Partial pole figures from cylindrical and planar tungsten specimens.
Partial pole figures in vapor deposited and wrought cylindrical tungsten specimens, noting random surface produced by orientation
Sprenkle, E. W.↗
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Determination of volume fraction in multiphase systems using incomplete pole figures
The determination of the volume fraction of a second phase in a multiphase sample by X-ray diffraction becomes more difficult if the diffracting planes have a preferred orientation. Lopata and Kula have described a method of treating this problem using complete pole figures for each of the phases. With some samples, it is not always possible or convenient to obtain data over the full hemisphere. Equations and an example are given which require X-ray data over a limited range of approximately 0 to 75 deg. This can be obtained by reflection without a specially cut sample or transmission data. A series of Legendre polynomials are fitted to data collected while spinning the sample about its normal. An extrapolation is made possible by introducing two conditions on the end points which must be satisfied if the extrapolation functions are to be valid.
Houska, C. R.↗
Texturing and residual stress in metals as a result of sliding
Pole figures of the texturing produced by friction in the alloys Cu - 10 at. % Sn, Cu - 10 at. % Si, 440 C stainless steel, and AISI 52100 bearing steel were obtained with an energy-dispersive X-ray diffractometer. While the texturing behavior of these alloys is generally similar to that of pure metals, the 52100 steel and the Cu5Si phase of Cu - 10 at. % Si show no texturing at the loads and speeds used in this experiment. Photographic methods were used in an attempt to measure the uniform residual stress in the wear tracks produced on some pure metals. The stress in copper and iron was, however, below the limit of detectability - about 4.3 x 10 to the 7th power N/sq m (6000 psi). Line broadening under all test conditions in the case of copper and at high load and speed conditions in iron is attributed, at least in part, to the reduction of crystallite size and, perhaps, to nonuniform residual stress, as well.
Wheeler, D. R.↗
The effect of microstructure on the fracture toughness of titanium alloys
The microstructure of the alpha titanium alloy Ti-5Al-2.5Sn and the metastable beta titanium alloy Beta 3 was examined. The material was from normal and extra low interstitial grade plates which were either air-cooled or furnace-cooled from an annealing treatment. Beta 3 was studied in alpha-aged and omega-aged plates which were heat treated to similar strength levels. Tensile and plane strain fracture toughness tests were conducted at room temperature on the alpha-aged material. The microstructure and fracture mechanisms of alloys were studied using optical metallography, electron microscopy, microprobe analyses, and texture pole figures. Future experiments are described.
Vanstone, R. H.↗
Kinetics of the phase transformation in a Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al alloy as studied by X-ray diffraction
The purpose of the study is to make the T-T-T diagram available and to describe the X-ray diffraction techniques used to determine the fraction of transformed phase in the Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al metastable beta-alloy which decomposes into the hexagonal alpha-phase and the bcc beta-phase of a higher Mo concentration. The sheet material studied for this study is not ideal for an X-ray examination because of both a rolling and annealing texture as well as grain size problems. These difficulties are overcome using special X-ray techniques. Equations are given that indicate the approximations to be accepted if pole figure data are disregarded. Lattice parameter data from the beta phase enables one to obtain an approximate phase diagram.
Rao, V. B.↗
Preferred orientations in extruded nickel and iron aluminides
A plotting of inverse pole figures is used to characterize the preferred orientations in both powder-extruded and cast-and-extruded NiAl, FeAl, and Ni3Al; the preferred 111 orientation has been noted along the extrusion direction in both powder-extruded and cast-and-extruded NiAl. While powder-extruded FeAl also had a 111 preferred orientation in the as-extruded condition, 110 was observed upon casting and extrusion; this was in turn replaced by a 211 orientation preference upon annealing, although annealing did not change the preferred orientation in either NiAl or in powder-extruded FeAl.
Khadkikar, P. S.↗
Catalogue of X-Ray Texture Data for Al-Cu-Li Alloy 1460, 2090, 2096 and 2195 Near-Net-Shape Extrusions, Sheet and Plate
The effect of crystallographic texture on the mechanical properties of near-net-shape extrusions is of major interest ff these products are to find application in launch vehicle or aircraft structures. The objective of this research was to produce a catalogue containing quantitative texture information for extruded product, sheet and plate. The material characterized was extracted from wide, integrally stiffened panels fabricated from the Al-Cu-Li alloys 1460, 2090, 2096 and 2195. The textural characteristics of sheet and plate products of the same alloys were determined for comparison purposes. The approach involved using X-ray diffraction to generate pole figures in combination with orientation distribution function analysis. The data were compiled as a function of location in the extruded cross-sections and the variation in the major deformation- and recrystallization-related texture components was identified.
