22,239 research outputs found

    Summary of Saturn swingby missions to Uranus

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    The interplanetary trajectory characteristics for missions to Uranus, which employ an intermediate swingby of Saturn to reduce the total trip time are summarized. Opportunities for such swingby missions will occur from 1979 through 1987 and not again until 2025. The general trajectory characteristics (C sub 3; departure, swingby, and arrival dates; swingby radius; and arrival speed) are evaluated, and payload and launch window information for a Titan 3E/Centaur/TE-364-4 class launch vehicle is provided

    Suited for spacewalking: A teacher's guide with activities

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    This publication is an activity guide for teachers on spacesuits and spacewalking. It uses the intensive interest many children have in space exploration as a launching point for hands-on-opportunities. The guide begins with brief discussions of the space environment, the history of space walking, the Space Shuttle spacesuit, and working in space. These are followed by a series of activities that enable children to explore the space environment as well as the science and technology behind the functions of spacesuits. The activities are not rated for specific grade levels because they can be adapted for students of many ages. The guide concludes with a brief glossary as well as references and resources

    Precision slew/settle technologies for flexible spacecraft

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    Many spacecraft missions in the next decade will require both a high degree of agility and precision pointing. Agility includes both rotational maneuvering for retargeting and translational motion for orbit adjustment and threat avoidance. The major challenge associated with such missions is the need for control over a wide range of amplitudes and frequencies, ranging from tens of degrees at less than 1 Hz to a few micron radians at hundreds of Hz. TRW's internally funded Precision Control of Agile Spacecraft (PCAS) project is concerned with developing and validating in hardware the tools necessary to successfully complete the combined agile maneuvering/precision pointing missions. Development has been undertaken on a number of fronts for quietly slewing flexible structures. Various methods for designing slew torque profiles have been investigated. Prime candidates for slew/settle scenarios include Inverse Dynamics and Parameterized Function Space. Joint work with Processor Bayo at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor Flashner at the University of Southern California has led to promising torque profile design methods. Active and passive vibration suppression techniques also play a key role for rapid slew/settle mission scenarios. Active members with local control loops and passive members with high loss factor viscoelastic material have been selected for hardware verification. Progress in each of these areas produces large gains in the quiet slewing of flexible spacecraft. The main thrust of the effort to date has been the development of a modular testbed for hardware validation of the precision control concepts. The testbed is a slewing eighteen foot long flexible truss. Active and passive members can be interchanged with the baseline aluminum members to augment the inherent damping in the system. For precision control the active members utilize control laws running on a high speed digital structural control processor. Tip and midspan motions of the truss are determined using optical sensors while accelerometers can be used to monitor the motions of other points of interest. Preliminary results indicate that a mix of technologies produces the greatest benefit. For example, shaping the torque profile produces large improvements in slew/settle performance, but without added damping settling times may still be excessive. With the introduction of moderate amounts of damping, slew/settle performance is vastly improved. On the other hand, introducing damping without shaping the torque profile may not yield the desired level of performance

    Passive CO<sub>2</sub> removal in urban soils:evidence from brownfield sites

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    Management of urban brownfield land can contribute to significant removal of atmospheric CO2 through the development of soil carbonate minerals. However, the potential magnitude and stability of this carbon sink is poorly quantified as previous studies address a limited range of conditions and short durations. Furthermore, the suitability of carbonate-sequestering soils for construction has not been investigated. To address these issues we measured total inorganic carbon, permeability and ground strength in the top 20 cm of soil at 20 brownfield sites in northern England, between 2015 and 2017. Across all sites accumulation occurred at a rate of 1–16 t C ha−1 yr−1, as calcite (CaCO3), corresponding to removal of approximately 4–59 t CO2 ha−1 yr−1, with the highest rate in the first 15 years after demolition. C and O stable isotope analysis of calcite confirms the atmospheric origin of the measured inorganic carbon. Statistical modelling found that pH and the content of fine materials (combined silt and clay content) were the best predictors of the total inorganic carbon content of the samples. Measurement of permeability shows that sites with carbonated soils possess a similar risk of run-off or flooding to sandy soils. Soil strength, measured as in-situ bearing capacity, increased with carbonation. These results demonstrate that the management of urban brownfield land to retain fine material derived from concrete crushing on site following demolition will promote calcite precipitation in soils, and so offers an additional CO2 removal mechanism, with no detrimental effect on drainage and possible improvements in strength. Given the large area of brownfield land that is available for development, the contribution of this process to CO2 removal by urban soils needs to be recognised in CO2 mitigation policies

