Chemical pretreatment for the distillation of urine

Pretreatment of urine prevents micro-organism growth in boiler and kills micro-organisms in condenser. Chemicals also clean evaporation surface, fix ammonia in boiling chamber, and suppress foaming

Application of biological filters in water treatment systems

Silver chloride placed on or close to barrier kills bacteria as they arrive. Dead bacteria accumulate linearly, whereas previously, live bacteria accumulated exponentially. During continuous 30-day tests, no bacteriological contamination was found downstream of filters with silver chloride added

Potable water bactericide agent development

The results are summarized of the work performed for the development and evaluation of a bactericide agent/system concept capable of being used in the space shuttle potable water system. The concept selected for evaluation doses fuel cell water with silver ions before the water is stored and used, by passing this water through columns packed with silver chloride and silver bromide particles, respectively. Four simulated space shuttle potable water system tests, each of seven days duration, were performed to demonstrate that this concept is capable of delivering sterile water even though 3 + or - 1 x 10 to the 9th power Type IIIa or Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, two types which have been found in the Apollo potable water system, are purposely injected into the system each day. This result, coupled with the fact that silver ions do not have to be periodically added to the stored water, indicates that this concept is superior to the chlorine and iodine techniques used on Apollo

The Ulysses Supplement to the BATSE 3B Catalog of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present Interplanetary Network localization information for 218 gamma-ray bursts in the 3rd BATSE catalog, obtained by analyzing the arrival times of these bursts at the Ulysses and Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) spacecraft. For any given burst observed by these two spacecraft, arrival time analysis (or "triangulation") results in an annulus of possible arrival directions whose half-width varies between 7 arcseconds and 32 arcminutes, depending on the intensity and time history of the burst, and the distance of the Ulysses spacecraft from Earth. This annulus generally intersects the BATSE error circle, resulting in an average reduction of the error box area of a factor of 30.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplemen

The Interplanetary Network Supplement to the BeppoSAX Gamma-Ray Burst Catalogs

Between 1996 July and 2002 April, one or more spacecraft of the interplanetary network detected 787 cosmic gamma-ray bursts that were also detected by the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor and/or Wide-Field X-Ray Camera experiments aboard the BeppoSAX spacecraft. During this period, the network consisted of up to six spacecraft, and using triangulation, the localizations of 475 bursts were obtained. We present the localization data for these events.Comment: 89 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie

Gravitationally Lensed Gamma-Ray Bursts as Probes of Dark Compact Objects

If dark matter in the form of compact objects comprises a large fraction of the mass of the universe, then gravitational lensing effects on gamma-ray bursts are expected. We utilize BATSE and Ulysses data to search for lenses of different mass ranges, which cause lensing in the milli, pico, and femto regimes. Null results are used to set weak limits on the cosmological abundance of compact objects in mass ranges from 10$^{-16}$ to 10$^{-9}$ $M_{\odot}$. A stronger limit is found for a much discussed $\Omega = 0.15$ universe dominated by black holes of masses $\sim 10^{6.5} M_{\odot}$, which is ruled out at the $\sim$ 90% confidence level.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, fixed minor corrections. Accepted for publication in ApJ(L

No Evidence for Gamma-Ray Burst/Abell Cluster or Gamma- Ray Burst/Radio-Quiet Quasar Correlations

We examine the recent claims that cosmic gamma-ray bursts are associated with either radio-quiet quasars or Abell clusters. These associations were based on positional coincidences between cataloged quasars or Abell clusters, and selected events from the BATSE 3B catalog of gamma-ray bursts. We use a larger sample of gamma-ray bursts with more accurate positions, obtained by the 3rd Interplanetary Network, to re-evaluate these possible associations. We find no evidence for either.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Data management study, volume 5. Appendix J - Contractor data package procurement and contracting /PC/ Final report

Contractor data package for administration of procurement and contracting of Voyager spacecraft system

The mass of the black hole in GRS 1915+105: new constraints from IR spectroscopy

GRS 1915+105 has the largest mass function of any Galactic black hole system, although the error is relatively large. Here we present spectroscopic analysis of medium-resolution IR VLT archival data of GRS 1915+105 in the K-band. We find an updated ephemeris, and report on attempts to improve the mass function by a refinement of the radial velocity estimate. We show that the spectra are significantly affected by the presence of phase-dependent CO bandhead emission, possibly originating from the accretion disc: we discuss the impact this has on efforts to better constrain the black hole mass. We report on a possible way to measure the radial velocity utilising apparent H-band atomic absorption features and also discuss the general uncertainty of the system parameters of this well-studied objectComment: 7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journa