Hales, Stephen J.↗
Epitaxial Ferroelectric Ba(0.5)Sr(0.5)TiO3 Thin Films for Room-Temperature High-Frequency Tunable Element Applications
Perovskite Ba(0.5)SR(0.5)TiO3 thin films have been synthesized on (001) LaAl03 substrates by pulsed laser ablation. Extensive X-ray diffraction, rocking curve, and pole-figure studies suggest that the films are c-axis oriented and exhibit good in-plane relationship of <100>(sub BSTO)//<100>(sub LAO). Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry studies indicate that the epitaxial films have excellent crystalline quality with an ion beam minimum yield chi(sub min) Of only 2.6 %. The dielectric property measurements by the interdigital technique at 1 MHz show room temperature values of the relative dielectric constant, epsilon(sub r), and loss tangent, tan(sub delta), of 1430 and 0.007 with no bias, and 960 and 0.001 with 35 V bias, respectively. The obtained data suggest that the as-grown Ba(0.5)SR(0.5)TiO3 films can be used for development of room-temperature high-frequency tunable elements.
Chen, C. L.↗
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Characterization Methods for Sigma=3 Twin Defects in Cubic Semiconductor (100) Wafers
An X-ray defraction (XRD) characterization method for sigma=3 twin defects in cubic semiconductor (100) wafers includes a concentration measurement method and a wafer mapping method for any cubic tetrahedral semiconductor wafers including GaAs (100) wafers and Si (100) wafers. The methods use the cubic semiconductor's (004) pole figure in order to detect sigma=3/{111} twin defects. The XRD methods are applicable to any (100) wafers of tetrahedral cubic semiconductors in the diamond structure (Si, Ge, C) and cubic zinc-blend structure (InP, InGaAs, CdTe, ZnSe, and so on) with various growth methods such as Liquid Encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) growth, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), Organometallic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (OMVPE), Czochralski growth and Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) growth.
Park, Yeonjoon↗
Improved Bearingless Switched-Reluctance Motor
The Morrison rotor, named after its inventor, is a hybrid rotor for use in a bearingless switched-reluctance electric motor. The motor is characterized as bearingless in the sense that it does not rely on conventional mechanical bearings: instead, it functions as both a magnetic bearing and a motor. Bearingless switched-reluctance motors are attractive for use in situations in which large variations in temperatures and/or other extreme conditions preclude the use of conventional electric motors and mechanical bearings. In the Morrison motor, as in a prior bearingless switched-reluctance motor, a multipole rotor is simultaneously levitated and rotated. In the prior motor, simultaneous levitation and rotation are achieved by means of two kinds of stator windings: (1) main motor windings and (2) windings that exert levitating forces on a multipole rotor. The multipole geometry is suboptimum for levitation in that it presents a discontinuous surface to the stator pole faces, thereby degrading the vibration-suppression capability of the magnetic bearing. The Morrison rotor simplifies the stator design in that the stator contains only one type of winding. The rotor is a hybrid that includes both (1) a circular lamination stack for levitation and (2) a multipole lamination stack for rotation. A prototype includes six rotor poles and eight stator poles (see figure). During normal operation, two of the four pairs of opposing stator poles (each pair at right angles to the other pair) levitate the rotor. The remaining two pairs of stator poles exert torque on the six-pole rotor lamination stack to produce rotation. The relative lengths of the circular and multipole lamination stacks on the rotor can be chosen to tailor the performance of the motor for a specific application. For a given overall length, increasing the length of the multipole stack relative to the circular stack results in an increase in torque relative to levitation load capacity and stiffness, and vice versa.
