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At least 1,351 records · Page 75

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NASA NTRS1984

Effects of Shuttle bay environment on UV sensitive photographic film - Instrumentation for Get-Away-Special

An account is given of a Get-Away-Special experiment flown on Space Shuttles 7 and 8 investigating the effect of the space environment on Shumann emulsions. Shumann emulsions, having low gelatin content and no protective gelatin overcoating, are useful detectors of ultraviolet radiation shorter than 2200 angstroms but are extremely sensitive to environmental conditions and handling. The instrument required no interface with the Shuttle. It was turned on by an aneroid switch at an altitude of 50,000 feet. After that, its operation was controlled completely by a CMOS digital controller. Each hour, two temperatures and one voltage were read and stored in a CMOS programmable read only memory. At intervals, valves were opened and closed to expose SO 652 film strips of three sensitivities to the cargo bay environment for various time periods. The design and operation of the instrument package is described.

Kreplin, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Honeywell multispectral linear array (MLA) instrument design A system overview

In support of NASA's Experimental Land Observing System, a simple, reliable and relatively inexpensive multispectral linear array (MLA) instrument concept has been developed. The design satisfies requirements for multichannel radiometry and wide field imaging. A reflective off-axis anastigmat telescope is mounted in a highly strength-to-weight efficient truss structure, coupled to a solid beamsplitter assembly. Attention is given to the optical design of the MLA instrument, the telescope structure, the detector arrays, detector cooling, on-orbit calibration, signal processing electronics, the spacecraft interfaces, the modulation transfer function, the signal-to-noise ratio, radiometric accuracy, and spatial registration.

Eyring, D.↗

NASA NTRS1984

A Sphere-Scanning Radiometer for Rapid Directional Measurements of Sky and Ground Radiance: the PARABOLA Field Instrument

A unique field instrument, called the PARABOLA, a collapsable support boom, which is self contained and easily transportable to remote sites to enable the acquisition of radiance data for almost the complete (4 pi) sky and ground-looking hemispheres in only 11 seconds was designed. The PARABOLA samples in 15 deg instantaneous field of view sectors in three narrow bandpass spectral channels simultaneously. Field measurement on a variety of earth surface cover types using a truck boom, a specially designed pickup truck mounting system, and a hot air balloon were studied. The PARABOLA instrument has potential for climatological and other studies which require characterization of the distribution of diffuse solar radiation within the sky hemisphere.

Deering, D. W.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Instrumentation for Submillimeter Polarimetry

During the last two years three instruments were built and operated for detection of polarization in the submillimeter to millimeter wavelength bands. In principle, simply rotating a polarizing grid in front of the detector would be sufficient to determine the state of linear polarization. In practice severe systematic problems are found with this approach. Everything in the light path has potential for inducing polarization. The telescope, apertures in the lightpath, and the Winston light collectors all introduce systematic errors. (The polarization/depolarization induced by these devices is due to diffraction and the finite conductivity of the metals used). Two of the polarimeters are for use on the KAO; the third is for the IRTF on Mauna Kea. The airplane polarimeters, M1 and M2, were specifically designed to minimize the systematic errors. The ground based polarimeter uses our f/35 photometer with an external polarizing grid as the analyzer. With all three instruments the key to success is the data collector and analysis scheme.

Dragovan, M.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Comparison of wind and turbulence measurements from Doppler lidar and instrumented aircraft

Wind fields were measured with the ground based lidar, NOAA Wave Propagation Laboratory and with the NASA B-57B instrumented aircraft. The remotely sensed winds are compared with the in situ aircraft measurements. Three flight plans were carried out during the two different field programs. At NASA/MSFC the aircraft circled while the lidar scanned conically and the aircraft flew 6 deg approach path along the fixed lidar beam. The aircraft flew an approach along the lidar beam directed south-north (parallel to the mountain range) and a climbout along the lidar beam which alternately shifted east-west (perpendicular to the mountain range). Turbulence intensities and spectra were calculated from the temporal fluctuations in the lidar-measured radial wind speed component. These field tests provided unique sets of data to examine the mean wind and turbulence measurements made by remote sensing instruments. The comparison of aircraft measured turbulence intensities and spectra with lidar time histories of radial wind speed were in good agreement.

