Space Shuttle UHF communications performance evaluation

Computational investigations and experimental measurements were performed to evaluate the Space Shuttle UHF communication system performance for payload bay antenna at the proposed new location. To insure adequate communication coverage at relocated new location, the link margin for the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) astronauts and between Space Shuttle Orbiter and International Space Station (SSO-ISS) during rendezvous were analyzed. The multipath effects from the vehicle structures surrounding the antenna were investigated. The Radio Frequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation to the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) pyrotechnics was also analyzed to ensure the EMC/EMI compliances.     

Nanofillers modification of Epocast 50-A1/946 epoxy for bonded joints

Epocast 50-A1/946 epoxy was primarily developed for joining and repairing of composite aircraft structural components. The objective of the present work is to modify the Epocast epoxy resin by different nanofillers infusion. The used nanofillers include multi-walled carbon nanotubes（MWCNTs）, SiC and Al2O3 nanoparticles. The nanofillers with different weight percentages are ultrasonically dispersed in the epoxy resin. The sonication time and amplitude for MWCNTs are reduced compared to Al2O3 and SiC nanoparticles to avoid the damage of MWCNTs during sonication processes. The fabricated neat epoxy and twelve nanocomposite panels were characterized via standard tension and in-plane shear tests. The experimental results show that the nanocomposites materials with 0.5wt% MWCNTs, 1.5wt% SiC and 1.5wt% Al2O3 nanoparticles have the highest improvement in the tensile properties compared to the other nanofiller loading percentages.The improvements in the shear properties of these nanocomposite materials were respectively equal to 5.5%, 4.9%, and 6.3% for shear strengths, and 10.3%, 16.0%, and 8.1% for shear moduli. The optimum nanofiller loading percentages will be used in the following papers concerning their effect on the bonded joints/repairs of carbon fiber reinforced composites.     

The THEMIS Array of Ground-based Observatories for the Study of Auroral Substorms

The NASA Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) project is intended to investigate magnetospheric substorm phenomena, which are the manifestations of a basic instability of the magnetosphere and a dominant mechanism of plasma transport and explosive energy release. The major controversy in substorm science is the uncertainty as to whether the instability is initiated near the Earth, or in the more distant >20 Re magnetic tail. THEMIS will discriminate between the two possibilities by using five in-situ satellites and ground-based all-sky imagers and magnetometers, and inferring the propagation direction by timing the observation of the substorm initiation at multiple locations in the magnetosphere. An array of stations, consisting of 20 all-sky imagers (ASIs) and 30-plus magnetometers, has been developed and deployed in the North American continent, from Alaska to Labrador, for the broad coverage of the nightside magnetosphere. Each ground-based observatory (GBO) contains a white light imager that takes auroral images at a 3-second repetition rate (“cadence”) and a magnetometer that records the 3 axis variation of the magnetic field at 2 Hz frequency. The stations return compressed images, “thumbnails,” to two central databases: one located at UC Berkeley and the other at the University of Calgary, Canada. The full images are recorded at each station on hard drives, and these devices are physically returned to the two data centers for data copying. All data are made available for public use by scientists in “browse products,” accessible by using internet browsers or in the form of downloadable CDF data files (the “browse products” are described in detail in a later section). Twenty all-sky imager stations are installed and running at the time of this publication. An example of a substorm was observed on the 23rd of December 2006, and from the THEMIS GBO data, we found that the substorm onset brightening of the equatorward arc was a gradual process (>27 seconds), with minimal morphology changes until the arc breaks up. The breakup was timed to the nearest frame (<3 s) and located to the nearest latitude degree at about ±3^oE in longitude. The data also showed that a similar breakup occurred in Alaska ～10 minutes later, highlighting the need for an array to distinguish prime onset.