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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Geoeffectiveness of Interplanetary Shocks Controlled By Impact Angles: Past Research, Recent Advancements, and Future Work

Interplanetary shocks are disturbances commonly observed in the solar wind. IP shock impacts can cause a myriad of space weather effects in the Earth’s magnetopause, inner magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and ground magnetic field. The shock impact angle, measured as the angle the shock normal vector performs with the Sun-Earth line, has been shown to be a very important parameter that controls shock geoeffectivess. An extensive review provided by Oliveira and Samsonov (2018) summarized all the work known at the time with respect to shock impact angles and geomagnetic activity; however, this topic has had some progress since Oliveira and Samsonov (2018) and the main goal of this mini review is to summarize all achievements to date in the topic to the knowledge of the author. Finally, this mini review also brings a few suggestions and ideas for future research in the area of IP shock impact angle geoeffectiveness.

interplanetary shocks↗
NASA NTRS1979

Control considerations for CCV fighters at high angles of attack

Wind tunnel and piloted simulation studies were conducted to investigate the potential high angle of attack control problems that are introduced by the use of the CCV concept of relaxed static pitch stability (RSS) on fighter aircraft. A conventional wing/aft tail design incorporating modest levels of static instability and a close-coupled canard/wing design exhibiting very high levels of instability was investigated. Two types of high angle of attack control problems can result from the use of RSS: pitch departures caused by coupling and deep stall trim. Avoidance of these problems requires that the airplane have sufficient nose-down pitch control at high angles of attack. The effectiveness of several pitch control configurations were investigated including conventional aft-mounted stabilators, wing-mounted elevators, canard-mounted flaps, and all-moveable canards. Varying the incidence of the canards was the most effective scheme; however, very large deflections may be required on highly unstable configurations to prevent pitch departure without sacrificing roll performance and to avoid deep stall trim. For situations where the high angle of attack pitch control requirement is not met, control laws were developed to inhibit the departure and to allow deep stall recovery. However, these schemes involve limiting airplane roll capability and therefore can potentially compromise maneuverability.

Nguyen, L. T.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Minimum-fuel aerodynamic orbital plane change maneuvers

Several minimum-fuel, aerodynamically controlled, orbital plane change problems are formulated and solved as optimal control problems. A gradient projection algorithm is used to iteratively modify both the control functions, angle of attack and bank angle, and two control parameters to obtain the optimal trajectory. The atmospheric flight profile is combined with two Keplerian (two-body vacuum flight) arcs so that a complete orbit-to-orbit analysis results. The vehicle used in this investigation is the Space Transportation System Shuttle Orbiter. The effects of heat load constraint level and plane change angle are analysed.

Joosten, B. K.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols Thermal Control System

The Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) Thermal Control System is a NASA funded instrument that will collect data to help characterize airborne particulate matter over a number of population centers across the globe using multi-angle spectropolarimetric imagery. The data collected by MAIA will facilitate assessments of the impacts of different types of particulate matter on adverse health outcomes. MAIA is a hosted payload meant to operate in a near-circular sun-synchronous polar orbit, with a mean altitude between 600 km and 850 km. The nominal on-orbit mission design lifetime is three years. Temperature control of the MAIA instrument is accomplished with a combination of passive radiators and heaters. The focal plane module (FPM) is cooled to ≤ 235K with a disc shaped radiator that faces the anti-sun side of the sun-synchronous orbit. The temperature of the MAIA cameras and associated electronics is controlled with a cylindrical shaped radiator that projects a near constant area in the nadir direction as the cameras rotate. A noteworthy feature of the MAIA thermal control system design is the novel, low cost, rotationally articulating thermal strap used to transfer heat from the FPMs to their associated FPM Radiator. The strap spans one of the axes of rotation, sweeping out an arc of approximately 60° as the instrument operates. A prototype of the articulating thermal strap was life tested to 260,000 cycles with no signs of significant degradation. An overview of the MAIA thermal control system baseline design is presented, with focus on its novel aspects, including life testing of the prototype articulating thermal strap. In addition, a discussion of the considerations involved in designing a thermal control system for a hosted instrument is provided.

