Analysis of solar degradation to TDRS S-band phased array antenna

A study of the distribution of gain-to-noise-temperature (G/T) values for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) satellite is described. The statistics of the G/T values are determined by a Monte Carlo simulation of the orbital geometry of the Sun and Moon, and the gain and noise temperature calculations is included. The results and their underlying assumptions are described     

Viscous fluid flow in an elastic pipeline

Basic equations of hydrodynamics in an elastic pipeline that are found using the vectorial notation of Newton’s law for a viscous fluid are presented. An analog of Poiseuille’s formula for the fluid flowrate in the elastic pipeline and the results of the comparative analysis of a viscous flow in elastic and rigid pipelines are given. It is shown that the ratio of the maximal fluid velocity in the pipeline cross section and the section-average velocity is similar for elastic and rigid pipelines.     

Active aeroelastic control over a four control surface wing model

This paper describes the procedure implemented to design, develop and test an aeroelastic control system installed on a forward swept wing of the aeroelastic demonstrator X-DIA. A control method directly based on Nissim aerodynamic energy concept has been chosen. Two different modeling techniques have been adopted for the calculation of generalized aerodynamic forces, such as doublet lattice method and computational fluid dynamics and the obtained results are finally compared. The latter approach, applied to better estimate the control surfaces effectiveness, requires the capability to correctly model the control surface rotation and the grid deformation, usually addressed as non-trivial problems in CFD based aeroelastic analysis. A genetic algorithm optimization technique has been adopted to state and refine all the control gains.     

Experimental studies of the impulsive ultrasonic machining by a tool with an intermediate striker

Some experimental data on the process of impulsive ultrasonic machining are presented. Also given are the data on variations in the impulsive vibration frequency of a workpiece and a tool.     

Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy and Photometry

Photometry and spectroscopy of extrasolar planets provides information about their atmospheres and surfaces. From extrasolar planet spectra and photometry we can infer the composition and temperature of the atmospheres as well as the presence of molecular species, including biosignature gases or surface features. So far photometry has been published for three different transiting hot Jupiters (gas giant planets in short-period orbits), opening the era of comparative exoplanetology.     

Technique of integral diagnostics for a radio-frequency inductively coupled plasma discharge unit of an RF ion thruster

A technique of integral diagnostics for an RF inductively coupled plasma gas discharge unit of an ion thruster is proposed. This technique includes a priori measurements of antenna coil electrical parameters in free space and in assembled state as well as experimental determination of the antenna coil currents with and without discharge.     

SDI

The President's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) began in 1983 following his historic March 23, 1983 speech. The SDI program has enjoyed substantial progress since this beginning. As the SDI begins its fourth year, the outlines of a basic system architecture, feasible for deployment in the 1990s, begins to emerge. In addition, SDI technical progress shows great promise not only for an initial strategic defense system, but also for maintaining defense effectiveness into the first decades of the next century against countermeasures designed specifically to defeat defenses.     

Advances in non-linear apodization

Selected new methods and applications of non-linear apodization for irregularly-shaped and parse coherent apertures and arrays are presented. The benefits include unproved impulse response performance, i.e., reduced peak sidelobes and integrated sidelobe power, along with improved mainlobe resolution, compared to classic windowing techniques. Nonlinear apodization (NLA) techniques can also serve as powerful engines for effective superresolution and bandwidth extrapolation of coherent data for filling sparse apertures. The sparse aperture filling property of superresolution algorithms for radar data forms the basis for a new concept which is introduced here: synthetic multiple aperture radar technology (SMART). Increased swath and/or reduced antenna size are some of the benefits postulated for SMART applied to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. The benefits of these new methods and applications for nonlinear apodization are then demonstrated for two specific applications: 1) sidelobe control for Y-type synthetic aperture radiometers, such as the European Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) system (Kerr et al.) and JPL's proposed GeoSTAR (Lambrigsten) concept; and, 2) filling of sparse synthetic aperture radar data by exploiting the bandwidth extrapolation properties of nonlinear apodization based superresolution techniques. The methods that have been developed and demonstrated herein have potential application to a wide range of passive and active microwave remote sensing and radar systems.     

Effect of variable thermal properties of the solid phase on composite solid propellant combustion

Effects of variable thermal properties (specific heat and thermal conductivity) of the solid phase on the combustion of composite solid propellants are studied analytically. Both steady and unsteady burning are considered. It is shown that the effects of variable thermal properties are small and can be accounted for by choosing proper average values of specific heat and thermal conductivity.     

Effect of earth?s rotation and range foldover on space-based radar performance

Space-based radar (SBR) by virtue of its motion generates a Doppler frequency component to the clutter return from any point on the Earth as a function of the SBR-Earth geometry. The effect of the rotation of the Earth around its own axis also adds an additional component to this Doppler frequency. The overall effect of the rotation of the Earth on the Doppler turns out to be two correction factors in terms of a crab angle affecting the azimuth angle, and a crab magnitude scaling the Doppler magnitude of the clutter patch. Interestingly, both these quantities depend only on the SBR orbit inclination and its latitude and not on the location of the clutter patch of interest. Further, the crab angle has maximum effect for an SBR on a polar orbit that is above the equator. The crab magnitude, on the other hand, peaks for an SBR on an equatorial orbit. Together with the range foldover phenomenon, their overall effect is to generate Doppler spread/splitting resulting in wider clutter notches that degrade the clutter nulling performance of adaptive processing techniques. A detailed performance analysis and methods to minimize these effects are discussed here