LANDSAT-D program. Volume 2: Ground segment

Raw digital data, as received from the LANDSAT spacecraft, cannot generate images that meet specifications. Radiometric corrections must be made to compensate for aging and for differences in sensitivity among the instrument sensors. Geometric corrections must be made to compensate for off-nadir look angle, and to calculate spacecraft drift from its prescribed path. Corrections must also be made for look-angle jitter caused by vibrations induced by spacecraft equipment. The major components of the LANDSAT ground segment and their functions are discussed

Integrated Application of Active Controls (IAAC) technology to an advanced subsonic transport project: Current and advanced act control system definition study. Volume 2: Appendices

The current status of the Active Controls Technology (ACT) for the advanced subsonic transport project is investigated through analysis of the systems technical data. Control systems technologies under examination include computerized reliability analysis, pitch axis fly by wire actuator, flaperon actuation system design trade study, control law synthesis and analysis, flutter mode control and gust load alleviation analysis, and implementation of alternative ACT systems. Extensive analysis of the computer techniques involved in each system is included

The Fifth NASA Symposium on VLSI Design

The fifth annual NASA Symposium on VLSI Design had 13 sessions including Radiation Effects, Architectures, Mixed Signal, Design Techniques, Fault Testing, Synthesis, Signal Processing, and other Featured Presentations. The symposium provides insights into developments in VLSI and digital systems which can be used to increase data systems performance. The presentations share insights into next generation advances that will serve as a basis for future VLSI design

Space Tug avionics definition study. Volume 4: Supporting trade studies and analyses

Analyses and trade studies were performed for the evaluation of the most desirable solutions to space tug subsystem requirements. These were accomplished at system, subsystem, and at component levels. The criteria, the candidate options evaluated, the selection process, and the recommended solutions that have been integrated together in the configuration descriptions are reported

The development of a detector system for mint object spectroscopy on the Isaac Newton telescope

The work reported in this thesis describes the development of the CCD instrumentation for the Faint Object Spectrograph on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, more commonly known as the La Palma Observatory. The Faint Object Spectrograph is a highly efficient, fixed-format CCD spectrograph aimed at low resolution spectrophotometry (15-20 A FWHM) over a wide spectral range (400-1050 nm). Its high throughput, compared with that of more conventional spectrographs, is due to the small number of optical surfaces, and the minimum vignetting which results from, locating the CCD inside the spectrograph camera. A CCD camera system is described which was developed primarily to test and commission the Faint Object Spectrograph, but also to assess the characteristics of the GEC P8603 CCD used In the spectrograph, and optimize its performance for this application. The use of CCDs in astronomy is now commonplace but there still remains some uncertainty as to which aspects of their performance need to be most critically assessed when choosing a device for a particular application. It is argued that it is important to consider not only the obvious characteristics such as quantum efficiency, spectral coverage, readout noise and geometrical format, but also, and particularly at astronomically relevant low-light levels, the consequences of the more subtle properties such as charge transfer efficiency, threshold effects and chip defects. The CCD detector in the Faint Object Spectrograph is located inside the spectrograph camera and needs to be positioned to high accuracy within the optical path. A microprocessor system is described which enables the CCD detector to be aligned remotely from the observer's control console. Finally, the commissioning of the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Isaac Newton Telescope is described, and some of the first results obtained during commissioning are presented in order to illustrate its potential in the field of faint object spectroscopy

Earth Observatory Satellite (EOS) Definition Phase Report, Volume 1

System definition studies were conducted of the Earth Observatory Satellite (EOS). The studies show that the concept of an Earth Observatory Satellite in a near-earth, sun-synchronous orbit would make a unique contribution to the goals of a coordinated program for acquisition of data for environmental research with applications to earth resource inventory and management. The technical details for the proposed development of sensors, spacecraft, and a ground data processing system are presented

Circuit techniques for low-voltage and high-speed A/D converters

The increasing digitalization in all spheres of electronics applications, from telecommunications systems to consumer electronics appliances, requires analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with a higher sampling rate, higher resolution, and lower power consumption. The evolution of integrated circuit technologies partially helps in meeting these requirements by providing faster devices and allowing for the realization of more complex functions in a given silicon area, but simultaneously it brings new challenges, the most important of which is the decreasing supply voltage. Based on the switched capacitor (SC) technique, the pipelined architecture has most successfully exploited the features of CMOS technology in realizing high-speed high-resolution ADCs. An analysis of the effects of the supply voltage and technology scaling on SC circuits is carried out, and it shows that benefits can be expected at least for the next few technology generations. The operational amplifier is a central building block in SC circuits, and thus a comparison of the topologies and their low voltage capabilities is presented. It is well-known that the SC technique in its standard form is not suitable for very low supply voltages, mainly because of insufficient switch control voltage. Two low-voltage modifications are investigated: switch bootstrapping and the switched opamp (SO) technique. Improved circuit structures are proposed for both. Two ADC prototypes using the SO technique are presented, while bootstrapped switches are utilized in three other prototypes. An integral part of an ADC is the front-end sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit. At high signal frequencies its linearity is predominantly determined by the switches utilized. A review of S/H architectures is presented, and switch linearization by means of bootstrapping is studied and applied to two of the prototypes. Another important parameter is sampling clock jitter, which is analyzed and then minimized with carefully-designed clock generation and buffering. The throughput of ADCs can be increased by using parallelism. This is demonstrated on the circuit level with the double-sampling technique, which is applied to S/H circuits and a pipelined ADC. An analysis of nonidealities in double-sampling is presented. At the system level parallelism is utilized in a time-interleaved ADC. The mismatch of parallel signal paths produces errors, for the elimination of which a timing skew insensitive sampling circuit and a digital offset calibration are developed. A total of seven prototypes are presented: two double-sampled S/H circuits, a time-interleaved ADC, an IF-sampling self-calibrated pipelined ADC, a current steering DAC with a deglitcher, and two pipelined ADCs employing the SO technique.reviewe