to assess the error characteristics and future potential of the new approach.

Mueller, Martin D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Highlights of the Version 8 SBUV and TOMS Datasets Released at this Symposium

Last October was the 25th anniversary of the launch of the SBUV and TOMS instruments on NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite. Total Ozone and ozone profile datasets produced by these and following instruments have produced a quarter century long record. Over time we have released several versions of these datasets to incorporate advances in UV radiative transfer, inverse modeling, and instrument characterization. In this meeting we are releasing datasets produced from the version 8 algorithms. They replace the previous versions (V6 SBUV, and V7 TOMS) released about a decade ago. About a dozen companion papers in this meeting provide details of the new algorithms and intercomparison of the new data with external data. In this paper we present key features of the new algorithm, and discuss how the new results differ from those released previously. We show that the new datasets have better internal consistency and also agree better with external datasets. A key feature of the V8 SBUV algorithm is that the climatology has no influence on inter-annual variability and trends; it only affects the mean values and, to a limited extent, the seasonal dependence. By contrast, climatology does have some influence on TOMS total O3 trends, particularly at large solar zenith angles. For this reason, and also because TOMS record has gaps, md EP/TOMS is suffering from data quality problems, we recommend using SBUV total ozone data for applications where the high spatial resolution of TOMS is not essential.

Bhartia, Pawan K.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Engineering Memos

I first came to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 48 years ago, and was taught that what's most important for project success is bringing good people on board, getting them to come together as a team, making certain that they're all on the same page, and setting up the mechanisms to keep them communicating. That much is true to all successful projects - but, naturally, it is not as simple as it sounds.

Casani, John↗
NASA NTRS2004

Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis

The program to land an American on the Moon and return safely to Earth in the 1960s has been called by some observers a defining event of the twentieth century. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., even suggested that when Americans two centuries hence study the twentieth century, they will view the Apollo lunar landing as the critical event of the century. While that conclusion might be premature, there can be little doubt but that the flight of Apollo 11 in particular and the overall Apollo program in general was a high point in humanity s quest to explore the universe beyond Earth. Since the completion of Project Apollo more than twenty years ago there have been a plethora of books, studies, reports, and articles about its origin, execution, and meaning. At the time of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first landing, it is appropriate to reflect on the effort and its place in U.S. and NASA history. This monograph has been written as a means to this end. It presents a short narrative account of Apollo from its origin through its assessment. That is followed by a mission by mission summary of the Apollo flights and concluded by a series of key documents relative to the program reproduced in facsimile. The intent of this monograph is to provide a basic history along with primary documents that may be useful to NASA personnel and others desiring information about Apollo.

Launius, Roger D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

From Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Ice to the Origin of Life

Tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of interstellar material over the past twenty years thanks to significant, parallel developments in observational astronomy and laboratory astrophysics. Twenty years ago the composition of interstellar dust was largely guessed at, the concept of ices in dense molecular clouds ignored, and the notion of large, abundant, gas phase, carbon rich molecules widespread throughout the interstellar medium (ISM) considered impossible. Today the composition of dust in the diffuse ISM is reasonably well constrained to cold refractory materials comprised of amorphous and crystalline silicates mixed with an amorphous carbonaceous material containing aromatic structural units and short, branched aliphatic chains. In the dense ISM, the birthplace of stars and planets, these cold dust particles are coated with mixed molecular ices whose composition is very well constrained. Lastly, the signature of carbon-rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), shockingly large molecules by early interstellar chemistry standards, is widespread throughout the Universe. The first part of this talk will describe how infrared studies of interstellar space, combined with laboratory simulations, have revealed the composition of interstellar ices (the building blocks of comets) and the high abundance and nature of interstellar PAHs. The laboratory database has now enabled us to gain insight into the identities, abundances, and physical state of many interstellar materials. Within a dense molecular cloud, and especially in the presolar nebula, the materials frozen into the interstellar/precometary ices are photoprocessed by ultraviolet light and produce more complex molecules. The remainder of the presentation will focus on the photochemical evolution of these materials and the possible role of these compounds on the to the carbonaceous components of micrometeorites, they are likely to have been important sources of complex materials on the early Earth and their composition may be related to the origin of life.

Allamandola, Louis↗
NASA NTRS2004

Hot Shot

The NASA Messenger spacecraft is ready for launch to Mercury on a mission researchers hope will unravel why the closest planet to the Sun is so dramatically different from its siblings - Earth, Venus and Mars - all born from the same solar nebula 5 billion years ago. The NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) spacecraft is to lift off here Aug. 2 at 2:16 a.m. EDT on a Boeing Delta II Heavy booster. Development of the $426-million mission has involved 800 people from 50 contractors and organizations spread across 24 U.S. states and six countries. Canadian, Italian and German companies are among the major contractors.

