Experimental results for Titan aerobot thermo-mechanical subsystem development

This paper describes experimental results from a development program focused on maturing Titan aerobot technology in the areas of mechanical and thermal subsystems. Results from four key activities are described: first, a cryogenic balloon materials development program involving coupon and cylinder tests and culminating in the fabrication and testing of an inflated 4.6 m long prototype blimp at 93 K; second, a combined lab experiment and numerical simulation effort to assess potential problems resulting from radioisotope power source waste heat generation near an inflated blimp; third, an aerial deployment and inflation development program consisting of laboratory and helicopter drop tests on a near full scale (11 m long) prototype blimp; and fourth, a proof of concept experiment demonstrating the viability of using a mechanically steerable high gain antenna on a floating blimp to perform direct to Earth telecommunications from Titan. The paper provides details on all of these successful activities and discusses their impact on the overall effort to produce mature systems technology for future Titan aerobot missions.     

Possible Experiments for Manned Orbiting Laboratory

Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) will provide the opportunity for space experiments and an assessment of man's ability to perform at zero gravity. The experiments discussed (nine in all) are designed to provide astrophysical and terrestrial information on ultraviolet, airglow, upper atmosphere chemistry, solar corona investigations, observation of objects at or near the sun's limb, cosmic ray investigations, planetary astronomy, and ionospheric investigations including plasmas.     

In-Flight Parity Vector Compensation for FDI

The performance of a failure detection and isolation (FDI) algorithm applied to a redundant strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) is limited by sensor errors such as input axis misalignment, scale factor errors, and biases. A techique is presented for improving the performance of FDI algorithms applied to redundant strapdown IMUs. A Kalman filter provides estimates of those linear combinations of sensor errors that affect the parity vector. These estimates are used to form a compensated parity vector which does not include the effects of sensor errors. The compensated parity vector is then used in place of the uncompensated parity vector to make FDI decisions. Simulation results are presented in which the algorithm is tested in a realistic flight environment that includes vehicle maneuvers, the effects of turbulence, and sensor failures. The results show that the algorithm can significantly improve FDI performance, especially during vehicle maneuvers.     

A simulation model for the analysis of Space Station gas-phase trace contaminants.

A simulation model for the analysis of gas-phase trace contaminants in the cabin air of the NASA Space Station Reference Configuration was developed at the NASA Langley Research Center. The model predicts changes in trace contaminant concentrations from both physical and chemical sources an sinks as a function of time. Simulations were performed in which values for relative humidity, temperature radiation intensity, pressure, and initial species concentrations were constrained to values for the parameters measured and modeled in the continental tropics at the Earth's surface. Species concentrations simulated using the model compared favorable with concentrations in the continental tropics which demonstrated that the chemical mechanism in the trace contaminant model approximates changes atmospheric species concentrations. The sensitivity of initial species concentrations to producing change in additional species concentrations was also assessed. Results from the model indicated that chemical reactions will be important in determining the composition of cabin air in the Space Station. It is anticipated that the trace contaminant model will be useful in assessing the impact of experiments a commercial operations on the composition of the cabin air in the Space Station.     

Satellite-Satellite Laser Links for Future Gravity Missions

A strong candidate for use in future missions to map time variations in the Earth's gravity field is laser heterodyne measurements between separate spacecraft. At the shortest wavelengths that can be measured in space, the main accuracy limitation for variations in the potential with latitude is expected to be the frequency stability of the laser. Thus the development of simple and reliable space-qualified lasers with high frequency stability appears to be an important goal for the near future. In the last few years, quite high stability has been achieved by locking the second harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser to a resonant absorption line of iodine molecules in an absorption cell. Such a laser system can be made quite robust, and temperature related frequency shifts can be controlled at a low value. Recent results from laboratory systems are described. The Allan standard deviation for the beat between two such lasers was 2 × 10⁻¹⁴ at 10 s, and reached 7 × 10⁻¹⁵ at 600 s. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Faraday Loss for L-Band Radar and Communications Systems

The mechanism of Faraday rotation as it affects radar and communication propagation has been extensively treated (1, 7). The purpose of this paper is to point out the magnitude of the effect and its possible consequences which have not been appreciated. Contrary to what many believe, the two-way Faraday rotation angle and loss can be large at L-band for ground-based, linearly polarized radar systems observing targets above the ionosphere. Similarly, the one-way Faraday rotation and loss for linearly polarized, ground-to-space pace communication links at comparable frequencies can be large. The magnitude of the rotation loss depends on the location of the radar or communication station in latitude and longitude, the condition of the ionosphere, and the elevation and azimuth angles of the target. For example, based on the total electron content in 1970 (a peak sunspot activity year) at L-band, a two-way Faraday rotation greater than 50°a loss greater than 3.8 dB is calculated to occur at 60° N, 70° W, 75 percent of the time between the hours of 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. for nine months, and 22 percent of the total time for the entire year, when looking toward the south magnetic pole at low elevation angles. For the same year this rotation and loss at 15°N, 150° is calculated to occur 48 percent of the total time when looking south at low elevation angles.     

The Voyager Interstellar Mission

The Voyager Interstellar Mission began on January 1, 1990, with the primary objective being to characterize the interplanetary medium beyond Neptune and to search for the transition region between the interplanetary medium and the interstellar medium. At the start of this mission, the two Voyager spacecraft had already been in flight for over twelve years, having successfully returned a wealth of scientific information about the planetary systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and the interplanetary medium between Earth and Neptune. The two spacecraft have the potential to continue returning science data until around the year 2020. With this extended operating lifetime, there is a high likelihood of one of the two spacecraft penetrating the termination shock and possibly the heliopause boundary, and entering interstellar space before that time. This paper describes the Voyager Interstellar Mission--the mission objectives, the spacecraft and science payload, the mission operations system used to support operations, and the mission operations strategy being used to maximize science data return even in the event of certain potential spacecraft subsystem failures. The implementation of automated analysis tools to offset and enable reduced flight team staffing levels is also discussed.