Planetary rings

The individual ring systems are described with dust/magnetosphere interactions high-lighted somewhat. Jupiter's main ring is tenuous and enveloped by the magnetosphere; it principally contains micron-sized silicate grains. A vertically-extended, radially-localized “halo” of submicron particles lies inward of the main ring while a newly-discovered very faint ring lies outside it. The classical Saturnian system is composed of water ice chunks with sizes principally between cm and meters. Satellite resonances determine some ring structure but most is not understood. The faint exterior rings (E, G, F and one just identified between the A and F rings) are intimately associated with magnetospheric particles and contain mainly small grains, which are also prominent in the “spokes” located in the dense, middle portion of the B ring. Most of the nine narrow Uranian rings are slightly inclined and eccentric, and presumably lie within the putative Uranian magnetosphere. Particles are likely carbonaceous; sizes are thought to be larger than microns.     

Vertical shear at the equatorial F-region ionosphere during post-sunset hours

The characteristics of the equatorial F-region zonal plasma drift during post-sunset period have been investigated using the multi-frequency HF Doppler radar. The pattern of the zonal plasma drift is such that it starts with a westward drift during the pre-sunset hours, followed by an eastward drift shortly after the E-region sunset. The zonal plasma drift is characterized by the presence of a positive vertical shear around the post-sunset period and maximum shear is observed at the time of the peak of the pre-reversal enhancement in the vertical drift. The presence of vertical shear in the zonal drift is associated with the post-sunset velocity vortex existing at the equatorial F-region.     

The Mawrth Vallis region of Mars: A potential landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission

The primary objective of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which will launch in 2011, is to characterize the habitability of a site on Mars through detailed analyses of the composition and geological context of surface materials. Within the framework of established mission goals, we have evaluated the value of a possible landing site in the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars that is targeted directly on some of the most geologically and astrobiologically enticing materials in the Solar System. The area around Mawrth Vallis contains a vast (>1?×?10? km2) deposit of phyllosilicate-rich, ancient, layered rocks. A thick (>150?m) stratigraphic section that exhibits spectral evidence for nontronite, montmorillonite, amorphous silica, kaolinite, saponite, other smectite clay minerals, ferrous mica, and sulfate minerals indicates a rich geological history that may have included multiple aqueous environments. Because phyllosilicates are strong indicators of ancient aqueous activity, and the preservation potential of biosignatures within sedimentary clay deposits is high, martian phyllosilicate deposits are desirable astrobiological targets. The proposed MSL landing site at Mawrth Vallis is located directly on the largest and most phyllosilicate-rich deposit on Mars and is therefore an excellent place to explore for evidence of life or habitability.     

Analytical solutions for the relative motion of spacecraft subject to Lorentz-force perturbations

A spacecraft capable of producing higher-than-natural electrostatic charges may achieve propellantless orbital maneuvering via the Lorentz-force interaction with a planetary magnetic field. Development of maneuver strategies for these propellantless vehicles is complicated by the fact that the perturbative Lorentz force acts along only a single line of action at any instant. Relative-motion dynamical models are developed that lead to approximate analytical solutions for the motion of charged spacecraft subject to the Lorentz force. These solutions indicate that the principal effects of the Lorentz force on a spacecraft in a circular orbit are to change the intrack position and to change the orbit plane. A rendezvous example is presented in which a spacecraft with a specific charge of ?3.81 $\times$ 10^?4 C/kg reaches a target vehicle initially 10 km away (on the same equatorial low-Earth orbit) in 1 day. Fly-around maneuvers may be achieved in low-Earth orbit with specific charges on the order of 0.001 C/kg.     