Covault, Craig↗
NASA NTRS2004

Laboratory Experiments on Rotation of Micron Size Cosmic Dust Grains with Radiation

The processes and mechanisms involved in the rotation and alignment of interstellar dust grains have been of great interest in astrophysics ever since the surprising discovery of the polarization of starlight more than half a century ago. Numerous theories, detailed mathematical models and numerical studies of grain rotation and alignment along the Galactic magnetic field have been presented in the literature. In particular, the subject of grain rotation and alignment by radiative torques has been shown to be of particular interest in recent years. However, despite many investigations, a satisfactory theoretical understanding of the processes involved in grain rotation and alignment has not been achieved. As there appears to be no experimental data available on this subject, we have carried out some unique experiments to illuminate the processes involved in rotation of dust grains in the interstellar medium. In this paper we present the results of some preliminary laboratory experiments on the rotation of individual micron/submicron size nonspherical dust grains levitated in an electrodynamic balance evacuated to pressures of approx. 10(exp -3) to 10(exp -5) torr. The particles are illuminated by laser light at 5320 A, and the grain rotation rates are obtained by analyzing the low frequency (approx. 0-100 kHz) signal of the scattered light detected by a photodiode detector. The rotation rates are compared with simple theoretical models to retrieve some basic rotational parameters. The results are examined in the light of the current theories of alignment.

Abbas, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS2000

NASA's Subsonic Jet Transport Noise Reduction Research

Although new jet transport airplanes in today s fleet are considerably quieter than the first jet transports introduced about 40 years ago, airport community noise continues to be an important environmental issue. NASA s Advanced Subsonic Transport (AST) Noise Reduction program was begun in 1994 as a seven-year effort to develop technology to reduce jet transport noise 10 dB relative to 1992 technology. This program provides for reductions in engine source noise, improvements in nacelle acoustic treatments, reductions in the noise generated by the airframe, and improvements in the way airplanes are operated in the airport environs. These noise reduction efforts will terminate at the end of 2001 and it appears that the objective will be met. However, because of an anticipated 3-8% growth in passenger and cargo operations well into the 21st Century and the slow introduction of new the noise reduction technology into the fleet, world aircraft noise impact will remain essentially constant until about 2020 to 2030 and thereafter begin to rise. Therefore NASA has begun planning with the Federal Aviation Administration, industry, universities and environmental interest groups in the USA for a new noise reduction initiative to provide technology for significant further reductions.

Powell, Clemans A.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Hot Shot

The NASA Messenger spacecraft is ready for launch to Mercury on a mission researchers hope will unravel why the closest planet to the Sun is so dramatically different from its siblings-Earth, Venus and Mars-all born from the same solar nebula 5 billion years ago. The NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) spacecraft is to lift off here Aug. 2 at 216 a.m. EDT on a Boeing Delta I1 Heavy booster. Development of the $426- million mission has involved 800 people from 50 contractors and organizations spread across 24 U.S. states and six countries. Canadian, Italian and German companies are among the major contractors.

Covault, Craig↗
NASA NTRS2003

Developmental gene regulatory network architecture across 500 million years of echinoderm evolution

Evolutionary change in morphological features must depend on architectural reorganization of developmental gene regulatory networks (GRNs), just as true conservation of morphological features must imply retention of ancestral developmental GRN features. Key elements of the provisional GRN for embryonic endomesoderm development in the sea urchin are here compared with those operating in embryos of a distantly related echinoderm, a starfish. These animals diverged from their common ancestor 520-480 million years ago. Their endomesodermal fate maps are similar, except that sea urchins generate a skeletogenic cell lineage that produces a prominent skeleton lacking entirely in starfish larvae. A relevant set of regulatory genes was isolated from the starfish Asterina miniata, their expression patterns determined, and effects on the other genes of perturbing the expression of each were demonstrated. A three-gene feedback loop that is a fundamental feature of the sea urchin GRN for endoderm specification is found in almost identical form in the starfish: a detailed element of GRN architecture has been retained since the Cambrian Period in both echinoderm lineages. The significance of this retention is highlighted by the observation of numerous specific differences in the GRN connections as well. A regulatory gene used to drive skeletogenesis in the sea urchin is used entirely differently in the starfish, where it responds to endomesodermal inputs that do not affect it in the sea urchin embryo. Evolutionary changes in the GRNs since divergence are limited sharply to certain cis-regulatory elements, whereas others have persisted unaltered.

