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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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At least 1,279 records · Page 71
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

NEW EXTINCTION AND MASS ESTIMATES FROM OPTICAL PHOTOMETRY OF THE VERY LOW MASS BROWN DWARF COMPANION CT CHAMAELEONTIS B WITH THE MAGELLAN AO SYSTEM

We used the Magellan adaptive optics system and its VisAO CCD camera to image the young low mass brown dwarf companion CT Chamaeleontis B for the first time at visible wavelengths. We detect it at r', i', z', and Y{sub S}. With our new photometry and T {sub eff} ∼ 2500 K derived from the shape of its K-band spectrum, we find that CT Cha B has A{sub V} = 3.4 ± 1.1 mag, and a mass of 14-24 M{sub J} according to the DUSTY evolutionary tracks and its 1-5 Myr age. The overluminosity of our r' detection indicates that the companion has significant Hα emission and a mass accretion rate ∼6 × 10{sup –10} M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1}, similar to some substellar companions. Proper motion analysis shows that another point source within 2'' of CT Cha A is not physical. This paper demonstrates how visible wavelength adaptive optics photometry (r', i', z', Y{sub S}) allows for a better estimate of extinction, luminosity, and mass accretion rate of young substellar companions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

OpenCSP v.1.0

SAND2024-08987O OpenCSP analyzes and improves the performance of optical mirrors that reflect sunlight and concentrate it onto a receiver. The algorithms in this library analyze the flow of light from an original source—such as the sun—reflecting off one or more mirrors, and onto a receiver, optical screen, or camera. OpenCSP also analyzes optical systems using other techniques, such as shape or slope comparison. The software calculates aggregate properties of the optical system, such as its efficiency, manufacturing error, pointing control error, expected performance, and other useful parameters. OpenCSP also includes high-level tools, such as Open SOFAST, a program that obtains high-resolution measurement of CSP mirrors, full heliostats, and other CSP collectors. OpenCSP supports producing meaningful output data to help CSP designers and field operators improve the performance of their systems. OpenCSP also includes classes and functions that support these calculations, including input utilities, analysis output libraries, geometric constraint analysis for drone flight planning, and more. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Brost, Randolph↗
DOE OSTI2022

Triton: Environmental Monitoring Technology Development, Collision Risk Data Collection (Final Report)

In this project, we assembled a sensor suite that combines a scientific echosounder (sonar) system with video and acoustic cameras (secondary sensors). The sensor suite generates data that is amenable to automated target detection algorithms and can provide inputs to animal encounter models. We developed software (archiving software) to collect data simultaneously from all sensors in the suite, analyze the sonar data automatically in near real-time to identify time periods when targets of interest were present, and automatically archive data from the secondary sensors for these time periods. The product of the archiving software is a data set for the secondary sensors, containing data only for the times when targets of interest were determined to be present by the sonar. We performed controlled field testing to verify the operation of the sensor suite and the archiving software.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluating Probability of Assessment for Central Alarm Station Operators

This project focused on developing and analyzing a method that could be employed by operational nuclear facilities to evaluate their CAS operators and determine a probability of assessment for each operator. This method is agnostic of alarm communication and display system (AC&D), sensors and cameras in place in the field, and any other technical security measures. This security-measure-agnostic method enables operational facilities to adopt it to determine the effectiveness of their alarm station operators.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

A High Angular Resolution Survey of Massive Stars in Cygnus OB2: JHK Adaptive Optics Results from the Gemini Near-Infrared Imager

We present results of a high angular resolution survey of massive OB stars in the Cygnus OB2 association that we conducted with the Near-Infrared Imager camera and ALTAIR adaptive optics system of the Gemini North telescope. We observed 74 O- and early-B-type stars in Cyg OB2 in the JHK infrared bands in order to detect binary and multiple companions. The observations are sensitive to equal-brightness pairs at separations as small as [[Formula]], and progressively fainter companions are detectable out to △K=9 mag at a separation of 2″. This faint contrast limit due to read noise continues out to 10″ near the edge of the detector. We assigned a simple probability of chance alignment to each companion based upon its separation and magnitude difference from the central target star and upon areal star counts for the general star field of Cyg OB2. Companion stars with a field membership probability of less than 1% are assumed to be physical companions. This assessment indicates that 47% of the targets have at least one resolved companion that is probably gravitationally bound. Including known spectroscopic binaries, our sample includes 27 binary, 12 triple, and 9 systems with 4 or more components. These results confirm studies of high-mass stars in other environments that find that massive stars are born with a high-multiplicity fraction. The results are important for the placement of the stars in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, the interpretation of their spectroscopic analyses, and for future mass determinations through measurement of orbital motion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1969

