The MINE project: Minority Involvement in NASA Engineering

The Mine Project developed by Lewis Research Center (LRC) along with Tennessee State University and Tuskegee Institute, is described. The project calls for LRC to assemble on-going NASA university affairs programs aimed at benefiting the school, its faculty, and its student body. The schools receive grants to pursue research and technology projects that are relevant to NASA's missions. Upon request from the universities, LRC furnishes instructors and lecturers. The schools have use of surplus government equipment and access to NASA research facilities for certain projects. Both the faculty and students of the universities are eligible for summer employment at LRC through special programs. The MINE Project is designed to establish a continuing active relationship of 3 to 5 years between NASA and the universities, and will afford LRC with an opportunity to increase its recruitment of minority and women employees

Illumination from space with orbiting solar-reflector spacecraft

The feasibility of using orbiting mirrors to reflect sunlight to Earth for several illumination applications is studied. A constellation of sixteen 1 km solar reflector spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit can illuminate a region 333 km in diameter to 8 lux, which is brighter than most existing expressway lighting systems. This constellation can serve one region all night long or can provide illumination during mornings and evenings to five regions across the United States. Preliminary cost estimates indicate such an endeavor is economically feasible. The studies also explain how two solar reflectors can illuminate the in-orbit nighttime operations of Space Shuttle. An unfurlable, 1 km diameter solar reflector spacecraft design concept was derived. This spacecraft can be packaged in the Space, Shuttle, transported to low Earth orbit, unfurled, and solar sailed to operational orbits up to geosynchronous. The necessary technical studies and improvements in technology are described, and potential environmental concerns are discussed

Lunar landing flight research vehicle Patent

Lunar landing flight research vehicl

Intracavity Dye-Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (IDLAS) for application to planetary molecules

Time-resolved, quasi-continuous wave, intracavity dye-laser absorption spectroscopy is applied to the investigation of absolute absorption coefficients for vibrational-rotational overtone bands of water at visible wavelengths. Emphasis is placed on critical factors affecting detection sensitivity and data analysis. Typical generation-time dependent absorption spectra are given

Volatile metal deposits on lunar soils: Relation to volcanism

Parallel leaching and volatilization experiments conducted on lunar samples and similar experiments on sphalerite do not supply the information needed to resolve the question of the chemical nature of pb 204, Zn, Bi and Tl deposits on lunar soil surfaces. It is proposed that in Apollo 17 mare and terra soils and fractions of pb 204, Zn and Tl that are insoluble under mild, hot pH 5HNO3, leaching conditions and involatile at 600 C were originally surface deposits which became immobilized by migration into the silicate substrate or by chemisorption. Only Bi is predominantly indigenous. The implication is also that the soils over their respective times of evolution were exposed to heavy metal vapors or that an episodic exposure occurred after they had evolved. A sequence of events is proposed to account for orange 74220 and black 74001 glasses by lava fountaining and for soil 74241 as tephra from an explosive volcanic eruption

Apparatus for igniting solid propellants Patent

Solid propellant ignition with hypergolic fluid injected to predetermined portions of propellan

Method of igniting solid propellants Patent

Method for igniting solid propellant rocket motors by injecting hypergolic fluid

Time allocation among three technical information channels by R and D engineers

Dependance of research project efficiency on information channels - operations researc

The aeronomy of vibrationally excited ozone

Theoretical calculations show that above 80 km in the earth's atmosphere the production of vibrationally excited ozone by chemical processes leads to number densities which are usually larger than those expected for local thermodynamic equilibrium. Quenching of highly excited molecules produced in O+O2+M, O3+M provided a significant source of the lower lying states above the mesopause while the 9.6 microns emission of O3 (0,0,1) was a major sink. Analysis of available laboratory results implied that reactions involving excited ozone play a significant role in the global ozone balance despite the relatively small abundance of the molecule. However, this effect is implicit in many of the rate coefficients currently used in stratospheric calculations. In the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere, where the excited state populations differ from those for thermal equilibrium, published reaction rate data are not necessarily applicable to aeronomic calculations

Transition and mixing in axisymmetric jets and vortex rings

A class of impulsively started, axisymmetric, laminar jets produced by a time dependent joint source of momentum are considered. These jets are different flows, each initially at rest in an unbounded fluid. The study is conducted at three levels of detail. First, a generalized set of analytic creeping flow solutions are derived with a method of flow classification. Second, from this set, three specific creeping flow solutions are studied in detail: the vortex ring, the round jet, and the ramp jet. This study involves derivation of vorticity, stream function, entrainment diagrams, and evolution of time lines through computer animation. From entrainment diagrams, critical points are derived and analyzed. The flow geometry is dictated by the properties and location of critical points which undergo bifurcation and topological transformation (a form of transition) with changing Reynolds number. Transition Reynolds numbers were calculated. A state space trajectory was derived describing the topological behavior of these critical points. This state space derivation yielded three states of motion which are universal for all axisymmetric jets. Third, the axisymmetric round jet is solved numerically using the unsteady laminar Navier Stokes equations. These equations were shown to be self similar for the round jet. Numerical calculations were performed up to a Reynolds number of 30 for a 60x60 point mesh. Animations generated from numerical solution showed each of the three states of motion for the round jet, including the Re = 30 case