NASA Program Fundamental Space Biology↗
NASA NTRS2003

Conservation of Endo16 expression in sea urchins despite evolutionary divergence in both cis and trans-acting components of transcriptional regulation

Evolutionary changes in transcriptional regulation undoubtedly play an important role in creating morphological diversity. However, there is little information about the evolutionary dynamics of cis-regulatory sequences. This study examines the functional consequence of evolutionary changes in the Endo16 promoter of sea urchins. The Endo16 gene encodes a large extracellular protein that is expressed in the endoderm and may play a role in cell adhesion. Its promoter has been characterized in exceptional detail in the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. We have characterized the structure and function of the Endo16 promoter from a second sea urchin species, Lytechinus variegatus. The Endo16 promoter sequences have evolved in a strongly mosaic manner since these species diverged approximately 35 million years ago: the most proximal region (module A) is conserved, but the remaining modules (B-G) are unalignable. Despite extensive divergence in promoter sequences, the pattern of Endo16 transcription is largely conserved during embryonic and larval development. Transient expression assays demonstrate that 2.2 kb of upstream sequence in either species is sufficient to drive GFP reporter expression that correctly mimics this pattern of Endo16 transcription. Reciprocal cross-species transient expression assays imply that changes have also evolved in the set of transcription factors that interact with the Endo16 promoter. Taken together, these results suggest that stabilizing selection on the transcriptional output may have operated to maintain a similar pattern of Endo16 expression in S. purpuratus and L. variegatus, despite dramatic divergence in promoter sequence and mechanisms of transcriptional regulation.

NASA Discipline Evolutionary Biology↗
NASA NTRS2003

The impact of the new biology on radiation risks in space

Radiation is considered to be one of three or four major hazards for personnel in space and has emerged as the most critical issue to be resolved for long-term missions, both orbital and interplanetary. Space habitats are stressful and dangerous environments. Health and medical consequences arising from microgravity, stress, and trauma include weakened immune systems, increased viral activity, and loss of bone mass. The greatest risks from radiation are generally assumed to be cancers and possibly damage to the central nervous system. Synergistic effects arising from the other environmental hazards along with abscopal and exogenic factors are likely. Space programs represent an exceptional opportunity for examining the biological consequences of low-dose exposures of humans to radiation at every level of progression. Although astronauts are a relatively small population, they are healthy, physically active volunteers who undergo extensive testing and medical examinations before, during, and after protracted exposures with periodic follow-up examinations. The radiation environments along with other hazards are likewise monitored and documented. Extensive international research programs are in progress. Seven years ago the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration established the National Space Biomedical Research Institute through a cooperative agreement with a consortium of research and academic institutions in order to address radiation issues through a concerted, programmatic effort. Advanced technologies are rapidly being incorporated into these programs to determine the significance of new biological data and to evaluate the interplay among the different medical hazards. Programmatic in vivo and in vitro studies of the processes leading to carcinogenesis are in progress. Drugs and dietary supplements are being examined at the cellular and in vivo levels to assess their potential as dose-modifying agents. The infrastructure of this new approach, recent results, and research in progress are reviewed and discussed.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗
NASA NTRS2003

Impacts and evolution: future prospects

The discipline of astrobiology includes the dynamics of biological evolution. One of the major ways that the cosmos influences life is through the catastrophic environmental disruptions caused when comets and asteroids collide with a planet. We now recognize that such impacts have caused mass extinctions and played a major role in determining the evolution of life on Earth. The time-averaged impact flux as a function of projectile energy can be derived from lunar cratering statistics as well as the current population of near Earth asteroids (NEAs). Effects of impacts of various energies can be modeled, using data from historic impacts [such as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) impactor 65 million years ago] and the observed 1994 bombardment of Jupiter by fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. It is of particular interest to find from such models that the terrestrial environment is highly vulnerable to perturbation from impacts, so that even such a small event as the KT impact (by a projectile 10-15 km in diameter) can lead to a mass extinction. Similar considerations allow us to model the effects of still smaller (and much more likely) impacts, down to the size of the asteroid that exploded over Tunguska in 1908 (energy approximately 10 megatons). Combining the impact flux with estimates of environmental and ecological effects reveals that the greatest contemporary hazard is associated with impactors near 1 million megatons in energy (approximately 2 km in diameter for an asteroid). The current impact hazard is significant relative to other natural hazards, and arguments can be developed to illuminate a variety of public policy issues. The first priority in any plan for defense against impactors is to survey the population of Earth-crossing NEAs and project their orbits forward in time. This is the purpose of the Spaceguard Survey, which has already found more than half of the NEAs >1 km in diameter. If there is an NEA on a collision course with Earth, it can be discovered and the impact predicted with decades or more of warning. It is then possible to consider how to deflect or disrupt the NEA. Unlike other natural hazards, the impact risk can be largely eliminated, given sufficient advanced knowledge to take action against the threatening projectile.

