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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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NASA NTRS1994

Small Satellite Propulsion Options

Advanced chemical and low power electric propulsion offer attractive options for small satellite propulsion. Applications include orbit raising, orbit maintenance, attitude control, repositioning, and deorbit of both Earth-space and planetary spacecraft. Potential propulsion technologies for these functions include high pressure Ir/Re bipropellant engines, very low power arcjets, Hall thrusters, and pulsed plasma thrusters, all of which have been shown to operate in manners consistent with currently planned small satellites. Mission analyses show that insertion of advanced propulsion technologies enables and/or greatly enhances many planned small satellite missions. Examples of commercial, DoD, and NASA missions are provided to illustrate the potential benefits of using advanced propulsion options on small satellites.

Myers, Roger M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Precision tethered satellite attitude control

Tethered spacecraft possess unique dynamic characteristics which make them advantageous for certain classes of experiments. One use for which tethers are particularly well suited is to provide an isolated platform for spaceborne observatories. The advantages of tethering a pointing platform 1 or 2 km from a space shuttle or space station are that, compared to placing the observatory on the parent spacecraft, vibrational disturbances are attenuated and contamination is eliminated. In practice, all satellites have some requirement on the attitude control of the spacecraft, and tethered satellites are no exception. It has previously been shown that conventional means of performing attitude control for tethered satellites are insufficient for any mission with pointing requirements more stringent than about 1 deg. This is due mainly to the relatively large force applied by the tether to the spacecraft. A particularly effective method of implementing attitude control for tethered satellites is to use this tether tension force to generate control torques by moving the tether attach point relative to the subsatellite center of mass. A demonstration of this attitude control technique on an astrophysical pointing platform has been proposed for a space shuttle flight test project and is referred to as the Kinetic Isolation Tether Experiment (KITE).

Kline-Schoder, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Scientific analysis of satellite ranging data

A network of satellite laser ranging (SLR) tracking systems with continuously improving accuracies is challenging the modelling capabilities of analysts worldwide. Various data analysis techniques have yielded many advances in the development of orbit, instrument and Earth models. The direct measurement of the distance to the satellite provided by the laser ranges has given us a simple metric which links the results obtained by diverse approaches. Different groups have used SLR data, often in combination with observations from other space geodetic techniques, to improve models of the static geopotential, the solid Earth, ocean tides, and atmospheric drag models for low Earth satellites. Radiation pressure models and other non-conservative forces for satellite orbits above the atmosphere have been developed to exploit the full accuracy of the latest SLR instruments. SLR is the baseline tracking system for the altimeter missions TOPEX/Poseidon, and ERS-1 and will play an important role in providing the reference frame for locating the geocentric position of the ocean surface, in providing an unchanging range standard for altimeter calibration, and for improving the geoid models to separate gravitational from ocean circulation signals seen in the sea surface. However, even with the many improvements in the models used to support the orbital analysis of laser observations, there remain systematic effects which limit the full exploitation of SLR accuracy today.

Smith, David E.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Precision orbit determination of altimetric satellites

The ability to determine accurate global sea level variations is important to both detection and understanding of changes in climate patterns. Sea level variability occurs over a wide spectrum of temporal and spatial scales, and precise global measurements are only recently possible with the advent of spaceborne satellite radar altimetry missions. One of the inherent requirements for accurate determination of absolute sea surface topography is that the altimetric satellite orbits be computed with sub-decimeter accuracy within a well defined terrestrial reference frame. SLR tracking in support of precision orbit determination of altimetric satellites is significant. Recent examples are the use of SLR as the primary tracking systems for TOPEX/Poseidon and for ERS-1 precision orbit determination. The current radial orbit accuracy for TOPEX/Poseidon is estimated to be around 3-4 cm, with geographically correlated orbit errors around 2 cm. The significance of the SLR tracking system is its ability to allow altimetric satellites to obtain absolute sea level measurements and thereby provide a link to other altimetry measurement systems for long-term sea level studies. SLR tracking allows the production of precise orbits which are well centered in an accurate terrestrial reference frame. With proper calibration of the radar altimeter, these precise orbits, along with the altimeter measurements, provide long term absolute sea level measurements. The U.S. Navy's Geosat mission is equipped with only Doppler beacons and lacks laser retroreflectors. However, its orbits, and even the Geosat orbits computed using the available full 40-station Tranet tracking network, yield orbits with significant north-south shifts with respect to the IERS terrestrial reference frame. The resulting Geosat sea surface topography will be tilted accordingly, making interpretation of long-term sea level variability studies difficult.

