The Use of Environmental Stress in Conjunction with Simulation Testing

Large-scale vehicle simulations in which human subjects are exposed to realistic environmental profiles are well within the engineering state-of-the-art. The Boeing Multiple-Stress Laboratory is capable of exposing subjects to heat, noise, vibration, and altitude, while measuring their performance and physiology. Data have been obtained on simulations relative to fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and three-stage boosters. Exposure periods have ranged from a minimum of 9 minutes to a maximum of 6 hours. Boeing experience, in the past 4 years, has evidenced that a facility of this type can provide an effective bridge between analytical studies and the operational situation. Inherently flexible, such a facility can support a wide variety of development programs.     

Synopsis: Horizons in Guidance Computer Component Technology

An extensive survey of semiconductor and memory component manufacturers conducted by the Electronics Research Center of NASA and industry has resulted in estimates of the state of the art of components available to designers of on-board guidance and control computers for long-term, deep-space missions for the 1970-1972 period. The vehicle for the survey was the mission requirements for the synchronous satellite, lunar orbiter, Mars orbiter, and Jupiter fly-by solar probe missions.     

The Lower Solar Atmosphere Rapporteur Paper II

This “rapporteur” report discusses the solar photosphere and low chromosphere in the context of chemical composition studies. The highly dynamical nature of the photosphere does not seem to jeopardize precise determination of solar abundances in classical fashion. It is still an open question how the highly dynamical nature of the low chromosphere contributes to first ionization potential (FIP) fractionation. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) on RBSP

The Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) investigation on the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes (now named the Van Allen Probes) mission provides key wave and very low frequency magnetic field measurements to understand radiation belt acceleration, loss, and transport. The key science objectives and the contribution that EMFISIS makes to providing measurements as well as theory and modeling are described. The key components of the instruments suite, both electronics and sensors, including key functional parameters, calibration, and performance, demonstrate that EMFISIS provides the needed measurements for the science of the RBSP mission. The EMFISIS operational modes and data products, along with online availability and data tools provide the radiation belt science community with one the most complete sets of data ever collected.     

The STEREO IMPACT Boom

An essential component of the STEREO IMPACT investigation is its nearly 6 m long boom that provides several of the instruments with a sufficiently clean magnetic environment and minimally restricted fields of view, while having the required rigidity to ensure the spacecraft pointing accuracy for the STEREO imaging investigations. Details of the customized telescoping IMPACT Boom design, construction and testing are described in this review. The successful completion and verification of the IMPACT Booms represents a demonstration of the use of Stacers as motive forces for rigid boom deployment.     

Development of a thin section device for space exploration: Overview and system performance estimates

In this paper we present a conceptual design of a spaceborne instrument for the in situ production of rock thin sections on planetary surfaces. The in situ Automated Rock Thin Section Instrument (IS-ARTS) conceptual design demonstrates that the in situ production of thin sections on a planetary body is a plausible new instrument capability for future planetary exploration. Thin section analysis would reduce much ambiguity in the geological history of a sampled site that is present with instruments currently flown. The technical challenge of producing a thin section device compatible with the spacecraft environment is formidable and has been thought too technically difficult to be practical. Terrestrial thin section preparation requires a skilled petrographist, several preparation instruments that individually exceed typical spacecraft mass and power limits, and consumable materials that are not easily compatible with spaceflight. In two companion papers we present research and development work used to constrain the capabilities of IS-ARTS in the technical space compatible with the spacecraft environment. For the design configuration shown we conclude that a device can be constructed that is capable of 50 sample preparations over a 2 year lifespan with mass, power, and volume constraints compatible with current landed Mars mission configurations. The technical requirements of IS-ARTS (mass, power and number of samples produced) depend strongly on the sample mechanical properties, sample processing rate, the sample size and number of samples to be produced.     

Free-Flight Models in Wind Tunnels

A radio telemetry system is described which permits the acquisition of aerodynamic data from free-flight models in wind tunnels. Small transistorized telemeters are used. The telemeters are frequency modulated by either variable-capacitance pressure transducers or by variable-resistance heat-transfer transducers. The models are generally recovered intact after tunnel runs, allowing repeated runs using a single model and permitting recalibrations to verify that no calibration changes have occurred. As many as four channels of data have been recorded simultaneously from a single model at Mach 20. These were base pressure and heat-transfer rate, and forebody surface pressure and heat-transfer rate on 9-deg half-angle, blunt cone models. Several single-channel, base-pressure measurements have been made on 10-deg half-angle, sharp cone models at Mach numbers of 4, 8, and 10. Sample aerodynamic data transmitted during these tests are presented to illustrate the performance of these telemetry systems.     

International cooperation - how to proceed

As part of a project exploring ways that international cooperation can maximize the benefits of space activities in the new political climate of the 1990s, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has been organizing expert workshops on the subject. The latest of these, held in December 1994, focused on five areas: global space systems services; human and robotic exploration; space transportation; solar power to Earth; and international peacekeeping. It is only in the last few years that recommendations on the latter topic could realistically have been put forward and, as a prelude to our presentation of the Executive Summary of the report produced by AIAA, two of the 60-plus participants drawn from 15 countries, Robert Fuhrmann and Jürgen Wild, discuss the implications of this new found openness over international security and analyse the background to its genesis.     

The prospects for enhanced international polar-orbiting satellite cooperation

With robust polar satellite missions demonstrated and/or operational in the USA, Europe, Japan, China, Russia, India, and Brazil, and with other nations also likely to develop such capability, this paper examines the prospects for as well as the potential challenges to closer and perhaps more formal international polar satellite cooperation. In suggesting that now is the time to explore the development of a coordinated polar observing system, the present paper identifies potential contributors, assesses the relevance of existing space-based Earth observation international coordination mechanisms, and considers three potential models for a future system.     

Deployment Mechanisms on the Fast Satellite: Magnetometer,Radial Wire,and Axial Booms

The Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) satellite was launched by a Pegasus XL on August 21, 1996. This was the second launch in the NASA SMall EXplorer (SMEX) program. Early in the mission planning the decision was made to have the University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (UCB-SSL) mechanical engineering staff provide all of the spacecraft appendages, in order to meet the short development schedule, and to insure compatibility. This paper describes the design development, testing and on-orbit deployment of these boom systems: the 2 m carbon fiber magnetometer booms, the 58 m tip to tip spin-plane wire booms, and the 7 m dipole axial stiff booms.