Directed Molecular Evolution↗
NASA NTRS2002

Transcription profiling of the early gravitropic response in Arabidopsis using high-density oligonucleotide probe microarrays

Studies of plant tropisms, the directed growth toward or away from external stimuli such as light and gravity, began more than a century ago. Yet biochemical, physiological, and especially molecular mechanisms of plant tropic responses remain for the most part unclear. We examined expression of 8,300 genes during early stages of the gravitropic response using high-density oligonucleotide probe microarrays. Approximately 1.7% of the genes represented on the array exhibited significant expression changes within the first 30 min of gravity stimulation. Among gravity-induced genes were a number of genes previously implicated to be involved in gravitropism. However, a much larger number of the identified genes have not been previously associated with gravitropism. Because reorientation of plants may also expose plants to mechanical perturbations, we also compared the effects of a gentle mechanical perturbation on mRNA levels during the gravity response. It was found that approximately 39% of apparently gravity-regulated genes were also regulated by the mechanical perturbation caused by plant reorientation. Our study revealed the induction of complex gene expression patterns as a consequence of gravitropic reorientation and points to an interplay between the gravitropic and mechanical responses and to the extreme sensitivity of plants to even very gentle mechanical perturbations.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗
NASA NTRS1999

Irradiated interplanetary dust particles as a possible solution for the deuterium/hydrogen paradox of Earth's oceans

Determining the source of Earth's oceans is a longstanding problem in planetary science. Possible sources of water include water ice or water of hydration of silicate minerals in the original material from which the bulk Earth accreted and water brought in by late-arriving planetesimals during the heavy bombardment period (4.5-3.8 Gyr ago) [Chyba, 1989, 1991]. Comets are an attractive source of water because their origin in the outer solar system is consistent with the long timescale for heavy bombardment. However, the high deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio of the three comets that have been studied, Halley, Hyakutake, and Hale-Bopp, indicates that Earth must have had a source with a low-D/H ratio as well. Here we suggest that solar wind-implanted hydrogen on interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) provided the necessary low-D/H component of Earth's water inventory.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1998

Introduction to special section: early Mars

Ongoing studies of the evolution of the Martian cratered highlands, the nature of the planet's early climate, and the recent announcement of possible evidence of ancient life in the ALH 84001 meteorite have reinvigorated interest in the conditions that prevailed on Mars during its first billion years of geologic history. To address this interest and assess our current understanding of these issues, the Lunar and Planetary Institute hosted a 4-day Conference on Early Mars in Houston in April of 1997. The papers contained in this special section are a product of that meeting. The purpose of the conference was twofold: (1) to consider how impacts, volcanism, and the presence of abundant water affected the physical and chemical environment that existed on Mars 4 Gyr ago, particularly as it related to the nature of the global climate, the origin of the valley networks, the geologic and mineralogic evolution of the surface, the aqueous geochemistry of groundwater, and the existence of local environments that may have been conducive to the development of indigenous life and the preservation of its signature in the geologic record; and (2) to discuss what observations or experiments might he included in future spacecraft missions to test the ideas and expectations arising from purpose 1. While pertinent issues of early atmospheric and solar evolution were also addressed, the primary discussion at the conference focused on the evidence and constraints provided by the geologic records of Earth, the Moon, and Mars and analysis of the SNC meteorites. The papers contained in this special section span the full range of these topics, including the stability of the early atmosphere to erosion by the solar wind, the geologic environment from which the SNC meteorites originated, geomorphic evidence regarding the nature of the early Martian climate and hydrologic cycle, the potential impact of the past and present environment on the preserved signature of ancient life, and a discussion of the capabilities of a lander-based X ray diffraction and fluorescence instrument to assess the potential for past fossilization from the mineralogy of the current local surface environment. The issues raised at the conference, and by the papers included in this special section, will be the focus of ongoing attention as the intensity and scope of Mars exploration increases over the next decade.

NASA Center ARC↗