Morrison, Carlos R.↗
A Resonator for Low-Threshold Frequency Conversion
A proposed toroidal or disklike dielectric optical resonator (dielectric optical cavity) would be made of an optically nonlinear material and would be optimized for use in parametric frequency conversion by imposition of a spatially periodic permanent electric polarization. The poling (see figure) would suppress dispersions caused by both the material and the geometry of the optical cavity, thereby effecting quasi-matching of the phases of high-resonance-quality (high-Q) whispering-gallery electromagnetic modes. The quasi-phase-matching of the modes would serve to maximize the interactions among them. Such a resonator might be a prototype of a family of compact, efficient nonlinear devices for operation over a broad range of optical wavelengths. A little background information is prerequisite to a meaningful description of this proposal: (1) Described in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles, the whispering-gallery modes in a component of spheroidal, disklike, or toroidal shape are waveguide modes that propagate circumferentially and are concentrated in a narrow toroidal region centered on the equatorial plane and located near the outermost edge. (2) For the sake of completeness, it must be stated that even though optical resonators of the type considered here are solid dielectric objects and light is confined within them by total internal reflection at dielectric interfaces without need for mirrors, such components are sometimes traditionally called cavities because their effects upon the light propagating within them are similar to those of true cavities bounded by mirrors. (3) For a given set of electromagnetic modes interacting with each other in an optically nonlinear material (e.g., modes associated with the frequencies involved in a frequency-conversion scheme), the threshold power for oscillation depends on the mode volumes and the mode-overlap integral. (4) Whispering-gallery modes are attractive in nonlinear optics because they maximize the effects of nonlinearities by occupying small volumes and affording high Q values
Iltchenko, Vladimir↗
Magnetically Attached Multifunction Maintenance Rover
A versatile mobile telerobot, denoted the magnetically attached multifunction maintenance rover (MAGMER), has been proposed for use in the inspection and maintenance of the surfaces of ships, tanks containing petrochemicals, and other large ferromagnetic structures. As its name suggests, this robot would utilize magnetic attraction to adhere to a structure. As it moved along the surface of the structure, the MAGMER would perform tasks that could include close-up visual inspection by use of video cameras, various sensors, and/or removal of paint by water-jet blasting, laser heating, or induction heating. The water-jet nozzles would be mounted coaxially within compressed-air-powered venturi nozzles that would collect the paint debris dislodged by the jets. The MAGMER would be deployed, powered, and controlled from a truck, to which it would be connected by hoses for water, compressed air, and collection of debris and by cables for electric power and communication (see Figure 1). The operation of the MAGMER on a typical large structure would necessitate the use of long cables and hoses, which can be heavy. To reduce the load of the hoses and cables on the MAGMER and thereby ensure its ability to adhere to vertical and overhanging surfaces, the hoses and cables would be paid out through telescopic booms that would be parts of a MAGMER support system. The MAGMER would move by use of four motorized, steerable wheels, each of which would be mounted in an assembly that would include permanent magnets and four pole pieces (see Figure 2). The wheels would protrude from between the pole pieces by only about 3 mm, so that the gap between the pole pieces and the ferromagnetic surface would be just large enough to permit motion along the surface but not so large as to reduce the magnetic attraction excessively. In addition to the wheel assemblies, the MAGMER would include magnetic adherence enhancement fixtures, which would comprise arrays of permanent magnets and pole pieces that could be adjusted to maximize or minimize the overall attractive magnetic force. Even with a paint thickness of 2 mm, a preliminary design provides a safety factor of 5 in the magnetic force in the upside- down, water-jets-operating condition, in which the total load (including the weight of the MAGMER and cables and the water-jet force) would be about 260 lb (the weight of 118 kg). Optionally, the MAGMER could carry magnetic shielding and/or could be equipped with a demagnetizing module to remove residual magnetism from the structure. The MAGMER would carry four charge-coupled-device cameras for visual inspection, monitoring of operation, navigation, and avoidance of collisions with obstacles. The control system of the MAGMER would include navigation and collision-avoidance subsystems that would utilize surface features as landmarks, in addition to direct images of obstacles.
