Remote geochemical experiment package for Discovery class missions

Remote sensing x-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers can be used to infer elemental composition on atmosphereless bodies, such as asteroids, the moon, and Mercury. The composition of the planetary body and variations in its surface chemistry are of fundamental importance in understanding the formation and dynamics of that body. Thus, for Discovery class missions, x-ray fluorescence (XRF), gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS), or a combined Geochemical Experiment Package (GEP) have been proposed. These instruments can meet the mission science objectives, while still meeting the weight, power, and cost constraints. These missions include the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, the Main-belt Asteroid Rendezvous, and others such as HERMES (Mercury Orbiter). This paper presents the results of calculations done to assess the sensitivity of a combined instrument to obtain elemental compositions of planetary bodies with an uncertainty small enough to be scientifically useful

Lunar Cube Transfer Trajectory Options

Numerous Earth-Moon trajectory and lunar orbit options are available for Cubesat missions. Given the limited Cubesat injection infrastructure, transfer trajectories are contingent upon the modification of an initial condition of the injected or deployed orbit. Additionally, these transfers can be restricted by the selection or designs of Cubesat subsystems such as propulsion or communication. Nonetheless, many trajectory options can b e considered which have a wide range of transfer duration, fuel requirements, and final destinations. Our investigation of potential trajectories highlights several options including deployment from low Earth orbit (LEO) geostationary transfer orbits (GTO) and higher energy direct lunar transfer and the use of longer duration Earth-Moon dynamical systems. For missions with an intended lunar orbit, much of the design process is spent optimizing a ballistic capture while other science locations such as Sun-Earth libration or heliocentric orbits may simply require a reduced Delta-V imparted at a convenient location along the trajectory

Bulk element compositions of meteorites: A guide for interpreting remote-sensing geochemical measurements of planets and asteroids

We report a large database of bulk meteorite elemental abundances, compiled to aid in the interpretation of elemental abundance data determined by remote-sensing instrumentation on planetary missions. A custom user interface was developed for easy access and manipulation of the abundance data. The database contains almost 3000 individual analyses of more than 1000 individual meteorites. Most major and minor elements are included, as well as small number of trace elements measurable by remote-sensing gamma-ray spectroscopy (notably Th and U). All meteorite classes show variability in bulk compositions between individual analyses. Some of this spread is intrinsic to the parent bodies of the meteorites. However, some variability is undoubtedly due to systematic uncertainties, caused by inter-laboratory bias, misclassification, effect of weathering, and unrepresentative sampling. We use the database here to investigate both how well different meteorite groups can be distinguished on the basis of bulk compositions and how bulk compositions can be related to the cosmochemical and geological processes that produced them. The major elements measurable by X-ray and gamma-ray remote-sensing-oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, sulfur, calcium and iron-reflect to differing degrees nebular elemental fractionations and parent-body igneous processes and can be used together to distinguish most classes and sub-classes of meteorites. Potassium is potentially useful as a tracer of thermal processes in the early solar system. Thorium and uranium abundances could be used to trace igneous processes on differentiated asteroids

Willingness of Private Physicians to Be Involved in Smallpox Preparedness and Response Activities

Background. The public health system continues its efforts to prepare for bioterrorist events, such as a smallpox outbreak, but may need to call on other health professionals to ensure sufficient capacity to implement preparedness plans. Objective. The goal was to understand the willingness of primary care physicians to participate in possible smallpox pre- or post-event activities. Methods. A 23-question mail survey was sent to a national random sample of 727 internists and 720 family physicians. After three mailings, a one-page version of the survey was sent to nonrespondents. Results. Response rates were 26% for questions common to both surveys and 22% for questions on the longer survey only. Respondents to the survey expressed moderate support for participating in certain smallpox pre- and post-event activities. Under a pre-event scenario, many providers would be willing to vaccinate first responders in their practice, and roughly one-third would be willing to vaccinate patients in their practice or to work in a public health clinic as a vaccinator. Most physicians, however, would be unwilling to be vaccinated themselves. Under post-event conditions, most providers would be willing to vaccinate their own patients, and many would vaccinate other community members in their practice. Conclusions. Despite the low response rate, information from this study on the smallpox preparedness activities in which physicians are most willing to participate can help to inform efforts by public health officials and private physicians to collaborate on bioterrorism preparedness efforts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63165/1/bsp.2005.3.16.pd

Mercury Orbiter: Report of the Science Working Team

The results are presented of the Mercury Orbiter Science Working Team which held three workshops in 1988 to 1989 under the auspices of the Space Physics and Planetary Exploration Divisions of NASA Headquarters. Spacecraft engineering and mission design studies at the Jet Propulsion Lab were conducted in parallel with this effort and are detailed elsewhere. The findings of the engineering study, summarized herein, indicate that spin stabilized spacecraft carrying comprehensive particles and fields experiments and key planetology instruments in high elliptical orbits can survive and function in Mercury orbit without costly sun shields and active cooling systems

Western Educational Longitudinal Study (WELS): Fall 2003 Freshmen Transitions Survey

This survey is the follow-up to the WELS Baseline survey. By exploring prior high school and early college experiences of new freshmen, patterns in student characteristics and behavior may shed light on the problem of first-quarter transition

Departmental Academic Advising study at Western Washington University

A survey of current departmental academic advising practices and policie

Compact Full-Field Ion Detector System for SmallSats Beyond LEO

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is applying its expertise and facilities in harsh environment instrumentation to develop a Compact Full-Field Ion Detector System (CFIDS). The CFIDS is designed to be an extremely compact, low cost instrument, capable of being flown on a wide variety of deep space platforms, to provide multi-directional, comprehensive (composition, velocity, and direction) in-situ measurements of heavy ions in space plasma environments

Extragalactic magnetism with SOFIA (SALSA Legacy Program) -- V: First results on the magnetic field orientation of galaxies

We present the analysis of the magnetic field ($B$-field) structure of galaxies measured with far-infrared (FIR) and radio (3 and 6 cm) polarimetric observations. We use the first data release of the Survey on extragALactic magnetiSm with SOFIA (SALSA) of 14 nearby ($<20$ Mpc) galaxies with resolved (5 arcsec-18 arcsec; $90$ pc--$1$ kpc) imaging polarimetric observations using HAWC+/SOFIA from $53$ to $214$ \um. We compute the magnetic pitch angle ($\Psi_{B}$) profiles as a function of the galactrocentric radius. We introduce a new magnetic alignment parameter ($\zeta$) to estimate the disordered-to-ordered $B$-field ratio in spiral $B$-fields. We find FIR and radio wavelengths to not generally trace the same $B$-field morphology in galaxies. The $\Psi_{B}$ profiles tend to be more ordered with galactocentric radius in radio ($\zeta_{\rm{6cm}} = 0.93\pm0.03$) than in FIR ($\zeta_{\rm{154\mu m}} = 0.84\pm0.14$). For spiral galaxies, FIR $B$-fields are $2-75$\% more turbulent than the radio $B$-fields. For starburst galaxies, we find that FIR polarization is a better tracer of the $B$-fields along the galactic outflows than radio polarization. Our results suggest that the $B$-fields associated with dense, dusty, turbulent star-forming regions, those traced at FIR, are less ordered than warmer, less-dense regions, those traced at radio, of the interstellar medium. The FIR $B$-fields seem to be more sensitive to the activity of the star-forming regions and the morphology of the molecular clouds within a vertical height of few hundred pc in the disk of spiral galaxies than the radio $B$-fields.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figure

Faculty Studies: Summary of Three Reports

An executive summary of the Faculty Gender Equity Study, Faculty Survey of 1999, and Survey of Senior Women Faculty