The Circular Synthetic Radar

A new type of synthetic radar, the circular synthetic radar, uses a simple interferometer whose elements are mounted at the ends of a horizontal boom rotating about a vertical mast. Pulses are radiated alternately ?in-phase? and in ?phase-quadrature.? The returning echoes are also detected incoherently, both ?in-phase? and in ?phase-quadrature.? The four distinct outputs are fed into an on-line computer which, after a Fourier analysis, synthesizes a mapping function of the azimuthal distribution of targets.     

Closed-Form Expressions for Noncoherent Radar Integration Gain and Collapsing Loss

Closed-form formulas allow rapid determination of noncoherent integration gain and integration loss when the single-sample IF signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is known. In addition, if the required SNR is known for any number of integrated pulses, the required SNR for any other number is easily determined. A closed-form expression is given for radar collapsing loss, expressed in terms of the equivalent integrated signal-to-noise ratio required to produce a given combination of false-alarm and detection probabilities. Alternatively, the single-sample signal-to-noise ratio of a set of samples may be used together with the closed-form expression for integration gain to get the equivalent integrated signal-to-noise ratio.     

Elemental and isotopic abundances of the volatile elements in the outer planets

Certain fundamental scientific problems of a cosmological as well as cosmogonic character, may be solved by the insertion of entry probes into the atmospheres of the outer planets. It is recommended that attempts be made to determine the elemental and isotopic abundances of H, D, He³, He⁴, C, N, O, S, and the rare gas elements. These determinations should cast much light on the processes which participated in the assembly of the giant planets. This would give powerful boundary conditions on theories of the origin of the solar system, and would also give additional experimental information bearing on cosmology.This is one of the publications by the Science Advisory Group.     

Changes in the amino acid code.

The genetic code is characterized by a pattern arising from "wobble-pairing" between codons and anticodons, so that one nucleotide in the first anticodon position can pair with more than one nucleotide in the third position of a codon. Earlier codes may have existed in which there were fewer anticodons than at present, so that these earlier codes contained fewer amino acids. The universal code was formerly thought to be the only currently existing code used by terrestrial species. It is now known that differences exist from the universal code in mitochondrial coding systems, and also that mitochondrial systems differ from each other. These findings lend support to the proposal that archetypal codes preceded the present universal code. Such archetypal codes may have had some resemblances to mitochondrial codes.     

Activity Planning for the Space Station

This paper presents an overview of the identification and selection process of experiments and payloads for manned space flight missions, emphasizing the scope and magnitude of the problem of doing activity planning and the need for a methodology to assure timely flight and appropriate spacecraft design. Conclusions and results derived from the past several years are presented together with an analysis of the current procedure for defining activity for the space station.     

Position-Location Solutions by Taylor-Series Estimation

Taylor-series estimation gives a least-sum-squared-error solution to a set of simultaneous linearized algebraic equations. This method is useful in solving multimeasurement mixed-mode position-location problems typical of many navigational applications. While convergence is not proved, examples show that most problems do converge to the correct solution from reasonable initial guesses. The method also provides the statistical spread of the solution errors.     

Experiments with injection of powerful plasma jet into the ionosphere

This paper describes two rocket experiments “Aelita” with high power lithium plasma injection. The results of onboard magnetometer, massspectrometer, photometer, plasma, corpuscular and ground radar measurements are given. Dynamics and structure of plasma formation are discussed.     

The dynamics of the atmospheres of the major planets

The literature on the dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere is reviewed and used as a basis for suggesting what observations would yield useful information about Jovian Dynamics. The atmospheres of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are discussed from the same point of view.This is one of the publications by the Science Advisory Group.     

Determination of Bounds on Performance Measure and Min-Max Controllers in Time-Lag Systems

The effect of bounded deterministic disturbances (external and/or internal) on a chosen performance index (PI) is investigated. Upper and lower bounds of the PI about a nominal value are determined by the application of the optimum control theory. A computational procedure is also proposed to determine an approximately optimal feedback controller for time-lag systems. Such a controller is designed here on the basis of min-max criteria. Numerical examples illustrate the proposed approach.