Mariner IV Mission to Mars. Part I

This technical report is a series of individual papers documenting the Mariner-Mars project from its beginning in 1962 following the successful Mariner-Venus mission. Part I is pre-encounter data. It includes papers on the design, development, and testing of Mariner IV, as well as papers detailing methods of maintaining communication with and obtaining data from the spacecraft during flight, and expected results during encounter with Mars. Part 11, post-encounter data, to be published later, will consist of documentation of the events taking place during Mariner IV's encounter with Mars and thereafter. The Mariner-Mars mission, the culmination of an era of spacecraft development, has contributed much new technology to be used in future projects

An application of adaptive fault-tolerant control to nano-spacecraft

Since nano-spacecraft are small, low cost and do not undergo the same rigor of testing as conventional spacecraft, they have a greater risk of failure. In this paper we address the problem of attitude control of a nano-spacecraft that experiences different types of faults. Based on the traditional quaternion feedback control method, an adaptive fault-tolerant control method is developed, which can ensure that the control system still operates when the actuator fault happens. This paper derives the fault-tolerant control logic under both actuator gain fault mode and actuator deviation fault mode. Taking the parameters of the UKube-1 in the simulation model, a comparison between a traditional spacecraft control method and the adaptive fault-tolerant control method in the presence of a fault is undertaken. It is shown that the proposed controller copes with faults and is able to complete an effective attitude control manoeuver in the presence of a fault

Moon Orbiting Explorer Scheduled for June 30 Launch

NASA project for interplanetary Explorer D moon-orbiting satellite given with launch data, mission, and experiment

Acceptance checkout equipment - Spacecraft Monthly progress report, 15 Jan. - 15 Feb. 1966

Acceptance checkout equipment and spacecraft testin

Techniques for achieving magnetic cleanliness on deep-space missions

Techniques for obtaining magnetic cleanliness on deep space missions to allow interplanetary magnetic field mappin

Deep Space Network information system architecture study

The purpose of this article is to describe an architecture for the Deep Space Network (DSN) information system in the years 2000-2010 and to provide guidelines for its evolution during the 1990s. The study scope is defined to be from the front-end areas at the antennas to the end users (spacecraft teams, principal investigators, archival storage systems, and non-NASA partners). The architectural vision provides guidance for major DSN implementation efforts during the next decade. A strong motivation for the study is an expected dramatic improvement in information-systems technologies, such as the following: computer processing, automation technology (including knowledge-based systems), networking and data transport, software and hardware engineering, and human-interface technology. The proposed Ground Information System has the following major features: unified architecture from the front-end area to the end user; open-systems standards to achieve interoperability; DSN production of level 0 data; delivery of level 0 data from the Deep Space Communications Complex, if desired; dedicated telemetry processors for each receiver; security against unauthorized access and errors; and highly automated monitor and control

A new advanced railgun system for debris impact study

The growing quantity of debris in Earth orbit poses a danger to users of the orbital environment, such as spacecraft. It also increases the risk that humans or manmade structures could be impacted when objects reenter Earth's atmosphere. During the design of a spacecraft, a requirement may be specified for the surviv-ability of the spacecraft against Meteoroid / Orbital Debris (M/OD) impacts throughout the mission; further-more, the structure of a spacecraft is designed to insure its integrity during the launch and, if it is reusable, during descent, re-entry and landing. In addition, the structure has to provide required stiffness in order to allow for exact positioning of experiments and antennas, and it has to protect the payload against the space environment. In order to decrease the probability of spacecraft failure caused by M/OD, space maneuver is needed to avoid M/OD if the M/OD has dimensions larger than 10cm, but for M/OD with dimensions less than 1cm M/OD shields are needed for spacecrafts. It is therefore necessary to determine the impact-related failure mechanisms and associated ballistic limit equations (BLEs) for typical spacecraft components and subsys-tems. The methods that are used to obtain the ballistic limit equations are numerical simulations and la-borato-ry experiments. In order to perform an high energy ballistic characterization of layered structures, a new ad-vanced electromagnetic accelerator, called railgun, has been assembled and tuned. A railgun is an electrically powered electromagnetic projectile launcher. Such device is made up of a pair of parallel conducting rails, which a sliding metallic armature is accelerated along by the electromagnetic effect (Lorentz force) of a cur-rent that flows down one rail, into the armature and then back along the other rail, thanks to a high power pulse given by a bank of capacitors. A tunable power supplier is used to set the capacitors charging voltage at the desired level: in this way the Rail Gun energy can be tuned as a function of the desired bullet velocity. This facility is able to analyze both low and high velocity impacts. A numerical simulation is also performed by using the Ansys Autodyn code in order to analyze the damage. The experimental results and numerical simulations show that the railgun-device is a good candidate to perform impact testing of materials in the space debris energy range

Solar array study for solar electric propulsion spacecraft for the Encke rendezvous mission

The work is described which was performed on the design, analysis and performance of a 20 kW rollup solar array capable of meeting the design requirements of a solar electric spacecraft for the 1980 Encke rendezvous mission. To meet the high power requirements of the proposed electric propulsion mission, solar arrays on the order of 186.6 sq m were defined. Because of the large weights involved with arrays of this size, consideration of array configurations is limited to lightweight, large area concepts with maximum power-to-weight ratios. Items covered include solar array requirements and constraints, array concept selection and rationale, structural and electrical design considerations, and reliability considerations