Method of making conical fiber optical components

Improved method for producing fused-fiber optical components is described. These components have a frustro-conical shape and provide high-quality light transmission with high resolution capabilities. Fiber optical components can be used in precision optical systems, such as in certain camera applications.

Balkwill, J. T.↗
NASA NTRS1970

Unmanned spacecraft for surveying earth's resources

The technical objectives and payloads for ERTS A and B are discussed. The primary emphasis is on coverage of the United States and the ocean areas immediately adjacent, using 3-camera return beam vidicon TV system, 4-channel multispectral point scanner, data collection system, and wideband video tape recorder. The expected performance and system characteristics of the RBV system and the 4-band multispectral object plane point scanner are outlined. Ground station considerations are also given.

George, T. A.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Radio astronomy Explorer B antenna aspect processor

The antenna aspect system used on the Radio Astronomy Explorer B spacecraft is described. This system consists of two facsimile cameras, a data encoder, and a data processor. Emphasis is placed on the discussion of the data processor, which contains a data compressor and a source encoder. With this compression scheme a compression ratio of 8 is achieved on a typical line of camera data. These compressed data are then convolutionally encoded.

Miller, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1974

System for measuring transients in fluid flow

When test valve is actuated, piston is moved by pressurized fluid, and displacement is monitored by electro-optical tracking system and recorded by oscilloscope camera. Electro-optical monitor produces output voltage proportional to displacement of piston.

Pearson, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1973

The 1973 Smithsonian standard earth (3)

The origins of the satellite geodesy program are described, starting with the International Geophysical Year, continuing through a number of international programs, and culminating with the National Geodetic Satellite Program. The philosophical basis for the Baker-Nunn camera and the laser ranging system, the evolution of international scientific cooperation, and the significance of the results are discussed.

Garoschkin, E. M.↗
NASA NTRS1973

A holographic interferometer system for measuring density profiles in high-velocity flows

This paper describes a holographic interferometric technique for obtaining density measurements across a test gas that is traveling at a velocity of over 5500 m/sec in an expansion tube facility. Interferometric data describing the flow in the test section are obtained using a long coherence length CW argon laser in a holographic system and a rotating drum camera recorder. The object beam, which passes through the test section, intersects the reference beam at a small angle to form an interference pattern of about 170 lines/mm, and is recorded as a hologram. Before a test, this hologram is placed in its original position and rotated slightly so that an interference pattern is generated by the intersection of the reconstructed and real-time object beams.

Burner, A. W.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Development and test of video systems for airborne surveillance of oil spills

Five video systems - potentially useful for airborne surveillance of oil spills - were developed, flight tested, and evaluated. The systems are: (1) conventional black and white TV, (2) conventional TV with false color, (3) differential TV, (4) prototype Lunar Surface TV, and (5) field sequential TV. Wavelength and polarization filtering were utilized in all systems. Greatly enhanced detection of oil spills, relative to that possible with the unaided eye, was achieved. The most practical video system is a conventional TV camera with silicon-diode-array image tube, filtered with a Corning 7-54 filter and a polarizer oriented with its principal axis in the horizontal direction. Best contrast between oil and water was achieved when winds and sea states were low. The minimum detectable oil film thickness was about 0.1 micrometer.

