Interferences in Phase-Locked Loops

An analysis of the behavior of a second-order phase-locked loop is presented when an unwanted signal is added to the useful signal. Both signals are sinusoidal and unmodulated, and the analysis is made in the absence of additive noise. When the loop remains locked on the useful signal, a parasitic signal exists at the phase detector output. This signal produces a parasitic phase modulation of the VCO and a static phase error in the loop. The parasitic signal amplitude, the parasitic phase modulation index, and the static phase error are calculated. A necessary condition for the loop to remain in lock is derived. When the loop is initially unlocked, locking can occur either on the useful signal or on the unwanted signal, depending on the amplitude ratio and the frequency difference of the two signals. A formula allowing one to compute the pull-in time is obtained. When the loop locks on the useful signal, acquisition can be slower or faster than in the absence of an unwanted signal. The same phenomenon is observed when the loop locks on the unwanted signal.     

An adventure in technology and marketing: a personal account. Tripto the Orient via the Moon

Early in the sixties when President Kennedy announced the goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth, there was no way to gauge, accurately and reliably, the millions of pounds of fuel and oxidizer in the proposed rocket. Late in the sixties, when Phillips Petroleum and Marathon Oil contracted to provide large-scale, long term, ocean transport of Liquefied Natural Gas, no system existed to satisfactorily gauge this stream of high value cargoes for commercial transactions. The adventure in solving these related problems led to a worldwide market for LNG Custody Transfer Systems, a successful transfer of technology from a NASA program to commercial use     

An Improvement to an Algorithm for Computing Aircraft Reference Altitude

A recently developed algorithm which is being used to compute an aircraft reference altitude from air data inputs is accurate in a stationary column of air. However, pressure gradients in the atmosphere can introduce significant errors. An improvement (which corrects for pressure gradient errors) has been developed which is based on the equilibrium equation for the motion of the air mass in the presence of pressure gradients.     

BAX: a dedicated X-rays galaxy clusters database

We present BAX, Base de Données amas de galaxies X (http://webast.ast.obs-mip.fr/bax), a project aiming at building a comprehensive database dedicated to X-rays clusters of galaxies allowing detailed information retrieval. BAX provides the user with basic data published in the literature on X-rays clusters of galaxies as well as with information concerning the physical properties in the X-rays domain or at other wavelengths. BAX allows individual studies on selected clusters as well as building up homogenous samples, from known X-rays clusters for which selection criteria are chosen through web interfaces. We expect BAX to become a useful tool for astronomy community in order to optimize the cluster science return using data from both ground based facilities like MEGACAM (CFHT), VIRMOS (VLT) and space missions like XMM, Chandra and Planck.     

Phase-Locked Loop Behavior near Threshold

The phase-locked loop behavior is analyzed following the quasilinearization Booton's method. When the loop is locked on an unmodulated input signal with a static phase error, the phase detector nonlinearity produces an interaction between the static phase error and the voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) noise phase fluctuations. Formulas allowing one to compute the static phase error increase and the VCO phase variance increase are derived. When the input signal is phase modulated, there is an interaction between the static phase error, the VCO noise phase fluctuations, and the input signal phase modulation. Formulas are obtained that allow one to compute the loop loss of performances (static phase error increase and VCO phase variance increase) and the coherent phase demodulator output signal-to-noise ratio decrease. Finally, a slight modification to Booton's procedure is proposed, leading to results in better agreement with experimental data.     

Achieving GPS–Galileo interoperability: the challenges ahead

The enormous benefits of a worldwide accurate location system can only be achieved if GPS and Galileo can be made truly interoperable. The technical issues involved are relatively easy to deal with but the political and legal problems require far greater attention, with military issues and enactment of legislation the chief difficulties. These are discussed using examples, notably from road traffic law. Given that the US DoD is unlikely to cede control of GPS to the civil sector and design a new, separate system, the best solution might be to set aside part of GPS for purely civil purposes.     

System Worth, System Effectiveness, Integrated Logistics Support, and Maintainability

The system worth or cost effectiveness concept covers the measure of a system in terms of total dollar value. System worth encompasses the elements of system effectiveness (a quantitative measure of a system's technical ability) as well as cost. One of the elements of system effectiveness is maintainability. Maintainability is an effective mechanism for the accomplishment of planned maintenance during the early design and development phases of a system. Planned maintenance is an element of integrated logistics support. The intent of this paper is to outline the basic elements associated with system worth, system effectiveness, and integrated logistics support, to outline the interrelation-ships of these concepts, and to cover the discipline of maintainability as an element of each concept.     

Modeling biological effects from magnetic fields

Research investigating how electromagnetic fields (EMF) might influence biological systems has suffered from the absence of a working experimental model that defines relationships between all the physical exposure parameters required to produce a biological effect. As a result, when these variables are not controlled from one experiment to another, many experimental results cannot be replicated. Recently, Blanchard and Blackman [1994] developed an ion parametric resonance (IPR) model to predict how parallel DC and low frequency AC magnetic fields might influence biological systems. Further, the IPR model has something different from previous models in this area: it is supported by an extensive, and growing, body of experimental data     

Studying the evolution of the hot universe with the X-ray evolving universe spectroscopy mission – XEUS

Europe is one of the major partners building the International Space Station (ISS) and European industry, together with ESA, is responsible for many station components including the Columbus Orbital Facility, the Automated Transport Vehicle, two connecting modules and the European Robotic Arm. Together with this impressive list of contributions there is a strong desire within the ESA Member States to benefit from this investment by utilizing the unique capabilities of the ISS to perform world-class science. XEUS is one of the astronomical applications being studied by ESA to utilize the capabilities of the ISS. XEUS will be a long-term X-ray observatory with an initial mirror area of 6 m² at 1 keV that will be expanded to 30 m² following a visit to the ISS. The 1 keV spatial resolution is expected to be 2–5″ half-energy-width. XEUS will consist of separate detector and mirror spacecraft (MSC) aligned by active control to provide a focal length of 50 m. A new detector spacecraft, complete with the next generation of instruments, will also be added after visiting the ISS. The limiting 0.1–2.5 keV sensitivity will then be 4 × 10⁻¹⁸ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹, around 200 times better than XMM-Newton, allowing XEUS to study the properties of the hot baryons and dark matter at high redshift.