USDA Application Test System (ATS) session: ATS experience to date and future plans
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The long-term effects of storing batteries over a period of years prior to their use in a synchronous orbit application are discussed. A previous experiment is discussed where life testing was performed on cells after having stored the battery for a period of three years with the cell shorted and at a temperature on the order of 5-10 C. The test consisted of performing a sequence of 10 simulated eclipse seasons (equivalent in cycling of five years in synchronous orbit). Results of this test indicated very little degradation and change in the physical and chemical conditions of the cell. The program was extended for an additional year (battery was stored for four years) under the same conditions and testing. The results of the four year storage (one exception) indicate that no further change occurred that is significant from the three year test.
A laser Ar-39-Ar-40 study of the components of an ANT-suite anorthositic gabbro and a black aphanite from a consortium breccia is reported. A wide range of K-Ar ages is found for the plagioclase in the anorthositic gabbro; at the centers of the largest grains is material showing the greatest age (older than 4.11 billion years) while the youngest material (3.81-3.88 billion years) is found near the grain margins. Partial outgassing of the clasts upon incorporation into the breccia could account for the age patterns. The black aphanite clast appears to be cogenetic with the aphanite that forms the breccia matrix. The time of crystallization of a lunar granite has also been measured by the laser technique.
Landsat satellite imagery is being used as the primary source of information on flooding in the Black River Basin of northern New York State. Landsat images (Band 7) depicting flood conditions during several flood seasons since 1973 were obtained for analysis. Visual interpretation of these images is providing the basis for quantitatively relating in situ measurements of river discharge with the total area and geographic locations of inundation. This, in turn, will provide real-time estimation of flood losses over the entire river basin. This practical and inexpensive approach can provide sufficiently reliable information, and is applicable in other similar river basins.
The ATS analysis component is presented focusing on methods by which the varied data sources are used by the ATS analyst. Analyst training and initial processing of data is discussed along with short and long plans for the ATS.
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Laser (Ar-39)-(Ar-40) studies of clasts and groundmass in breccia 73255 are presented. They show a variety of ages indicating that some materials lost argon from sites that outgas at low temperature, while other materials have retained argon generated before the breccia-forming event. The estimate for the time of the breccia-forming event from thermal release studies is compared to the upper limit of the event from the laser studies; this work also shows that ages in excess of 4.0 G.y. determined on rocks containing devitrified maskelynite clasts probably have no chronological significance.
An engine diagnostic system, proposed for the F100 engine, was tested in five specially modified Tactical Air Command F-15 aircraft during a 16-month flight evaluation. After more than 3300 engine operating hours encompassing almost 900 flights during the flight evaluation, these aircraft provided a data base, still being analyzed, that has shown successful demonstration of the original functional characteristics. Four general design requirements, recording engine operating time/low cycle fatigue event detection, engine trim, and trend and performance data collection were demonstrated. Also, validation of maintenance actions taken and indicated needed maintenance were successfully demonstrated.
The ages of Ar-40/Ar-39 chondrites were computed to be 4.29 to 1.0 Gyr, with degassing times of 0.5 to 1.0 Gyr. The values of the diffusion parameter for Ar in Arrhenius plots show linear relationships which correspond to the degassing of different mineral phases with distinct K/Ca ratios and different average temperatures for Ar release. The experimental values of the diffusion parameter for the high-temperature phase of severely shocked chondrites are 10 to the -7th to 10 to the -5th/s for the shock-heating temperatures in the 950-1200 C range; the inferred reheating temperatures and the fraction of the Ar-40 loss during the reheating event suggest post-shock cooling rates and burial depths of 0.01-0.0001 C/s and 0.5-2m, respectively.
Previously unpublished data from the stepwise heating analysis of the Valecitos 1 (V1) Bjurbole standard are presented together with the results of an isotopic dilution measurement of a KI monitor included in the V1 irradiation package. The results of these analyses are compared with the values observed in other irradiations. Apparent I-Xe 'formation' ages are reproducible for three different samples of Bjurbole, suggesting isotopic homogeneity for initial iodine in the bulk material. The systematics of neutron capture in Xe-135 (produced from U-235 neutron fission) are examined and verified in irradiated BCR-1.
Two wind profiles were determined from STS-1 entry flight data based on preliminary best estimate trajectory (BET). The deterministic process used in deriving the atmospheric winds requires inertial estimates of the spacecraft angle-of-attack (alpha) and side-slip angle (beta) from the BET in conjunction with some air data system measurements of the actual angles. The current orbiter air data system (OADS) provides the necessary alpha information. Two beta profiles were adopted. The first profile assumed that the spacecraft would weathervane into any prevailing wind. The second assumed a conservative side-slip history computed from measured accelerations in the spacecraft body axes. It is shown that there are no major differences between the deterministic winds computed using both methods. Further, comparisons of these winds with raw measurements from Tehachapi, California, and preliminary winds obtained from the LaRC LAIRS file and the JSC/TRW descent BET are presented.
Total fusion Ar-40 - A-39 analyses of orange glass from lunar soil 74220 combined with the sums of earlier stepwise heating data by other workers have yielded a precise K/Ar isochron with a slope corresponding to an age of 3.66 + or - 0.03 G.y. for the orange glass. The result is in marginal agreement with Huneke's (1978) age of 3.60 + or - 0.04 G.y. for 74220 glass. The Ar systematics in the agglutinates from 14259 and 14163 are dominated by volume correlated argon. Step-wise heating analyses yield data which define experimentally reproducible linear arrays in Ar-40/Ar-36 vs. K-40/Ar-36 diagrams. The slopes of these arrays correspond formally to very old ages, but it is not clear, however, that such ages have any physical significance.
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Ar-40/Ar-39 and U-Th-Pb are investigated for three clasts from the Abee (E4) enstatite chondrite, yielding Ar-40/Ar-39 plateau ages (and/or maximum ages) of 4.5 Gy, while two of the clasts give average ages of 4.4 Gy. The 4.4-4.5 Gy range does not resolve possible age differences among the clasts. The U-Th-Pb data are consistent with the interpretation that initial clast formation occurred 4.58 Gy ago, and that the clasts have since remained closed systems which have been contaminated with terrestrial Pb. The thermal history of Abee deduced from Ar data seems consistent with that deduced from magnetic data, suggesting that various Abee components experienced separate histories until brecciation no later than 4.4 Gy ago, experiencing no significant subsequent heating.
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