An extended Kalman filter for spinning spacecraft attitude estimation

An extended Kalman filter for real-time ground attitude estimation of a gyro-less spinning spacecraft was developed and tested. The filter state vector includes the angular momentum direction, phase angle, inertial nutation angle, and inertial and body nutation rates. The filter solves for the nutating three-axis attitude and accounts for effects due to principle axes offset from the body axes. The attitude is propagated using the kinematics of a rigid body symmetric about the principle spin axis; disturbance torques are assumed to be small. Filter updates consist only of the measured angles between celestial objects (Sun, Earth, etc.) and the nominal spin axis, and the times these angles were measured. Both simulated data and real data from the Dynamics Explorer -A (DE-A) spacecraft were used to test the filter; the results are presented. Convergence was achieved rapidly from a wide range of a priori state estimates, and sub-degree accuracy was attained. Systematic errors affecting the solution accuracy are discussed, as are the results of an attempt to solve for sensor measurement angle biases in the state vector

What can earth tide measurements tell us about ocean tides or earth structure?

Current experimental problems in Earth tides are reviewed using comparisons of tidal gravity and tilt measurements in Europe with loading calculations are examples. The limitations of present day instrumentation and installation techniques are shown as well as some of the ways in which they can be improved. Many of the geophysical and oceanographic investigations that are possible with Earth tide measurements are discussed with emphasis on the percentage accuracies required in the measurements in order to obtain new information about Earth or its oceans

Goddard research and engineering management exercise /GREMEX/

Computer assisted management simulation exercise for training of personnel as project manager

Attraction of migratory inanga (galaxias maculatus) and koaro (galaxias brevipinnis) juveniles to adult galaxiid odours

The response of migratory galaxiid juveniles, inanga (Galaxias maculatus) and koaro (G. brevipinnis), to the odours of adult galaxiids was tested in a two-choice chamber apparatus. Both conspecific and heterospecific odours were tested. Inanga juveniles were attracted to adult inanga (G. maculatus), banded kokopu (G. fasciatus), and koaro (G. brevipinnis) odours. However, they were not attracted to odours from common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus). Koaro juveniles exhibited a species-specific attraction to adult koaro odours only. These results demonstrate inanga uveniles can discriminate and are attracted to adult galaxiids during their migratory phase, whilst migratory koaro juveniles exhibit a species-specific attraction to adult odours similar to the pheromonal attraction previously described for juvenile banded kokopu. This strengthens the hypothesis for the use of pheromonal cues in stream and habitat selection by amphidromous galaxiids

Static quark potential according to the dual-superconductor picture of QCD

We use the effective action describing long-range QCD, which predicts that QCD behaves as a dual superconductor, to derive the interaction energy between two heavy quarks as a function of separation. The dual-superconductor field equations are solved in an approximation in which the boundary between the superconducting vacuum and the region of normal vacuum surrounding the quarks is sharp. Further, non-Abelian effects are neglected. The resulting heavy-quark potential is linear in separation at large separation, and Coulomb-like at small separation. Overall it agrees very well with phenomenologically determined potentials

Quantized electric-flux-tube solutions to Yang-Mills theory

We suggest that long-distance Yang-Mills theory is more conveniently described in terms of electric rather than the customary magnetic vector potentials. On this basis we propose as an effective Lagrangian for this regime the most simple gauge-invariant (under the magnetic rather than electric gauge group) and Lorentz-invariant Lagrangian which yields a 1/q^4 gluon propagator in the Abelian limit. The resulting classical equations of motion have solutions corresponding to tubes of color electric flux quantized in units of e/2 (e is the Yang-Mills coupling constant). To exponential accuracy the electric color energy is contained in a cylinder of finite radius, showing that continuum Yang-Mills theory has excitations which are confined tubes of color electric flux. This is the criterion for electric confinement of color

A Constituent Quark Anti-Quark Effective Lagrangian Based on the Dual Superconducting Model of Long Distance QCD

We review the assumptions leading to the description of long distance QCD by a Lagrangian density expressed in terms of dual potentials. We find the color field distribution surrounding a quark anti-quark pair to first order in their velocities. Using these distributions we eliminate the dual potentials from the Lagrangian density and obtain an effective interaction Lagrangian $L_I ( \vec x_1 \, , \vec x_2 \, ; \vec v_1 \, , \vec v_2 )$ depending only upon the quark and anti-quark coordinates and velocities, valid to second order in their velocities. We propose $L_I$ as the Lagrangian describing the long distance interaction between constituent quarks. Elsewhere we have determined the two free parameters in $L_I$, $\alpha_s$ and the string tension $\sigma$, by fitting the 17 known levels of $b \bar b$ and $c \bar c$ systems. Here we use $L_I$ at the classical level to calculate the leading Regge trajectory. We obtain a trajectory which becomes linear at large $M^2$ with a slope $\alpha' \simeq .74 \, \hbox{GeV}^{-1}$, and for small $M^2$ the trajectory bends so that there are no tachyons. For a constituent quark mass between 100 and 150 MeV this trajectory passes through the two known Regge recurrences of the $\pi$ meson. In this paper, for simplicity of presentation, we have treated the quarks as spin-zero particles.Comment: {\bf 32,UW/PT94-0