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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.
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End effector serves as "hand" for remote manipulator spacecraft system to grasp objects of various sizes. Device has built in flexible wrist joint "cartilage" for increased gripping force without significant strain on mechanical connections.
A compilation of the summary portions of each of the Research and Technology Objectives and Plans (RTOPS) used for management review and control research currently in progress throughout NASA is presented. Indexes include: subject, technical monitor, responsible NASA organization, and RTOP number.
Studies that can be carried out with the Space Telescope of absorption line systems which may be expected to occur in the spectra of distant objects are discussed. The phenomenology of quasar absorption line systems is described and the principal suggested explanations are summarized. It is proposed that the numerous Ly-alpha systems are caused by 'extremely large hydrogenic halos around galaxies or clusters of galaxies. Two tests are also described for the origins of known absorption systems, the results of which will favor either the cosmological or intrinsic hypothesis. Absorption lines that are likely to be strongest are listed and a sample observing program is presented.
A differential astrometry technique is discussed. An improved proper motion and a parallax limit for pulsar 1929 + 10 is presented as well as a limit on the space velocity of the enigmatic object in SgrA.
Classes of extragalactic objects that have been identified with faint high-galactic-latitude X-ray sources in the Fourth Uhuru and Ariel 5 Catalogs are examined. Sources with declinations of at least -30 deg, galactic latitudes of at least 20 deg (absolute value), and error boxes of 1.0 sq deg are considered. It is shown that clusters of galaxies constitute the most numerous class of extragalactic sources and that Seyfert galaxies are the next largest class. Unidentified high-latitude X-ray sources are discussed. Preliminary results obtained with the A-1 instrument aboard HEAO 1 are reported which indicate that a substantial fraction of unidentified sources are highly variable and may be identified with active galaxies.
A sensitive sounding rocket instrument for moderate (about 10-A) resolution far-UV (1160-1750-A) spectrophotometry of faint astronomical objects has been developed. The instrument employes a photon-counting microchannel plate imaging detector and a concave grating spectrograph behind a 40-cm Dall-Kirkham telescope. A unique remote-control pointing system, incorporating an SIT vidicon aspect camera, two star trackers, and a tone-encoded command telemetry link, permits the telescope to be oriented to within 5 arc sec of any target for which suitable guide stars can be found. The design, construction, calibration, and flight performance of the instrument are discussed.
A relatively simple, objective, nocturnal temperature forecasting model suitable for freezing and near-freezing conditions has been designed so that a user, presumably a weather forecaster, can put in standard meteorological data at a particular location and receive an hour-by-hour prediction of surface and air temperatures for that location for an entire night. The user has the option of putting in his own estimates of wind speeds and background sky radiation which are treated as independent variables. An analysis of 141 test runs show that 57.4% of the time the model predicts to within 1 C for the best cases and to within 3 C for 98.0% of all cases.
The optical absorption lines of quasars are examined, and implications of the lines for the physical properties of the absorbing gas are discussed. Consideration is given to the characteristics of broad absorption lines observed in such quasars as PHL 5200 and Q 1246-057 and of the more prevalent extremely narrow lines, with discussion of the presumed physical conditions in the absorbing gas and the distribution of absorption-line redshifts with respect to emission-line redshifts. It is pointed out that absorption features become more prevalent in quasar spectra with emission redshifts greater than 2.3, and results of studies of column densities and abundances and of the presence of absorption in radio compact quasars are indicated. Research programs currently under way are then described, including a search for the distribution of absorption lines in a fixed wavelength range less than the Lyman alpha emission wavelength, study of low absorption-redshift systems, a study of individual objects such as the quasar pair 1548+114a and b, and various theoretical investigations.
A simple device is described that is capable of providing real-time 3-D viewing of extended X-ray and gamma-ray objects. The visible-light images produced by the device are not merely stereoscopic, i.e., one perspective, but possess both horizontal and vertical parallax with a reasonably large field of view.
A compilation of the summary portions of each of the Research and Technology Objective Plans (RTOP) used for management review and control of research currently in progress throughout NASA is presented. Indexes include: subject, technical monitor, responsible NASA organization, and RTOP number.
Government support of NASA is examined in a historical context, and the management strategies employed to meet the basic NASA objectives are discussed.
