ATS-6 Parabolic Antenna for Mounting Solar Cells

Calculations are made to obtain the raw electrical power that can be generated by using an ATS-6 type deployable parabolic dish as a surface for mounting solar cells without seriously interfering with its normal function as an antenna. A minimum of a few hundred watts to a maximum of a few kilowatts are generated during the apparent course of the Sun around the spacecraft. Academically, it seems that deployable solar cell panels along with their booms can be avoided.     

High-Density Avionic Power Supply

Dramatic reductions in size and weight have been achieved in the area of signal and information processing. Power conditioning circuits have not kept pace, primarily due to the relatively slow proggress ress in the passive energy storage and transformation devices. A novel converter topology is described that minimizes the task these components must perform and thereby achieve a significant improvement in power supply density.     

Radar Calibration Test Satellite

A satellite has been designed for application to radar calibration. Electromagnetic and mechanical characteristics of the satellite and their influence on the selection of shape and other parameters are discussed. Theoretical and experimental scattering data are included.     

Synthesis of Digital Filters for the Control of Short Periodic Angular Oscillations of Aerospace Vehicles

The application of digital onboard computers for flight control of high-performance aerospace vehicles is desirable, with respect to hardware effort and reliability, as well as operational flexibility. Up to now, digital computers have not been used for the control of short periodic angular oscillations. This task can be solved with the capability of digital computers now available. A good vehicle for the realization of appropriate control equations is the ?frequency transformation?. Using the simplified dynamics of a supersonic aircraft as an example, a procedure for synthesis of a digital control filter is presented. After a first evaluation in the s domain, the design is checked for validity in the frequency domain. If necessary, the original design is corrected appropriately.     

On the deployment dynamics of tether connected two-body systems

A general formulation of the deployment dynamics of tether connected two-body systems taking into account the three dimensional librational motion, longitudinal and transverse vibrations of the continuous tether, eccentricity of the orbit and aerodynamic drag in a rotating, oblate atmosphere, is presented. Three simple deployment procedures (uniform, exponential and their combination) are considered. In the beginning analytical solutions are obtained for the degenerate case of negligible vibrations in a circular orbit, which help in establishing trends for the more general situation. This is followed by the general dynamics of the system investigated through integration of the linearized autonomous equations of motion numerically. Typical plots are presented which describe the effects of various system parameters on the tether dynamics during deployment of a subsatellite from the Space Shuttle.     

Instrumentation for balloon and rocket experiments

A number of plasma, particle and field detectors used on rocket investigations in and above the Earth's atmosphere are described. Emphasis is on magnetospheric and solar-interplanetary studies. A balloon-borne X-ray telescope system with 20 pointing accuracy is discussed. A PCM telemetry system used on both balloons and rockets to handle scientific data is described including a simple Doppler ranging system that gives location to 1.5 km. A system to reduce and analyze PCM data on the ground is discussed.     

Radar observations of Mars

Radar observations in the past were used to investigate the astronomical properties of the planet and its reflectivity in radar frequencies. Because of the difficulties in signal detection and processing due to the low level of return signal, the data were published only in the form of Doppler spectrograms. In view of the increasing interest in Mars and the practicability of missions to Mars this paper uses the published data to evaluate the angular behavior of the radar backscattering characteristics of Mars; a required information for the design of radar equipment of spacecrafts. In addition, results of past observations are summarized, analyzed and discussed in terms of a general interpretation of the Martian surface. It is found that the generally accepted suggestion that Mars is a relatively smooth planet, smoother than the Moon, is confirmed by most of the results, but not all observations agree with this hypothesis. A surface model of relief and composition based on radar information in conjunction with other observations is reviewed. The processing methods of radar return signals are compared for a better understanding of the handling of the Doppler spectrogram, a form which is most widely used for the presentation of processed data.An extensive bibliography of available papers and reports relevant to radar observations and the surface and lower atmosphere of Mars is included. The literature is concerned mainly with post-Mariner IV experiment, the mission which changed considerably many conceptions of Mars.     

Adaptive Radar Detection with Asymptotically Regulated False-Alarm Rate

An adaptive detection procedure is described by which the detection threshold is so adjusted as to provide an asymptotic false-alarm probability PFA that is approximately invariant with changes in radar clutter return amplitude probability density functions (pdf's) in a broad class. The class includes Rayleigh, chi, Weibull, and lognormal pdf's. The receiver noise is also taken into account. The clutter-plus-noise pdf is approximated by a truncated generalized Laguerre series, the coefficients of which are estimated from the radar returns using "cell averaging" techniques. This estimation is assumed to be perfect. The results obtained indicate that the "bias" error, defined as the normalized difference between the design PFA and the asymptotic PFA corresponding to the computed threshold, lies within a fraction of an order of magnitude for 10-3?PFA ? 10-6. For PFA ?10-6 the bias error is more than an order of magnitude. These results are for the case when a single independent radar return is processed at a time. The bias error decreases as the number of postdetection integrations of independent returns increases.     

An Adaptive Antenna for Rejection of Wideband Interference

A modification to the adaptive array under the directional constraint [1] is proposed to improve its performance of rejecting wideband interference. By analogy to the pattern synthesis of an antenna array which produces a flat null in its radiation pattern, an additional quantity that corresponds to the derivative of the pattern is generated and combined with the standard feedback quantity to control the weights of the array. This composite system is tested by computer simulation experiments and the following points are demonstrated in contrast to the conventional, simple system: 1) faster adaptation against wideband interference, 2) remarkable improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of the output, i. e., very small fluctuation.