A synthetic environment for visualization and planning of orbital maneuvers

An interactive proximity operations planning system, which allows on-site planning of fuel-efficient, multi-burn maneuvers in a potential multi-space-craft environment has been developed and tested. This display system most directly assists planning by providing visual feedback in a synthetic virtual space that aids visualization of trajectories and their constraints. Its most significant features include (1) an 'inverse dynamics' algorithm that removes control nonlinearities facing the operator and (2) a stack-oriented action-editor that reduces the order of control and creates, through a 'geometric spreadsheet,' the illusion of an inertially stable environment. This synthetic environment provides the user with control of relevant static and dynamic properties of way-points during small orbital changes allowing independent solutions to otherwise coupled problems of orbital maneuvering

Interactive orbital proximity operations planning system

An interactive, graphical proximity operations planning system was developed which allows on-site design of efficient, complex, multiburn maneuvers in the dynamic multispacecraft environment about the space station. Maneuvering takes place in, as well as out of, the orbital plane. The difficulty in planning such missions results from the unusual and counterintuitive character of relative orbital motion trajectories and complex operational constraints, which are both time varying and highly dependent on the mission scenario. This difficulty is greatly overcome by visualizing the relative trajectories and the relative constraints in an easily interpretable, graphical format, which provides the operator with immediate feedback on design actions. The display shows a perspective bird's-eye view of the space station and co-orbiting spacecraft on the background of the station's orbital plane. The operator has control over two modes of operation: (1) a viewing system mode, which enables him or her to explore the spatial situation about the space station and thus choose and frame in on areas of interest; and (2) a trajectory design mode, which allows the interactive editing of a series of way-points and maneuvering burns to obtain a trajectory which complies with all operational constraints. Through a graphical interactive process, the operator will continue to modify the trajectory design until all operational constraints are met. The effectiveness of this display format in complex trajectory design is presently being evaluated in an ongoing experimental program

Seismic stratigraphy and history of deep circulation and sediment drift development in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea

Drilling results and seismic-reflection records at and across Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 645 (western Baffin Bay), 646, and 647 (Labrador Sea) provide important constraints on the history of deep-water circulation and sedimentation in response to Cenozoic climatic change, as well as the tectonic evolution of the region. Sites 646 and 647 were drilled on the flanks of two sediment drift deposits—the Eirik Ridge and Gloria Drift, respectively. Age control at Site 645 was poor because of the restricted biotas there, but the drill site provides a continuous sequence from the lower Miocene to the present. Sediment at Site 646 was deposited at high rates, providing a high resolution record of the last 8.5 Ma. At Site 647 sedimentation was variable and discontinuous, but a complete upper-lower Eocene through lower Oligocene sequence was recovered, whereas the upper Oligocene to Holocene sequence was interrupted by several hiatuses. The drift sequence at Site 646 was constructed after the middle to early Pliocene (ca. 4.5 Ma). Before that time, evidence exists for variable bottom-current activity, with events at about 7.5 Ma (a change in water-mass characteristics and decreasing velocities) and 5.6 Ma (an increase in current velocity preceding the major 4.5-Ma event; R2 regional reflector). The 7.5-Ma event produced a major regional reflector (R3/R4), which was originally thought to be Eocene/ Oligocene in age. A major water-mass change also occurred at the onset of ice-rafting at about 2.5 Ma in the late Pliocene. In seismic records no evidence exists of drift building before the early Pliocene, but a probable late-middle Miocene erosional event occurred on the south flank of Eirik Ridge and along the West Greenland margin. Sediment supply from the Imarssuak mid-ocean canyon (IMOC) increased concurrently with the advent of drift construction. Gloria Drift also was built largely after the late Miocene. A major increase in sediment supply occurred in the early Pliocene, following a major hiatus (5.6 to 2.5 Ma; equivalent to the youngest possible age for the R2 reflector underlying Gloria Drift), and most seismic records exhibit sediment waves above this horizon. This increased sediment supply is the result of hemipelagic deposition from encroaching deposits of the North Atlantic mid-ocean canyon, as well as to supply of ice-rafted detritus in the late Pliocene. A hiatus encompasses the interval from approximately 17.5 to 8,2 Ma, and the interval between the two major hiatuses is extremely condensed. A deeper reflector (R3) corresponds to a change from calcareous (below) to opal-rich hemipelagic strata in the lower Oligocene, not to a regional unconformity reflecting increased bottom-water activity, as previously thought. However, some evidence exists to support a latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene increase in bottom-current activity on Gloria Drift. In Baffin Bay, there is evidence for bottom-water activity from textural studies of cores and from apparent drift features exhibited in multichannel lines along the western margin. Probable contour-currents have been active since at least the late middle Miocene, with episodes of decreasing intensity that apparently occurred in the late Miocene and Quaternary. The record from Site 645 and in seismic lines may indicate that formation of bottom water occurred in the late Neogene in Baffin Bay in conjunction with climatic deterioration, but Baffin Bay was not an important source of deep-water masses to the Labrador Sea after the late Pliocene. Not surprisingly, many of the Labrador Sea deep-circulation events correspond closely to major North Atlantic events and to important global climatic and paleoceanographic events, but a major drift-building episode may have occurred later in the Labrador Sea than it did in either the eastern North Atlantic or the western North Atlantic