Bar-Cohen, Yoseph↗
Magnetic Field Would Reduce Electron Backstreaming in Ion Thrusters
The imposition of a magnetic field has been proposed as a means of reducing the electron backstreaming problem in ion thrusters. Electron backstreaming refers to the backflow of electrons into the ion thruster. Backstreaming electrons are accelerated by the large potential difference that exists between the ion-thruster acceleration electrodes, which otherwise accelerates positive ions out of the engine to develop thrust. The energetic beam formed by the backstreaming electrons can damage the discharge cathode, as well as other discharge surfaces upstream of the acceleration electrodes. The electron-backstreaming condition occurs when the center potential of the ion accelerator grid is no longer sufficiently negative to prevent electron diffusion back into the ion thruster. This typically occurs over extended periods of operation as accelerator-grid apertures enlarge due to erosion. As a result, ion thrusters are required to operate at increasingly negative accelerator-grid voltages in order to prevent electron backstreaming. These larger negative voltages give rise to higher accelerator grid erosion rates, which in turn accelerates aperture enlargement. Electron backstreaming due to accelerator-gridhole enlargement has been identified as a failure mechanism that will limit ionthruster service lifetime. The proposed method would make it possible to not only reduce the electron backstreaming current at and below the backstreaming voltage limit, but also reduce the backstreaming voltage limit itself. This reduction in the voltage at which electron backstreaming occurs provides operating margin and thereby reduces the magnitude of negative voltage that must be placed on the accelerator grid. Such a reduction reduces accelerator- grid erosion rates. The basic idea behind the proposed method is to impose a spatially uniform magnetic field downstream of the accelerator electrode that is oriented transverse to the thruster axis. The magnetic field must be sufficiently strong to impede backstreaming electrons, but not so strong as to significantly perturb ion trajectories. An electromagnet or permanent magnetic circuit can be used to impose the transverse magnetic field downstream of the accelerator-grid electrode. For example, in the case of an accelerator grid containing straight, parallel rows of apertures, one can apply nearly uniform magnetic fields across all the apertures by the use of permanent magnets of alternating polarity connected to pole pieces laid out parallel to the rows, as shown in the left part of the figure. For low-temperature operation, the pole pieces can be replaced with bar magnets of alternating polarity. Alternatively, for the same accelerator grid, one could use an electromagnet in the form of current-carrying rods laid out parallel to the rows.
Foster, John E.↗
Complex Volcanism at Oppenheimer U Floor-Fractured Crater
Recent remote sensing studies have identified complex volcanism in the floor-fractured crater (FFC) Oppenheimer U, located in the northwest floor of Oppenheimer crater (35.2degS, 166.3degW, 208 km dia., Figure 1) within the "South Pole - Aitken basin" (SPA) region of the lunar far side. Up to 15 sites of pyroclastic volcanism have been identified in the floor of Oppenheimer crater. Studies of Moon Mineralogy Mapper data (M3, 0.4-3 microns, 86 bands, [5]) indicated that the pyroclastic deposits are comprised of mixtures of clinopyroxene and iron-rich glass, with the Oppenheimer U deposit showing variable composition within the FFC and having the most iron-rich volcanic glass thus far identified on the Moon. Here we examine the floor of Oppenheimer U in more detail and show evidence for possible multiple eruptive vents.
Gaddis, L. R.↗
Investigating Low-Altitude Constellations of Ad-Hoc Lunar PNT System for Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy
In this study, we examine a low-altitude Lunar Position, Navigation, and Timing (LPNT) constellations and the localization performance of Centralized Extended Kalman Filter (CEKF) and Decentralized Extended Kalman Filter (DEKF) algorithms. The primary investigation involves a 100-node swarm operating at a 100 km altitude, in contrast to previous studies that examined a 21-node asset in a frozen-orbit at 5,500 km. The autonomous operation of large-scale swarm is based on two-way Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) measurements, which involve pseudoranges and relative velocities among swarm nodes. We perform a numerical assessment of the two filtering approaches, utilizing ‘fully sampled’ measurements from all available assets as well as ‘two ISL’ measurements where each spacecraft is restricted to only two antennas. This research includes an analysis of CEKF under 2-ISL constraints and evaluates the performance of DEKF in a 100-node swarm, which has not been explored in previous studies. In addition, we examine the impact of increasing the sampling frequency for DEKF, showing that the update cycle can be shortened from a 10-minute interval. A novel approach for ‘2-ISL limited’ DEKF will also be introduced, using a matching formulation that exhaustively enumerates all potential matches. This study provides valuable insights into large-scale distributed swarm operations, considering various filter configurations, sampling frequencies, matching strategies, and scalability of CEKF and DEKF for low-altitude LPNT applications. The Lunar PNT technology plays a key role in providing reliable and