Rosas, Rogelio↗
NASA NTRS2000

Evaluation of Mars Entry Reconstructured Trajectories Based on Hypothetical 'Quick-Look' Entry Navigation Data

A first order simulation analysis of the navigation accuracy expected from various Navigation Quick-Look data sets is performed. Here quick-look navigation data are observations obtained by hypothetical telemetried data transmitted on the fly during a Mars probe's atmospheric entry. In this simulation study, navigation data consists of 3-axis accelerometer sensor and attitude information data. Three entry vehicle guidance types are studied: I. a Maneuvering entry vehicle (as with Mars 01 guidance where angle of attack and bank angle are controlled); II. Zero angle-of-attack controlled entry vehicle (as with Mars 98); and III. Ballistic, or spin stabilized entry vehicle (as with Mars Pathfinder);. For each type, sensitivity to progressively under sampled navigation data and inclusion of sensor errors are characterized. Attempts to mitigate the reconstructed trajectory errors, including smoothing, interpolation and changing integrator characteristics are also studied.

Pastor, P. Rick↗
NASA NTRS1976

Design of an all-attitude flight control system to execute commanded bank angles and angles of attack

A flight control system for use in air-to-air combat simulation was designed. The input to the flight control system are commanded bank angle and angle of attack, the output are commands to the control surface actuators such that the commanded values will be achieved in near minimum time and sideslip is controlled to remain small. For the longitudinal direction, a conventional linear control system with gains scheduled as a function of dynamic pressure is employed. For the lateral direction, a novel control system, consisting of a linear portion for small bank angle errors and a bang-bang control system for large errors and error rates is employed.

Burgin, G. H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Estimation of airplane stability and control derivatives at high angles of attack

A technique for extracting approximate aircraft stability and control derivatives over a broad range of angle of attack from a single large amplitude maneuver which encompasses that range is presented. The results from the application of this technique to flight data are shown to agree well with derivatives extracted from several maneuvers which are more restricted in range of angle of attack. The technique consists of dividing the data from the large maneuver into bins that are a function of angle of attack. The binned data is then analyzed with a modified stepwise regression. The identification of nonlinear terms in the aerodynamic model is shown to discern regions of rapid change in aircraft behavior.

Batterson, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1959

Trajectory Control for Vehicles Entering the Earth's Atmosphere at Small Flight Path Angles

Methods of controlling the trajectories of high-drag-low-lift vehicles entering the earth's atmosphere at angles of attack near 90 deg and at initial entry angles up to 3 deg are studied. The trajectories are calculated for vehicles whose angle of attack can be held constant at some specified value or can be perfectly controlled as a function of some measured quantity along the trajectory. The results might be applied in the design of automatic control systems or in the design of instruments which will give the human pilot sufficient information to control his trajectory properly during an atmospheric entry. Trajectory data are compared on the basis of the deceleration, range, angle of attack, and, in some cases, the rate of descent. The aerodynamic heat-transfer rate and skin temperature of a vehicle with a simple heat-sink type of structure are calculated for trajectories made with several types of control functions. For the range of entry angles considered, it is found that the angle of attack can be controlled to restrict the deceleration down to an arbitrarily chosen level of 3g. All the control functions tried are successful in reducing the maximum deceleration to the desired level. However, in order to avoid a tendency for the deceleration to reach an initial peak decrease, and then reach a second peak, some anticipation is required in the control function so that the change in angle of attack will lead the change in deceleration. When the angle of attack is controlled in the aforementioned manner, the maximum rate of aerodynamic heat transfer to the skin is reduced, the maximum skin temperature of the vehicle is virtually unaffected, and the total heat absorbed is slightly increased. The increase in total heat can be minimized, however, by maintaining the maximum desired deceleration for as much of the trajectory as possible. From an initial angle of attack of 90 deg, the angle-of-attack requirements necessary to maintain constant values of deceleration (1g to 4g) and constant values of rate of descent (450 to 1,130 ft/sec) as long as it is aerodynamically practical are calculated and are found to be moderate in both magnitude and rate. Entry trajectories made with these types of control are presented and discussed.

Eggleston, John M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Development of non-conventional control methods for high angle of attack flight using vortex manipulation

Methods of manipulating the forebody vortices on a generic fighter model to produce controlled yawing moments at high angles of attack were investigated. Forces and moments were measured on the complete configuration and on the isolated forebody. Two schemes for vortex control on the forebody were evaluated: individually-controlled tip strakes and individually-controlled blowing ports. The effectiveness of the forebody strakes in controlling forebody side forces was strongly dependent on the size and location of the strakes. A yawing moment can be produced by deploying the forebody strakes asymmetrically, or can be eliminated by deploying the strakes symmetrically. The most effective strake position was found to be near the primary separation point, between 105 and 120 deg from windward. Blowing on the surface of the model was also shown to have a strong effect on the yawing moment. Blowing either forward or aft tangential to the surface appears to be more effective than blowing normal to the surface. The most effective method to control the yawing moment on the forebody was to minimize the natural asymmetry with a pair of small symmetrically mounted tip strakes and to perturb the vortex system away from the symmetric condition with asymmetric blowing.