Millard, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Map accuracy requirements: The cartographic potential of satellite image data

Cartographic products fall into a variety of classes: topographic maps that are concerned with planimetric information and elevations or heights; thematic maps, which might be used for geology, vegetation, water, or to display these subjects; digital elevation maps that would be produced from digital terrain data; and finally image maps. In terms of satellite applications, thematic maps and image maps are emphasized. The objectives are to consider, first, if resolution will be adequate for the identification of control and for the compilation of map products. Then, second, to define map accuracy standards and to determine the potential for meeting these standards with image data from the film camera, scanner and linear array systems of the 1980s.

Welch, R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The Nagoya cosmic-ray muon spectrometer 3, part 2: Track detector

The twelve wide gap spark chambers were utilized as the track detectors of the Nagoya cosmic-ray muon spectrometer not only to obtain the precise locations of particles, but also to get some information about the correspondences between segments of trajectories. The area of each chamber is 150 x 70 sq cm and the width of a gap is 5 cm. The gas used is He at the atmospheric pressure. Each three pairs of them are placed on both sides of the deflection magnet. All images of sparks for each event are projected through the mirror system and recorded by two cameras stereoscopically. The mean detection efficiency of each chamber is 95 + or - 2% and the spacial resolution (jitter and drift) obtained from the prototype-experiment is 0.12 mm. Maximum detectable momentum of the spectrometer is estimated at about 10 TeV/c taking into account these characteristics together with the effects of the energy loss and multiple Coulomb scattering of muons in the iron magnet.

Shibata, S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Laser Ranging System

Laser system points and focuses TV camera. Ranger is modified stock distance-measuring unit mounted on and electrically connected to television camera. Effective over target range of 3 to 500 ft. (approximately 1 to 150m). Developed for television monitoring of nearby objects from Space Shuttle. Super-imposes range and range-rate (speed of approach or recession) data on television image of target. Principle adaptable to applications such as proximity warning and robot control.

Russell, J. K.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Robot Acting on Moving Bodies (RAMBO): Interaction with tumbling objects

Interaction with tumbling objects will become more common as human activities in space expand. Attempting to interact with a large complex object translating and rotating in space, a human operator using only his visual and mental capacities may not be able to estimate the object motion, plan actions or control those actions. A robot system (RAMBO) equipped with a camera, which, given a sequence of simple tasks, can perform these tasks on a tumbling object, is being developed. RAMBO is given a complete geometric model of the object. A low level vision module extracts and groups characteristic features in images of the object. The positions of the object are determined in a sequence of images, and a motion estimate of the object is obtained. This motion estimate is used to plan trajectories of the robot tool to relative locations rearby the object sufficient for achieving the tasks. More specifically, low level vision uses parallel algorithms for image enhancement by symmetric nearest neighbor filtering, edge detection by local gradient operators, and corner extraction by sector filtering. The object pose estimation is a Hough transform method accumulating position hypotheses obtained by matching triples of image features (corners) to triples of model features. To maximize computing speed, the estimate of the position in space of a triple of features is obtained by decomposing its perspective view into a product of rotations and a scaled orthographic projection. This allows use of 2-D lookup tables at each stage of the decomposition. The position hypotheses for each possible match of model feature triples and image feature triples are calculated in parallel. Trajectory planning combines heuristic and dynamic programming techniques. Then trajectories are created using dynamic interpolations between initial and goal trajectories. All the parallel algorithms run on a Connection Machine CM-2 with 16K processors.

Davis, Larry S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

HERMIES-3: A step toward autonomous mobility, manipulation, and perception

HERMIES-III is an autonomous robot comprised of a seven degree-of-freedom (DOF) manipulator designed for human scale tasks, a laser range finder, a sonar array, an omni-directional wheel-driven chassis, multiple cameras, and a dual computer system containing a 16-node hypercube expandable to 128 nodes. The current experimental program involves performance of human-scale tasks (e.g., valve manipulation, use of tools), integration of a dexterous manipulator and platform motion in geometrically complex environments, and effective use of multiple cooperating robots (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES-III). The environment in which the robots operate has been designed to include multiple valves, pipes, meters, obstacles on the floor, valves occluded from view, and multiple paths of differing navigation complexity. The ongoing research program supports the development of autonomous capability for HERMIES-IIB and III to perform complex navigation and manipulation under time constraints, while dealing with imprecise sensory information.

Weisbin, C. R.↗