Huang, K. H.↗

NASA NTRS1985

An error-dependent model of instrument-scanning behavior in commercial airline pilots

A new flexible model of pilot instrument scanning behavior is presented which assumes that the pilot uses a set of deterministic scanning patterns on the pilot's perception of error in the state of the aircraft, and the pilot's knowledge of the interactive nature of the aircraft's systems. Statistical analyses revealed that a three stage Markov process composed of the pilot's three predicted lookpoints (LP), occurring 1/30, 2/30, and 3/30 of a second prior to each LP, accurately modelled the scanning behavior of 14 commercial airline pilots while flying steep turn maneuvers in a Boeing 737 flight simulator. The modelled scanning data for each pilot were not statistically different from the observed scanning data in comparisons of mean dwell time, entropy, and entropy rate. These findings represent the first direct evidence that pilots are using deterministic scanning patterns during instrument flight. The results are interpreted as direct support for the error dependent model and suggestions are made for further research that could allow for identification of the specific scanning patterns suggested by the model.

Jones, D. H.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Initial placement of STO instruments

The current plans for the placement of the Solar Terrestrial Observatory (STO) space station will make use of each of the currently planned space station elements - the manned space station, the polar platform, and the coorbiting platform. A designation of the instrument placement on each element along with a summary of the mass, volume, power and data requirements which these instrument will impose is provided in tabular form.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1983

An instrument employing electronic counters and an emulsion chamber for studying heavy cosmic ray interactions (JACEE-3)

A JACEE-3 instrument was flown on a balloon in June 1982 for 6.1 sq m sr hr exposure at an average atmospheric depth of 5 gm/sq cm in order to study the cosmic ray spectra, composition, and interactions above 1 TeV. The nucleus-nucleus interactions were studied above 20 GeV/amu from z = 6 to z = 26. The electronic counters contained gas Cerenkov structures with a 1.0-cm thick lead glass and a 1.27-cm thick Teflon radiator. A comparison to the instrument prototype is made. Based on the electronic counter event data, the finding efficiency of the hodoscope is noted to be near 100 percent for z greater than or equal to 22. A comparison is made between the hodoscope-predicted position and track found at P3 in an emulsion chamber.

Austin, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS1985

A new instrument for the determination of radio path delay due to atmospheric water vapor

A new water-vapor radiometer is being developed to determine atmospheric path-delay corrections for geodynamics applications. The radiometer has microwave channels at 20.7, 22.2, and 31.4 GHz, and includes new features which should promote radiometric precision while at the same time reduce instrument complexity. The instrument will be compact, portable, and will possess a self-diagnostic capability to ensure reliability. The performance objective is the determination of the line-of-sight path delay through the atmosphere due to water vapor with a one-sigma error less than 0.5 cm at the zenith.

Janssen, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Airborne Instrumentation Computer System

Modular microcomputer provides real-time data processing and telemetryinterface functions. Programmable instrumentation system links pulsecode-modulation (PCM) telemetry to digital systems on test aircraft. Called AICS for airborne instrumentation computer system, also analyzes flight-test data during flight. Synthesized voice output available.

Glenn A Bever↗

NASA NTRS1985

BASD: SIRTF Telescope Instrument Changeout and Cryogen Replenishment (STICCR) study

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is a long-life cryogenically cooled space-based telescope for infrared astronomy from 2 micrometer to 700 miocrometers currently under study by NASA-ARC, and planned for launch in approximately the mid 90's. SIRTF will operate as a multi-user facility, initially carrying 3 instruments at the focal plane. It will be cooled to below 2 K by superfluid liquid helium to achieve radiometric sensitivity limited only by the statistical fluctuations in the natural infrared background radiation over most of its spectral range. The lifetime of the mission will be limited by the lifetime of the liquid helium supply, and is currently baselined to be 2 years. The telescope changes required to allow in-space replenishment of the 2,000 liter superfluid helium tank are investigated. A preliminary design for the space services equipment is also developed. The impacts of basing the equipment and servicing on the space station are investigated. Space replenishment and changeout of instruments requires changes to the telescope design and preliminary concepts are presented.

Mord, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Initial placement of STO instruments

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1985

An integrated development facility for the calibration of low-energy charged particle flight instrumentation

A system was developed for the calibration and development of thermal ion instrumentation. The system provides an extended beam with usable current rates, approx. 1 pA/sq cm, at beam energies as low as 1 eV, with much higher values available with increasing energy. A tandem electrostatic and variable geometry magnetic mirror configuration within the ion source optimizes the use of the ionizing electrons. The system is integrated under microcomputer control to allow automatic control and monitoring of the beam energy and composition and the mass and angle-dependent response of the instrument under test. The system is pumped by a combination of carbon vane and cryogenic sorption roughing pumps and ion and liquid helium operating pumps.