robust navigation services on the Moon's surface and the South pole, where the primary Lunar missions are planned. To support upcoming Lunar missions, including small satellites from NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the Lunar PNT system must be adaptable to smaller platforms like CubeSats. Driven by the growing involvement of public and private exploration partnerships, the traditional low Earth orbit missions are shifting to beyond geosynchronous orbit [1]. These upcoming missions aim to foster a sustainable and innovative exploration program, in collaboration with commercial and international partners, to facilitate human expansion throughout the solar system and return new knowledge and opportunities to Earth [2]. As part of this trend, there are increasing efforts to utilize science missions in Lunar orbit to develop a non-dedicated and ad-hoc PNT network system. Two traditional approaches, the Deep Space Network (DSN) and the weak signal Global Positioning System (GPS), are established deep-space navigation technologies for missions beyond the geosynchronous orbit. Beginning in 1958, the DSN was developed to communicate with the Explorer 1 spacecraft based on the use of radiometric tracking in spacecraft navigation [3]. The DSN is capable of providing nearly unfettered coverage to spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), however, increased space mission volume has created concerns about future expectations of DSN usage for spacecraft navigation [4]. For cislunar mission applications, the position accuracy using DSN achieves 100 m (3σ) with at least three geometrically diverse ground stations when using radiometric tracking alone [5]. The DSN's dependence on Earth-based ground stations restricts its operational capabilities to periods of Earth visibility. This limitation, coupled with its poor localization performance, renders the DSN unsuitable for future lunar missions that demand continuous tracking and precise positioning. To satisfy the increasing requirements of DSN in Lunar applications, spacecrafts are also required to improve their onboard antenna power and efficiency of the transmission. However, there is an important aggregate cost trade between adding capabilities to every spacecraft and adding to a capacity on the ground that serves multiple spacecraft [6]. A weak GPS system can provide PNT service while the user spacecraft is bound to the Moon, leveraging a single, steerable high gain antenna with the relatively narrow beam which includes all the sources in its field of view [7]. However, the higher the altitude the receiver is above the GPS constellations, the poorer and the weaker are the relative geometry and the received signal powers, respectively, leading to a significant navigation accuracy reduction [8]. The transmitted power becomes weaker with increasing distance from the Earth as well as signals tracked from one of the side lobes of the GPS antenna pattern. As a results, the number of visible satellites and relative geometric condition of the GPS satellites at very high altitude drops dramatically and reduces the navigation solution accuracy. Therefore, the weak GPS system is also not an ideal way to provide PNT service to upcoming Lunar missions when considering its limited geometric condition and the recued navigation accuracy. Another navigation approach on the Moon is being developed, similar to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) on Earth, aiming to offer navigation service with continuous 24/7 coverage across the entire Lunar surface. For example, lunar communications relay and navigation systems (LCRNS) by NASA and Lunar navigation satellite systems (LNSS) by JAXA are designed to serve as dedicated Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems for the Moon. However, designing a dedicated LNSS and PNT service involves additional challenges, which are unique to the lunar environment, including limited payload capacity for the CubeSat platform, i.e., the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of the onboard clock, limited lunar ground monitoring stations, and limited financial investment as compared to the legacy Earth-GPS [9]. NASA’s focus on utilizing CubeSat platforms on the Moon leads to an alternative Lunar navigation platform that leverages the existing Lunar science and exploration assets. The small satellites used in Lunar missions can be used to create a low-cost, autonomous, ad-hoc, and on-demand mission-centric Lunar PNT swarm capable of providing PNT services to these low-cost lunar missions [10]. As upcoming Lunar missions will often operate at low-altitude about 30 km to 100 km for scientific observations and mapping purposes, the low-altitude orbital constellations could be employed to create an ad-hoc Lunar PNT system. However, several issues must be addressed, such as the instability of these orbits, which often require maintenance or are only suitable for short-duration missions, operating for fewer than 90 days. Additionally, at an altitude of 100 km, the satellites have a limited period during which they are above the horizon and capable of providing PNT service to users. The implementation of a non-dedicated, ad-hoc Lunar navigation constellation facilitates on-demand PNT services. A preliminary study of ad-hoc Lunar PNT system was conducted using 21 spacecraft in 5,5000 km altitude frozen orbits to test its feasibility and a basic performance of orbital asset localization among ad-hoc Lunar constellations in small satellites format [10]. These