Shum, C. K.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The SAX Italian scientific satellite. The on-board implemented automation as a support to the ground control capability

This paper presents the capabilities implemented in the SAX system for an efficient operations management during its in-flight mission. SAX is an Italian scientific satellite for x-ray astronomy whose major mission objectives impose quite tight constraints on the implementation of both the space and ground segment. The most relevant mission characteristics require an operative lifetime of two years, performing scientific observations both in contact and in noncontact periods, with a low equatorial orbit supported by one ground station, so that only a few minutes of communications are available each orbit. This operational scenario determines the need to have a satellite capable of performing the scheduled mission automatically and reacting autonomously to contingency situations. The implementation approach of the on-board operations management, through which the necessary automation and autonomy are achieved, follows a hierarchical structure. This has been achieved adopting a distributed avionic architecture. Nine different on-board computers, in fact, constitute the on-board data management system. Each of them performs the local control and monitors its own functions while the system level control is performed at a higher level by the data handling applications software. The SAX on-board architecture provides the ground operators with different options of intervention by three classes of telecommands. The management of the scientific operations will be scheduled by the operation control center via dedicated operating plans. The SAX satellite flight mode is presently being integrated at Alenia Spazio premises in Turin for a launch scheduled for the end of 1995. Once in orbit, the SAX satellite will be subject to intensive check-out activities in order to verify the required mission performances. An overview of the envisaged procedure and of the necessary on-ground activities is therefore depicted as well.

Martelli, Andrea↗
NASA NTRS1994

Forces and Motion: Dynamics of the Tethered Satellite

In this 'Lift off to Learning' series, Loren Shriver, commander of STS 46, and the other members of the mission (Claude Nicollier, Marsha Ivins, Andrew Allen, Jeffrey Hoffman, Franklin Chiang-Diaz, and Franco Maerba) use computer graphics, and physical experiments to explain how the tethered satellite to be deployed during their mission will be raised, how it works, the influence of the Shuttle on the satellite and the satellite's influence on the Shuttle's orbit, the gravitational effects, and other effects concerning the Theoretical Physics used to plan this mission (gravity gradient force, center of mass, angular momentum, centrifugal force, and coriolis effect). This video ends with a discussion of the technology transfer and utilization of this tethered satellite concept and design.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Cochannel and Adjacent-Channel Interference in Nonlinear Minimum-Shift-Keyed Satellite System

The interference susceptibility of a serial-minimum-shift-keyed (SMSK) modulation system to an interfering signal transmitted through a satellite link with cascaded nonlinear elements was investigated through computer simulation. The satellite link evaluated in this study represented NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) system. Specifically, nonlinear characteristics were used that had specified amplitude-modulation to amplitude-modulation and amplitude-modulation to phase-modulation transfer characteristics obtained from the actual ACTS hardware. Two measurement scenarios were analyzed: degradation of an MSK satellite link from cochannel interference and from adjacent-channel interference. Interference was evaluated in terms of the probability of bit error rate (BER) versus energy per bit over noise power density Eb/No.

Yu, John↗
NASA NTRS1994

Design and implementation of an experiment scheduling system for the ACTS satellite

The Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) was launched on the 12th of September 1993 aboard STS-51. All events since that time have proceeded as planned with user operations commencing on December 6th, 1993. ACTS is a geosynchronous satellite designed to extend the state of the art in communication satellite design and is available to experimenters on a 'time/bandwidth available' basis. The ACTS satellite requires the advance scheduling of experimental activities based upon a complex set of resource, state, and activity constraints in order to ensure smooth operations. This paper describes the software system developed to schedule experiments for ACTS.

Ringer, Mark J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Acute effects of hindlimb unweighting on satellite cells of growing skeletal muscle

The proliferative behavior of satellite cells in growing rat soleus and extensor digitorum longus muscles was examined at short periods after initiation of hindlimb unweighting. Mitotic activity of satellite cells in both muscles decreased below weight-bearing control levels within 24 h of initiation of hindlimb unweighting. This satellite cell response was equal to or greater than 48 h before any atrophic morphological changes that take place in the muscles. Suppression of mitotic activity was most severe in the soleus muscle where continuous infusion of label demonstrated that virtually all mitotic activity was abolished between 3 and 5 days. The results of this study suggest that satellite cell mitotic activity is a sensitive indicator of primary atrophic changes occurring in growing myofibers and may be a predictor of future morphological changes.

Schultz, Edward↗
NASA NTRS1994

Dynamical and observational constraints on satellites in the inner Pluto-Charon system

It is not known if Pluto has other satellites besides its massive partner Charon. In the past, searches for additional satellites in the Pluto-Charon system have extended from the solar-tidal stability boundary (approximately 90 arcsec from Pluto) inward to about 1 arcsec from Pluto. Here we further explore the inner (i.e., less than 10 arcsec) region of the Pluto-Charon system to determine where additional satellites might lie. In particular, we report on (1) dynamical simulations to delineate the region where unstable orbits lie around Charon, (2) dynamical simulations which use the low orbital eccentricity of Charon to constrain the mass of any third body near Pluto, and (3) analysis of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archival images to search for satellites in the inner Pluto-Charon system. Although no objects were found, significant new constraints on bodies orbiting in the inner Pluto-Charon system were obtained.