    Structuring the Corporate Real Property Function for Greater "Bottom Line" Impact

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    This study reviews the tasks a corporate real estate (CRE) function should undertake to create more opportunities for a company's real estate-related decisions to increase shareholder wealth. The major obstacles thwarting many corporate real estate executives from gaining the support they have been seeking from senior management, to more fully participate in higher value strategic planning efforts, are synthesized from several recent surveys (Arthur Andersen, 1993; Lambert, Poteete and Waltch, 1995.) Following a discussion of what corporate real estate staffs should be doing to contribute more to shareholder wealth, and what usually stands in their way, a proactive strategy is put forth for overcoming these obstacles. Lastly, in light of recent contributions to the literature (Duckworth, 1993; Joroff, Louargand, Lambert, and Becker, 1993; Kimbler and Rutherford, 1993; Lambert et al., 1995; Noha, 1993; Nourse and Roulac, 1993) on how to integrate strategic management of a company's real estate assets with strategic management of its business units and overall corporate strategy, some suggestions are made for (1) how to best organize the CRE function within a company, (2) how to make the best use of outside CRE service providers, and (3) what skills should prove most valuable to corporate real estate executives and their staffs.

    Calculation of the Stability Index in Parameter-Dependent Calculus of Variations Problems: Buckling of a Twisted Elastic Strut

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    We consider the problem of minimizing the energy of an inextensible elastic strut with length 1 subject to an imposed twist angle and force. In a standard calculus of variations approach, one first locates equilibria by solving the Euler--Lagrange ODE with boundary conditions at arclength values 0 and 1. Then one classifies each equilibrium by counting conjugate points, with local minima corresponding to equilibria with no conjugate points. These conjugate points are arclength values σ1\sigma \le 1 at which a second ODE (the Jacobi equation) has a solution vanishing at 00 and σ\sigma. Finding conjugate points normally involves the numerical solution of a set of initial value problems for the Jacobi equation. For problems involving a parameter λ\lambda, such as the force or twist angle in the elastic strut, this computation must be repeated for every value of λ\lambda of interest. Here we present an alternative approach that takes advantage of the presence of a parameter λ\lambda. Rather than search for conjugate points σ1\sigma \le 1 at a fixed value of λ\lambda, we search for a set of special parameter values λm\lambda_m (with corresponding Jacobi solution \bfzeta^m) for which σ=1\sigma=1 is a conjugate point. We show that, under appropriate assumptions, the index of an equilibrium at any λ\lambda equals the number of these \bfzeta^m for which \langle \bfzeta^m, \Op \bfzeta^m \rangle < 0, where \Op is the Jacobi differential operator at λ\lambda. This computation is particularly simple when λ\lambda appears linearly in \Op. We apply this approach to the elastic strut, in which the force appears linearly in \Op, and, as a result, we locate the conjugate points for any twisted unbuckled rod configuration without resorting to numerical solution of differential equations. In addition, we numerically compute two-dimensional sheets of buckled equilibria (as the two parameters of force and twist are varied) via a coordinated family of one-dimensional parameter continuation computations. Conjugate points for these buckled equilibria are determined by numerical solution of the Jacobi ODE

    Behavior sensitivities for control augmented structures

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    During the past few years it has been recognized that combining passive structural design methods with active control techniques offers the prospect of being able to find substantially improved designs. These developments have stimulated interest in augmenting structural synthesis by adding active control system design variables to those usually considered in structural optimization. An essential step in extending the approximation concepts approach to control augmented structural synthesis is the development of a behavior sensitivity analysis capability for determining rates of change of dynamic response quantities with respect to changes in structural and control system design variables. Behavior sensitivity information is also useful for man-machine interactive design as well as in the context of system identification studies. Behavior sensitivity formulations for both steady state and transient response are presented and the quality of the resulting derivative information is evaluated
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