Malcolm, Gerald N.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Initial Aerodynamic and Acoustic Study of an Active Twist Rotor Using a Loosely Coupled CFD/CSD Method

Preliminary aerodynamic and performance predictions for an active twist rotor for a HART-II type of configuration are performed using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, OVERFLOW2, and a computational structural dynamics (CSD) code, CAMRAD -II. These codes are loosely coupled to compute a consistent set of aerodynamics and elastic blade motions. Resultant aerodynamic and blade motion data are then used in the Ffowcs-Williams Hawkins solver, PSU-WOPWOP, to compute noise on an observer plane under the rotor. Active twist of the rotor blade is achieved in CAMRAD-II by application of a periodic torsional moment couple (of equal and opposite sign) at the blade root and tip at a specified frequency and amplitude. To provide confidence in these particular active twist predictions for which no measured data is available, the rotor system geometry and computational set up examined here are identical to that used in a previous successful Higher Harmonic Control (HHC) computational study. For a single frequency equal to three times the blade passage frequency (3P), active twist is applied across a range of control phase angles at two different amplitudes. Predicted results indicate that there are control phase angles where the maximum mid-frequency noise level and the 4P non -rotating hub vibrations can be reduced, potentially, both at the same time. However, these calculated reductions are predicted to come with a performance penalty in the form of a reduction in rotor lift-to-drag ratio due to an increase in rotor profile power.

Boyd, David D. Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Pilot-model measurements of pilot responses in a lateral-directional control task

Pilot response during an aircraft bank-angle compensatory control task was measured by using an adaptive modeling technique. In the main control loop, which is the bank angle to aileron command loop, the pilot response was the same as that measured previously in single-input, single-output systems. The pilot used a rudder to aileron control coordination that canceled up to 80 percent of the vehicle yawing moment due to aileron deflection.

Adams, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Subsonic longitudinal and lateral directional static stability characteristics of a variable sweep fighter configuration employing various control surface deflections at angles of attack of 0 deg to 50 deg and large sideslip angles

A variable sweep fighter configuration with the wing in the 22 deg sweep position having leading edge slats and trailing edge flaps on the outboard panels was tested at a Mach number of 0.15 in the Langley 7- by 10-foot high speed tunnel. The angle of attack range was 0 deg to 50 deg and the sideslip angle range was -20 deg to 20 deg. Pitch, roll, and yaw control effectiveness were studied as well as the effects of spoilers. The data are presented without analysis.

Jarrett K Huffman↗
NASA NTRS1991

Integration of mechanism and control for large-angle slew maneuvers of flexible structures

A rolling contact noncircular gear system is applied to assist a desired controller in the slewing of a flexible space structure. The varying gear ratio in cooperation with the controller results in lower feedback gains at the controller, as well as considerably reducing flexural vibrations of the space structure. The noncircular gears consist of a pair of convex noncircular cylinders with specially designed profiles that are synthesized in conjunction with the optimal controller gains for minimizing the flexural vibrations of flexible structure during a slew maneuver. Convexity of the cylindrical profiles for this noncircular gear device must be ensured to maintain rolling contact between the two cylinders. Simulations of slewing control tasks for two kinds of flexible space structures, such as a planar flexible beam and the planar articulated flexible beams, are presented.

Chew, Meng-Sang↗
NASA NTRS2004

Angle-of-Attack-Modulated Terminal Point Control for Neptune Aerocapture

An aerocapture guidance algorithm based on a calculus of variations approach is developed, using angle of attack as the primary control variable. Bank angle is used as a secondary control to alleviate angle of attack extremes and to control inclination. The guidance equations are derived in detail. The controller has very small onboard computational requirements and is robust to atmospheric and aerodynamic dispersions. The algorithm is applied to aerocapture at Neptune. Three versions of the controller are considered with varying angle of attack authority. The three versions of the controller are evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations with expected dispersions.

Queen, Eric M.↗