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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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Four test chamber systems were devleoped to simulate the extreme atmospheric environs of Venus and Jupiter, in order to assure satisfactory performance of scientific entry probes and their experiments.
A complex scientific instrument was designed, fabricated, tested, and calibrated for launch onboard OSO-H. This instrument consisted of four spectroheliographs and an X-ray polarimeter. The instrument is designed to study solar radiation at selected wavelengths in the X-ray and the extreme ultraviolet ranges, make observations at the H-alpha wavelength, and measure the degree of polarization of X-ray emissions.
A coded command system is described which is capable of achieving extremely low error probabilities at moderate signal-to-noise ratios. Emphasis is placed on the implementation of the spaceborne portions of the system.
A TV image of the entire sun while an importance 2N solar flare was in progress was recorded in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation band 171-630 A and was transmitted to ground from an Aerobee-150 rocket on Nov. 4, 1969 using S-band telemetry. The camera tube was a SEC vidicon, with its fiber optic faceplate coated with an XUV-to-visible conversion layer of p-quaterphenyl. The XUV passband was produced by three 1000-A thick aluminum filters in series together with the platinized reflecting surface of the off-axis paraboloid that imaged the sun. A number of images were recorded with integration times between 1/30 sec and 2 sec. Reconstruction of pictures was enhanced by combining several to reduce the noise.
The photoelectric yields of 2000-A thick samples of MgF2 and LiF have been measured at wavelengths in the range from 1216 to 461 A. Peak values of 43 and 34%, respectively, were obtained at wavelengths around 550 A at 45 deg incidence. Coating the cathode of a channel electron multiplier with 3000 A of MgF2 produced no significant deterioration in the electrical properties and increased the sensitivity by factors of 1.62, 2.76, and 2.60 at wavelengths of 742, 584, and 461 A, respectively. Since the stability of response of the MgF2 photocathodes appears to be equal to that of conventional metallic and semiconducting cathodes, it is concluded that MgF2 would be a practical, high-efficiency photocathode for use in the extreme ultraviolet.
Accommodation is discussed as a universal evolutionary principle which essentially will apply to all life forms, regardless of chemical base (carbon, silicon, etc.). Life forms must either adapt to extreme conditions or perish, and for any life form an extremum factor is any significant deviation in environmental parameters. The possibility of life forms existing in specific extraterrestrial environments is discussed, and a conclusion is drawn which unequivocally states that through many forms of accommodation life is possible in many different environments.
An iron surface was exposed to the extreme-pressure type lubricant benzyl chloride, dichlorophenyl phosphine, dichlorophenyl phosphine sulfide, ophenyl phosphine oxide. Iron, in the sputter-cleaned state, was exposed to these materials statically and during dynamic friction experiments. With benzyl chloride only chlorine adsorbed to the surface, and with dichlorophenyl phosphine no adsorption occurred, while the addition of sulfur to that same molecular structure resulted in the promotion of carbon and chlorine adsorption. substitution of oxygen for sulfur in the dichlorobenzyl phosphine molecule resulted in carbon, chlorine, and oxygen adsorption. With none of the phosphorus containing molecules was phosphorus detected on the surface. Sliding in an atmosphere of benzyl chloride promoted adsorption of chlorine to the iron surface. Increases in load resulted in a decrease in the surface concentration of iron chloride.
Extreme design environment data are presented for consideration in aerospace vehicle transportation, fabrication, or testing. Values were obtained by using data from weather stations and published meteorological articles. Maps depict snow fall, hail distribution, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric temperature, and surface elevations.
Information needed to fabricate, transport, test, and launch space vehicles requires statistical meteorological data for various geographical areas. A brief review of world surface extremes is presented that illustrates the large extremum values that occur in some global areas and compares them with those currently used in space vehicle design.
The results of a study that used radiosonde soundings to select the extreme atmospheric conditions in the continental United States are presented.