swarm assets are designed for autonomous localization with minimal Earth interaction, reducing dependency on bandwidth and ground resources. The design in [10] demonstrated the feasibility of a decentralized PNT approach, specifically employing a DEKF approach for state estimation, which helps minimize onboard operating costs. The DEKF method distributes computation across individual satellites, which lightens the computational load while maintaining accuracy in orbit ephemeris and clock offsets, similar to centralized systems [11]. In a follow-on study [12], each spacecraft was limited to 2 communications antennae, forcing the selection of measurements and scheduling spacecraft activities to perform the measurements. A matching algorithm is implemented to select the best measurements and schedule position estimation updates. The decentralized localization performance is also investigated with increasing levels of network degradation for swarm assets considering the impact of intermittent and permanent communication failure, to demonstrate the robustness and fidelity of the decentralized Lunar PNT service [13]. This study confirmed that the ad-hoc PNT constellations in frozen orbit are highly robust and resilient to communication failures. However, unlike frozen orbit swarm assets, the low-altitude satellites have a limited ground view at an altitude of 100 km, where the ad-hoc Lunar constellation consists of 98 low-altitude satellites, evenly distributed across seven circular polar orbital planes, alongside two satellites in a frozen orbit at an altitude of 5,500 km (Figure 1). Therefore, the number of satellites visible to ground users is significantly limited in low-altitude orbit constellations. As each visibility of a spacecraft remains intact for only a few ticks before it moves out of the field of view, the ground user encounters challenges in maintaining continuous navigation service, resulting in sparse availability and provision of Lunar PNT system. Consequently, service availability is primarily restricted to the Lunar South Pole region (Figure 2). Given these limitations and concerns, the localization performance of low-altitude swarm assets will be assessed in this study. We focus on the investigation of the localization performance of low-altitude swarm assets and ground users near the Lunar South Pole. The overall flow of the Lunar PNT simulation incorporates the DEKF approach of asset localization and the weighted least-squares approach in user localization (Figure 3). The autonomous Lunar PNT simulation is primarily implemented in MATLAB, where the DEKF based on the matching scheduler is implemented with Google’s OR-tools as a model builder and Gurobi optimization tool as a backend solver. The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is utilized to generate ephemeris data for swarm assets, and accounts for satellite orbital details, mass, and perturbations like solar radiation pressure and drag coefficients. Each ephemeris dataset is produced in the Moon International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) inertial coordinate system. For state estimation, the distributed swarm assets rely on two-way Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) measurements, which involve tracking pseudoranges and relative velocities between visible satellites and anchor nodes during each observation. Numerical evaluations of the decentralized localization process are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the low-altitude PNT system in providing reliable navigation services. The main approach involves using DEKF and CEKF to localize 100 satellites in low-altitude constellations, where the CEKF is implemented to serve as a baseline for comparing the performance of distributed algorithms. In both cases, we evaluate ‘fully sampled’ measurements from all available assets, and ‘two ISL’ measurements when spacecraft are constrained to have only two antennas. We test four estimation techniques: CEKF fully sampled, CEKF two ISL, DEKF fully sampled, and DEKF two ISL filters. As the DEKF update cycle is comprised of network setup, communication, and computations, a global broadcast network and 2-way ISL network setup will take from 4 to 6 minutes as maximum [12]. In this simulation, the DEKF update cycle is set to 10 minutes, including a 4-minute latency for obtaining and computing the actual measurement updates. We experiment an increased update cycle to demonstrate the feasibility and evaluate the impact on localization performance using various tuning values for measurement noise covariances (Figures 4 and 5). By comparing centralized and decentralized approaches using a matching algorithm, we analyze the influence of cross-correlation factors in the covariance matrix, assuming 100% reliability of all assets and measurements. The increased frequency and the adjustments of tuning parameters reveal distinct error patterns between the two scenarios. The localization accuracy of the swarm assets and ground users is assessed by taking the median error across 100 assets and one ground user (84.9°S, 137.5°E) over 7-day simulation period (Table 1). Since the user localization accuracy is significantly affected by the performance of the swarm assets, it is crucial to maintain high localization accuracy within the swarm. This study will continue to explore decentralized filtering for autonomous LPNT operations, with further investigation of an 'iterative' matching approach which enumerates every valid matching pair, planned for the following month.