Stern, S. Alan↗
NASA NTRS1994

Atmosphere-biosphere exchange flux of carbon dioxide in a tallgrass prairie modeled with satellite spectral data

The estimation of the rate of net CO2 uptake of vegetated land surfaces is essential for studies of global carbon cycle. The present paper demonstrates the use of spectral reflectance data from satellite remote sensing to model net CO2 flux (NCF) of a tallgrass canopy at the Konza prairie, Kansas. A bidirectional reflectance canopy model was used to estimate seasonal changes in canopy leaf area index (LAI) from surface reflectances remotely sensed by SPOT 1 and Landsat 5 satellites. The radiation model was also coupled with leaf conductance-photosynthesis models to scale up stomatal conductance and NCF from individual leaves to canopy level according to radiation distribution inside the canopy. The satellite-data-driven model was able to closely simulate the seasonal change in LAI as well as the short-term variation of canopy LAI caused by the dry period during late July and early August in the area. Modeled canopy stomatal conductance (g(sub c)) and NCF agree with measurements within 0.16 cm/s and 0.28 mg m(exp -2)/s, respectively, during the growth season from late May to late August. In October both measured and modeled NCF turned to small negative values as canopy photosynthesis diminished and predicted LAI approached zero. In addition to data scatter, some of the differences between modeled and measured g(sub c) and NCF may be attributed to uncertainties in seasonal changes of plant physiological status that were not detected by satellite data; some of the differences were caused by inadequate description of the dependence of nighttime CO2 flux of soil respiration on near-surface turbulent mixing.

Gao, W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Satellite emission features in two Seyfert galaxies: New evidence that radio-quiet AGN possess subrelativistic winds

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) spectra are presented for three bright Seyfert galaxies including one (PG 1351+64) which possesses blue-displaced absorption features in C IV, Si IV, N V, and Ly-alpha (but not in Mg II) similar to those seen at high redshift in the broad-absorption-line (BAL) quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). Several features of the absorptions in PG 1351+64, including variability seen in archival International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) data, confirm their similarity to the BAL clouds rather than to the 'associated absorber' phenomenon which they superficially resemble. In PG 1351+64 'satellite' emission lines (called herein E1 and E2) have been detected nearly symmetrically placed at +/- 4000 km/s around the Mg II emission line; this velocity is just larger than the most blue-displaced of the BALs, suggesting that these two phenomena are related. The satellite line luminosity, L(E1) approximately = (3 x 10(exp 41) erg/s)/sq. h(sub 75), requires a cloud emission measure n(sub e)(exp 2)V(sub c) approximately = (1 x 10(exp 64)/cc)/sq. h(sub 75) at T approximately = 30,000 K. We believe the Mg II lines are produced by 50-90 km/s shocks driven into dense (approximately 10(exp 6)/cc, pre-shock) clouds by the ram pressure of a 0.1 solar mass/yr wind leaving the nucleus at velocity 4000 km/s. The detection of satellite lines in Mg II, the detection of the blue-shifted cloud in H-alpha and H-beta and the nondetection of this cloud in C IV restricts the cloud shocks to velocities v(sub c) less than or = 90 km/s and requires a cloud/wind density contrast greater than or = 10(exp 3). In this model, the emitting clouds are located at distances of R(sub eff) approximately = 10(exp 18-19) cm from the nucleus and are entrained and shock-accelerated to approximately 4000 km/s. The possible detection of similar 'satellite' emission features in the non-BAL Seyfert, Ton 951, suggests that the subrelativistic wind that accelerates BAL clouds is a physical feature of many radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGN).

Stocke, John T.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Toward a dynamic-thermodynamic assimilation of satellite surface temperature in numerical atmospheric models

An assimilation technique is described in which satellite-observed surface skin temperature tendencies are used in a model surface energy budget so that the predicted rate of temperature change in the model more closely agrees with the satellite observations. Both visible and infrared GOES satellite data are used in the assimilation. The technique is based on analytically recovering surface moisture from similarity expressions derived from an evapotranspiration residual obtained as a difference between the unadjusted model evapotranspiration and the satellite-inferred evapotranspiration. The technique has application in regional-scale models where surface parameters such as root zone moisture, soil moisture, etc., are unknown. It is assumed that the largest error in the surface energy budget is in the evapotranspiration term. Two tests are given for the technique, first, a one-dimensional test against FIFE data and, second, a three-dimensional test over Oklahoma. In these cases the technique appears to correctly adjust the model response to agree better with observations.