Extreme ultraviolet flare observations are discussed, with particular attention to relative variations of spectral features during flares. An approximately equal enhancement of most chromospheric, transition-zone, and coronal lines indicates that the thermal conduction may be important at temperatures between 100,000 and one million K in the flare plasma. However, enhancements sometimes appear to be somewhat larger for transition-zone lines and for density-sensitive lines arising from metastable levels. EUV lines characteristics of temperatures between 10,000 and 1.5 million K all show a nearly simultaneous rise in impulsive flares, coincident with the hard X-ray burst. Density increases by factors of 5 to 10 in the transition zone are inferred from emission-measure increases and from line ratios for small flares.
Criteria are provided on atmospheric extremes from the surface to 150 meters for geographical locations of interest to NASA. Thermal parameters (temperature and solar radiation), humidity, precipitation, pressure, and atmospheric electricity (lightning and static) are presented. Available data are also provided for the entire continental United States for use in future space programs.
During trans-earth coast, the Apollo 17 ultraviolet spectrometer was scheduled to make observations of the far ultraviolet background in selected regions of the sky. In the course of one of these observations, the spacecraft fuel cells were routinely purged of excess hydrogen and water vapor. The ultraviolet fluorescence spectrum of the purged molecular hydrogen excited by solar extreme ultraviolet radiation is interpreted by absorption of solar L-beta and L-gamma radiation in the nearly resonant (6, 0) and (11, 0) Lyman bands. The results are deemed significant for ultraviolet spectroscopic investigations of the atmospheres of the moon and planets since Lyman-band fluorescence provides an unambiguous means of identification of molecular hydrogen in upper atmospheres.
An extremely short pulse propagation in a resonant medium is properly described by a closed form steady-state analytic solution. The usual slowly varying envelope approximation (SVEA) is not made. Instead, different assumptions with respect to pulse speed and pulse duration are used, and any possible nonresonant loss is ignored. This study indicates that the results obtained by the SVEA approach are much better than they have been intuitively expected to be.
Consideration of the extreme wings of atomic and molecular emission and absorption lines in low pressure gases. Classical and semiclassical results are compared with accurate quantal calculations of the self-broadening of Lyman-alpha in the hydrogen absorption spectrum that arises from quasimolecular transition. The results of classical, quantal, and semiclassical calculations of the absorption coefficient in the red wing are shown for temperatures of 500, 200, and 100 K. The semiclassical and quantal spectra agree well in shape at 500 K. Various other findings are discused.
The results of experiments performed to check the possibility of stimulated emission in the extreme vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) by an Al(+3) laser-generated plasma are reported. It is concluded that the spectral line intensity anomalies previously observed are not due to population inversion.
The foil-excitation method has been used to study the extreme ultraviolet spectra of highly ionized oxygen and fluorine. Several previously unreported lines in heliumlike fluorine are reported and other newly reported lines in heliumlike oxygen have been measured to higher accuracy. Included in the measurements are certain heliumlike oxygen transitions of significance in interpretation of solar-flare spectral observations. The wavelength determinations are usually in good agreement with calculated results which includes relativistic corrections, but discrepancies arise when nonrelativistic calculations are used. A comparison of the present results and those recently obtained by theta-pinch and laser-induced plasma sources is made for both heliumlike and lithiumlike ions; a few discrepancies occur, with results in most cases in better agreement with relativistically corrected calculations. Certain unidentified lines in the spectra may be attributable to radiative transitions between quartet states of lithiumlike ions.
The results of solar radiation observations in the extreme ultra-violet spectrum from 200 A to 600 A made by the OSO-7 Satellite were studied. The results of the influence of attenuation by the atmosphere in the 250 to 500 km altitude range are presented. Using published molecular absorption cross-sections at 304 A and 256 A, the Jaccia atmospheric model is validated, and shows that a mean exospheric of 1050 K is appropriate for the sunset data.