Yeji Kim↗
Ar-40-Ar-39 Age of an Impact-Melt Lithology in Lunar Meteorite Dhofar 961
The Dhofar 961 lunar meteorite was found in 2003 in Oman. It is texturally paired with Dhofar 925 and Dhofar 960 (though Dhofar 961 is more mafic and richer in incompatible elements). Several lines of reasoning point to the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) basin as a plausible source (Figure 2): Mafic character of the melt-breccia lithic clasts consistent the interior of SPA, rules out feldspathic highlands. Compositional differences from Apollo impact-melt groups point to a provenance that is separated and perhaps far distant from the Procellarum KREEP Terrane SPA "hot spots" where Th concentrations reach 5 ppm and it has a broad "background" of about 2 ppm, similar to lithic clasts in Dhofar 961 subsamples If true, impact-melt lithologies in this meteorite may be unaffected by the Imbrium-forming event that is pervasively found in our Apollo sample collection, and instead record the early impact history of the Moon.
Impact-Melt Lithology↗
Estimating the Rate of Growth or Shrinkage of the Amundsen Crater PSR Area
Permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) contain some areas [Figure 1] where frozen volatiles can be observed at the lunar poles. They have maximum surface temperatures < 100 K [1, 2]. Surface temperatures in these shadowed regions are largely controlled by reflected sunlight and irradiated infrared light from adjacent topography [3-6]. These areas are cold traps, capable of accumulating water and other volatile compounds over time [7]. There is a lack of understanding regarding the surface thermal changes at these PSRs, particularly how these pockets of < 100 K temperatures change on a yearly basis and may inhibit growth or shrinkage of volatile accumulation or ablation, respectively. Here, we measure the bolometric temperatures derived from Diviner over several years (2010-2016).
C J Ahrens↗
Simulations of the seasonal polar caps on Mars
One of the most puzzling mysteries about the planet Mars is the hemispherical asymmetry in the polar caps. Every spring the seasonal polar cap of CO2 recedes until the end of summer, when only a small part, the residual polar cap, remains. During the year that Viking observed Mars, the residual polar cap was composed of water ice in the Northern Hemisphere (Kieffer et al., Science, 194, 1341, 1976), but was primarily carbon dioxide ice in the Southern Hemisphere (Kieffer, J. Geophys. Res., 84, 8263, 1979). Scientists have sought to explain this asymmetry by modeling observations of the latitudinal recession of the polar cap and seasonal variations in atmospheric pressure (since the seasonal polar caps are primarily frozen atmosphere, they are directly related to changes in atmospheric mass). These models reproduce most aspects of the observed annual variation in atmospheric pressure fairly accurately. Furthermore, the predicted latitudinal recession of the northern polar cap in the spring agrees well with observations, including the fact that CO2 ice is predicted to completely sublime away. However, these models all predict that the carbon dioxide ice will also sublime away during the summer in the Southern Hemisphere, unlike what is observed. It is shown here how the radiative effects of ozone, clouds, and airborne dust, light penetration into and through the polar cap, and the dependence of albedo on solar zenith angle affect CO2 ice formation and sublimation, and how they help explain the hemispherical asymmetry in the residual polar caps. These effects have not been studied with prior polar cap models. The combination of the effects of solar zenith angle on albedo and the radiative effects of clouds and dust act to extend the lifetime of CO2 ice on the south pole relatively more than on the north pole, possibly explaining the hemispherical asymmetry in the residual polar caps without the need of a hemispherical asymmetry in polar cap albedo. This does not imply that a hemispherical asymmetry in polar cap albedo does not exist, but that one is not necessary. Observations of the regression of the polar caps and the annual cycle in atmospheric pressure are reproduced fairly well by the model, as shown in the figures, although further improvement is needed. When CO2 ice is retained at the south pole, the model predictions of the annual cycle in atmospheric pressure have a phase shift relative to the data, no matter what model input parameters are used. We are investigating other processes not included in prior polar cap models.
Lindner, Bernhard Lee↗