In-Suit Doppler Technology Assessment

The objective of this program was to perform a technology assessment survey of non-invasive air embolism detection utilizing Doppler ultrasound methodologies. The primary application of this technology will be a continuous monitor for astronauts while performing extravehicular activities (EVA's). The technology assessment was to include: (1) development of a full understanding of all relevant background research; and (2) a survey of the medical ultrasound marketplace for expertise, information, and technical capability relevant to this development. Upon completion of the assessment, LSR was to provide an overview of technological approaches and R&D/manufacturing organizations

A trajectory planning scheme for spacecraft in the space station environment

Simulated annealing is used to solve a minimum fuel trajectory problem in the space station environment. The environment is special because the space station will define a multivehicle environment in space. The optimization surface is a complex nonlinear function of the initial conditions of the chase and target crafts. Small permutations in the input conditions can result in abrupt changes to the optimization surface. Since no prior knowledge about the number or location of local minima on the surface is available, the optimization must be capable of functioning on a multimodal surface. It was reported in the literature that the simulated annealing algorithm is more effective on such surfaces than descent techniques using random starting points. The simulated annealing optimization was found to be capable of identifying a minimum fuel, two-burn trajectory subject to four constraints which are integrated into the optimization using a barrier method. The computations required to solve the optimization are fast enough that missions could be planned on board the space station. Potential applications for on board planning of missions are numerous. Future research topics may include optimal planning of multi-waypoint maneuvers using a knowledge base to guide the optimization, and a study aimed at developing robust annealing schedules for potential on board missions

Notes on the Text of the Parian Marble.—I

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Exocentric direction judgements in computer-generated displays and actual scenes

One of the most remarkable perceptual properties of common experience is that the perceived shapes of known objects are constant despite movements about them which transform their projections on the retina. This perceptual ability is one aspect of shape constancy (Thouless, 1931; Metzger, 1953; Borresen and Lichte, 1962). It requires that the viewer be able to sense and discount his or her relative position and orientation with respect to a viewed object. This discounting of relative position may be derived directly from the ranging information provided from stereopsis, from motion parallax, from vestibularly sensed rotation and translation, or from corollary information associated with voluntary movement. It is argued that: (1) errors in exocentric judgements of the azimuth of a target generated on an electronic perspective display are not viewpoint-independent, but are influenced by the specific geometry of their perspective projection; (2) elimination of binocular conflict by replacing electronic displays with actual scenes eliminates a previously reported equidistance tendency in azimuth error, but the viewpoint dependence remains; (3) the pattern of exocentrically judged azimuth error in real scenes viewed with a viewing direction depressed 22 deg and rotated + or - 22 deg with respect to a reference direction could not be explained by overestimation of the depression angle, i.e., a slant overestimation