Biddle, A. P.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Ion Mobility Drift Spectrometer (IMDS) as a flight analytical instrument technique

A detailed knowledge of the history and abundances of the biogenic elements and their compounds throughout the solar system can provide the exobiologists with a basis for understanding the conditions necessary for chemical evolution and the origin of life. The Ion Mobility Drift Spectrometer is an ion molecule reactor coupled with an ion drift spectrometer. Sample molecules are ionized to form product ions in the reactant region. An electric field moves the ions through a drift region against the flow of a drift gas where they are separated according to their size and structure producing an ion mobility spectrum. These spectra provide the IMDS with virtually universal sample identification capability. To conform to the rigid limits of weight, volume and consumables placed on flight instrumentation, several aspects of the IMDS must be studied and redesigned for flight use. In addition to miniaturization of the instrument, a reduction in the high flow rates used for the drift gas is an obvious necessary consideration. The effect of drastically reduced drift flow rates on IMDS spectra was investigated by lowering flow rates from 500ml/min to 50ml/min. Changes in peak shape, drift time and total spectra were studied at each flow rate.

Kojiro, D. R.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Instrumentation in wind tunnels

Requirements in designing instrumentation systems and measurements of various physical quantities in wind tunnels are surveyed. Emphasis is given to sensors used for measuring pressure, temperature, and angle, and the measurements of air turbulence and boundary layers. Instrumentation in wind tunnels require accuracy, fast response, diversity and operational simplicity. Measurements of force, pressure, attitude angle, free flow, pressure distribution, and temperature are illustrated by a table, and a block diagram. The LDV (laser Doppler velocimeter) method for measuring air turbulence and flow velocity and measurement of skin friction and flow fields using laser holograms are discussed. The future potential of these techniques is studied.

Takashima, K.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Visible and shortwave infrared focal planes for remote sensing instruments

The development of solid-state sensor technology for multispectral linear array (MLA) instruments is described. A buttable four-spectral-band linear-format CCD and a buttable two-spectral band linear-format short-wave IR CCD have been designed, and first samples have been demonstrated. In addition, first-sample four-band interference filters have been fabricated, and hybrid packaging technology is being developed. Based on this development work, the design and construction of focal planes for a Shuttle sortie MLA instrument have begun. This work involves a visible and near-IR focal plane with 2048 pixels x 4 spectral bands and a short-wave IR focal plane with 1024 pixels x 2 spectral bands.

Tower, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Inertially referenced instrument pointing platform with momentum compensated articulation

The characteristics of the Mariner Mark II Integrated Platform Pointing and Attitude Control System (IPPACS) microstep actuator with momentum compensation and the IPPACS optical reference tracker are examined, and the advantages of this new technology are identified. The momentum-compensated articulation acts to prevent platform articulation activity from disturbing the spacecaft. This guarantees dynamic stability, ensures a quiescent pointing environment, and decouples the design of the platform from the design of the spacecraft. A microstep actuator with harmonic drive provides platform angular step resolution to 0.5 arcsec for precision pointing of instruments. An optical reference tracker boresighted with scientific instruments guarantees accurate target-referenced closed-loop pointing. An IPPACS star and target tracker with 1 to 10 arcsec accuracy and wide 11 x 17 degrees field of view has been derived from Advanced Star and Target Reference Optical Sensor (ASTROS) CCD star tracker technology, greatly enhancing the optical referencing capabilities of future multimission interplanetary spacecraft.

Bell, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1985

A two-photon laser-induced fluorescence field instrument for ground-based and airborne measurements of atmospheric NO

This paper reports on a new two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (TP-LIF) sensor capable of making routine measurements at the few parts per trillion volume level. This direct spectroscopic detection method has been demonstrated to be a reliable instrument while performing both on the ground and in the air. As currently designed it is unique in being 'signal' rather than 'signal-to-noise' limited. The latter characteristic enables the TP-LIF sensor to make atmospheric measurements of NO under environmental conditions that might normally be considered unsuitable for a laser technique. These include clouds, rain, and, in general, high-atmospheric-aerosol loading conditions. Of special interest is the insensitivity of the TP-LIF NO instrument to changes in pressure while operating in the troposphere. This characteristic has enabled this sensor to be used to record real-time altitude profiles of NO. Future improvements should make possible two measurement opportunities: (1) NO flux measurements via the airborne eddy-correlation method and (2) nitrogen isotopic distribution measurements (e.g., (N-15)(0-16) versus (N-14)(0-16) as a means of identifying specific NO(x) sources.

Bradshaw, J. D.↗