Cassini Imaging Science: Instrument Characteristics And Anticipated Scientific Investigations At Saturn

The Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) is the highest-resolution two-dimensional imaging device on the Cassini Orbiter and has been designed for investigations of the bodies and phenomena found within the Saturnian planetary system. It consists of two framing cameras: a narrow angle, reflecting telescope with a 2-m focal length and a square field of view (FOV) 0.35^∘ across, and a wide-angle refractor with a 0.2-m focal length and a FOV 3.5^∘ across. At the heart of each camera is a charged coupled device (CCD) detector consisting of a 1024 square array of pixels, each 12 μ on a side. The data system allows many options for data collection, including choices for on-chip summing, rapid imaging and data compression. Each camera is outfitted with a large number of spectral filters which, taken together, span the electromagnetic spectrum from 200 to 1100 nm. These were chosen to address a multitude of Saturn-system scientific objectives: sounding the three-dimensional cloud structure and meteorology of the Saturn and Titan atmospheres, capturing lightning on both bodies, imaging the surfaces of Saturn’s many icy satellites, determining the structure of its enormous ring system, searching for previously undiscovered Saturnian moons (within and exterior to the rings), peering through the hazy Titan atmosphere to its yet-unexplored surface, and in general searching for temporal variability throughout the system on a variety of time scales. The ISS is also the optical navigation instrument for the Cassini mission. We describe here the capabilities and characteristics of the Cassini ISS, determined from both ground calibration data and in-flight data taken during cruise, and the Saturn-system investigations that will be conducted with it. At the time of writing, Cassini is approaching Saturn and the images returned to Earth thus far are both breathtaking and promising.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Exploring a structured decision approach as a means of fostering participatory space policy making at NASA

In 1996, the National Research Council's Committee on Risk Characterization argued convincingly for the implementation of more participatory approaches to improve policy making by incorporating a wide range of stakeholder values and concerns in policy decisions. Guidance about how to best carry out such an approach in an agency like NASA is less clear. To address this gap, this paper discusses how the use of a structured approach to involve expert and non-expert stakeholders in policy making can improve the quality of stakeholder involvement and resulting decisions for space policy making at NASA. Supporting this discussion are results from two recent experiments. One compared the quality and type of participants’ input in a conventional stakeholder workshop with that of a more structured participatory process. The results from this experiment showed that a structured decision approach leads to more thoughtful and better-informed decisions. A second experiment showed that structured, participatory decision processes can help to legitimize space policy decisions after they have been implemented, leading to future benefits for the space agency.     

Federal tax incentives and financing for the reusable launch vehicle

Financing a very large new space transportation system is a major venture. It requires an initial investment of many billions of dollars and will be expected to perform successfully during its lifetime of at least twenty-five years. In the past, space systems of this magnitude have been funded, owned and operated by the government. Today, as the responsibility for opening and maintaining space systems is expected to shift from government to industry leadership, the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) presents the private sector with the challenge of finding ways of financing and building a system that will prove to be a successful private venture. The government, recognizing that it is a major customer of the RLV and that new technology must be developed for the RLV to work and to adequately reduce the cost of access to space, will fund some Initial technology development as well as provide some incentives for a private operator. This paper shows that using the current tax system's corporate investment benefits, coupled with a favorable debt financing arrangement, a profitable privately owned RLV system Is within the realm of possibility.     

Geochemistry of Carbonates on Mars: Implications for Climate History and Nature of Aqueous Environments

Ongoing research on martian meteorites and a new set of observations of carbonate minerals provided by an unprecedented series of robotic missions to Mars in the past 15 years help define new constraints on the history of martian climate with important crosscutting themes including: the CO₂ budget of Mars, the role of Mg-, Fe-rich fluids on Mars, and the interplay between carbonate formation and acidity. Carbonate minerals have now been identified in a wide range of localities on Mars as well as in several martian meteorites. The martian meteorites contain carbonates in low abundances (<1 vol.%) and with a wide range of chemistries. Carbonates have also been identified by remote sensing instruments on orbiting spacecraft in several surface locations as well as in low concentrations (2–5 wt.%) in the martian dust. The Spirit rover also identified an outcrop with 16 to 34 wt.% carbonate material in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater that strongly resembled the composition of carbonate found in martian meteorite ALH 84001. Finally, the Phoenix lander identified concentrations of 3–6 wt.% carbonate in the soils of the northern plains. The carbonates discovered to date do not clearly indicate the past presence of a dense Noachian atmosphere, but instead suggest localized hydrothermal aqueous environments with limited water availability that existed primarily in the early to mid-Noachian followed by low levels of carbonate formation from thin films of transient water from the late Noachian to the present. The prevalence of carbonate along with evidence for active carbonate precipitation suggests that a global acidic chemistry is unlikely and a more complex relationship between acidity and carbonate formation is present.