Mcnider, Richard T.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Analysis of cloud top height and cloud coverage from satellites using the O2 A and B bands

Cloud height and cloud coverage detection are important for total ozone retrieval using ultraviolet and visible scattered light. Use of the O2 A and B bands, around 761 and 687 nm, by a satellite-borne instrument of moderately high spectral resolution viewing in the nadir makes it possible to detect cloud top height and related parameters, including fractional coverage. The measured values of a satellite-borne spectrometer are convolutions of the instrument slit function and the atmospheric transmittance between cloud top and satellite. Studies here determine the optical depth between a satellite orbit and the Earth or cloud top height to high accuracy using FASCODE 3. Cloud top height and a cloud coverage parameter are determined by least squares fitting to calculated radiance ratios in the oxygen bands. A grid search method is used to search the parameter space of cloud top height and the coverage parameter to minimize an appropriate sum of squares of deviations. For this search, nonlinearity of the atmospheric transmittance (i.e., leverage based on varying amounts of saturation in the absorption spectrum) is important for distinguishing between cloud top height and fractional coverage. Using the above-mentioned method, an operational cloud detection algorithm which uses minimal computation time can be implemented.

Kuze, Akihiko↗
NASA NTRS1995

TOGA COARE Satellite data summaries available on the World Wide Web

Satellite data summary images and analysis plots from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE), which were initially prepared in the field at the Honiara Operations Center, are now available on the Internet via World Wide Web browsers such as Mosaic. These satellite data summaries consist of products derived from the Japanese Geosynchronous Meteorological Satellite IR data: a time-size series of the distribution of contiguous cold cloudiness areas, weekly percent high cloudiness (PHC) maps, and a five-month time-longitudinal diagram illustrating the zonal motion of large areas of cold cloudiness. The weekly PHC maps are overlaid with weekly mean 850-hPa wind calculated from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) global analysis field and can be viewed as an animation loop. These satellite summaries provide an overview of spatial and temporal variabilities of the cloud population and a large-scale context for studies concerning specific processes of various components of TOGA COARE.

Chen, S. S.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Proceedings of the Fourth International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1995)

The theme to the 1995 International Mobile Satellite Conference was 'Mobile Satcom Comes of Age'. The sessions included Modulation, Coding, and Multiple Access; Hybrid Networks - 1; Spacecraft Technology; propagation; Applications and Experiments - 1; Advanced System Concepts and Analysis; Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Communications; Mobile Terminal Antennas; Mobile Terminal Technology; Current and Planned Systems; Direct Broadcast Satellite; The Use of CDMA for LEO and ICO Mobile Satellite Systems; Hybrid Networks - 2; and Applications and Experiments - 2.

J R Rigley↗
NASA NTRS1995

Global tracking and inventory of military hardware via LEO satellite: A system approach and likely scenario

A system for global inventory control of electronically tagged military hardware is achievable using a LEO satellite constellation. An equipment Tag can communicate directly to the satellite with a power of 5 watts or less at a data rate of 2400 to 50,000 bps. As examples, two proposed commercial LEO systems, IRIDIUM and ORBCOMM, are both capable of providing global coverage but with dramatically different telecom capacities. Investigation of these two LEO systems as applied to the Tag scenario provides insight into satellite design trade-offs, constellation trade-offs and signal dynamics that effect the performance of a satellite-based global inventory control system.

Bell, David↗
NASA NTRS1995

Satellite communications provisions on NASA Ames instrumented aircraft platforms for Earth science research/applications

Earth science activities at NASA Ames are research in atmospheric and ecosystem science, development of remote sensing and in situ sampling instruments, and their integration into scientific research platform aircraft. The use of satellite communications can greatly extend the capability of these agency research platform aircraft. Current projects and plans involve satellite links on the Perseus UAV and the ER-2 via TDRSS and a proposed experiment on the NASA Advanced Communications Technology Satellite. Provisions for data links on the Perseus research platform, via TDRSS S-band multiple access service, have been developed and are being tested. Test flights at Dryden are planned to demonstrate successful end-to-end data transfer. A Unisys Corp. airborne satcom STARLink system is being integrated into an Ames ER-2 aircraft. This equipment will support multiple data rates up to 43 Mb/s each via the TDRS S Ku-band single access service. The first flight mission for this high-rate link is planned for August 1995. Ames and JPL have proposed an ACTS experiment to use real-time satellite communications to improve wildfire research campaigns. Researchers and fire management teams making use of instrumented aircraft platforms at a prescribed burn site will be able to communicate with experts at Ames, the U.S. Forest Service, and emergency response agencies.

Shameson, L.↗