Measurements of traffic noise during the day were taken at 90 measurement points over the urban area of Vienna; in addition, the vehicle frequency ascertained at the individual measurement points was also noted. Results of these objective measurements or various characteristic single values derived from them are compared with the results of the environmental survey of 1973 on the subjective noise stress experienced within buildings but caused by outside factors. Suggestions for suitable measures to describe the traffic noise and to derive limit values are given considering the relationship between number of vehicles and noise and annoyance.
The application of IUE to observations of solar system objects is summarized and a brief survey of discoveries made during the first two years of IUE operation is given.
The newly discovered BL Lacertae object, PKS 2155-304, was observed with the medium and high intensity energy detectors of the HEAO-1 A2 experiment. The variability by a factor of two in less than a day reported by Snyder, et al (1979) is confirmed. Two spectra, obtained a year apart, while the satellite was in scanning mode, are well fit by simple power laws with energy spectral index alpha sub 1 equals approximately 1.4. A third spectrum, of higher statistical quality, obtained while the satellite was pointed at its source, has has two components. An acceptable fit was obtained using a two power law model, with indices alpha sub 1 equals 2.0 (+1.2, -0.6) and alpha sub 2 equals -1.5 (+1.5, -2.3). An interpretation of the overall spectrum from radio through X-rays in terms of a synchrotron self-Compton model gives a good description of the data if allowance is made for relativistic beaming. Thus, from a consideration of the spectrum, combined with an estimate of the size of the source, the presence of jets is inferred without their observation.
Observations in the X-ray, UV, visible, IR and radio regions of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 made over the course of two months are reported. The measurements were made with the A2 experiment on HEAO 1 (X-ray), the SWP and LWR cameras on IUE (UV), the 5-m Hale telescope (visible), the 2.5-m telescope at Mount Wilson (IR), the NRAO 92-m radio telescope at Green Bank (4750 MHz) and the 46-m radio telescope at the Algonquin Observatory (10275 and 10650 MHz). The quasi-simultaneously observed spectral slope is found to be positive and continuous from the X-ray to the UV, but to gradually flatten and possibly turn down from the mid-UV to the visible; the optical-radio emission cannot be accounted for by a single power law. The total spectrum is shown to be compatible with a synchrotron self-Compton emission mechanism, while the spectrum from the visible to the X-ray is consistent with synchrotron radiation or inverse-Compton scattering by a hot thermal electron cloud. The continuity of the spectrum from the UV to the X-ray is noted to imply a total luminosity greater than previous estimates by a factor of 3-4.
Changes in the nebular structure, optical spectrum and stellar brightness of the faint star PV Cephei and the nebulosity associated with it are discussed. Iris photometry of the starlike object at the tip of the fan-shaped nebula reveals irregular variability of approximately 4 magnitudes in the red. Stellar spectra in the region 4300-6750 A taken from December 1976 to April 1980 are similar to the richest emission line spectra of T Tauri stars, while nebular spectra indicate a lack of spherical symmetry. Observations obtained in the infrared reveal a source offset by a few arcsec from the apex of the fan, which is identified with the illuminating star. Radial velocities of CO emission indicate that PV Cep is at the same distance as NGC 7023, and independent estimates lead to an estimated value of 500 pc. Such a distance corresponds to a bolometric luminosity approximately 100 times that of the sun. It is suggested that PV Cep is a T Tauri star that has recently broken through its circumstellar cocoon at a time when highly erratic variability and a strong stellar wind characterize the star.
An objective method for deriving the components of a generalized transport tensor for a two-dimensional model is presented. Representative meridional and vertical velocities and thermodynamic scalars at a uniform grid are used to reduce the problem to the solution of two flux equations for two unknowns. One unknown is the stream-function, coefficient of an antisymmetric tensor, which corrects the Eulerian mean motions for Stokes drift; the other is a time constant, which converts the deviatory velocity tensor to a symmetric transport tensor. The complete asymmetric tensor, called a transport tensor, has a divergence which yields both advection and diffusion by the deviatory velocities. Advantages and disadvantages of Lagrangian and Eulerian averages are discussed, and meridional-vertical velocity correlations are provided.
Spectrophotometric and spectropolarimetric observations are presented of three HH objects: HH 11, 30, and 43. Although null polarization results are obtained for HH 11 and 43, the unusually strong continuum of HH 30 is linearly polarized by 3%. The emission lines in this nebula are unpolarized. The electric vector position angle appropriate to the continuum polarization, and the presence of Fe II emission lines apparently from the photosphere of a T Tauri-like star, indicate HL Tau as the exciting/illuminating star for HH 30. Evidence is adduced for a highly anisotropic distribution of circumstellar obscuration around this star.