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#1 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Looking for space propulsion books » 2006-01-11 00:28:55

I'm enrolled a spacecraft design class at Stanford University. The project I am working on is a propulsion system using micro-thrusters for cubesats. I'm looking for some good books to read up on spacecraft propulsion systems. I want to get a broad knowledge to really understand the important fundamental concepts of space propulsion.

Thanks in advance.  big_smile

#2 Re: Interplanetary transportation » Bored, out of work space scientists! - Invite the russians to join! » 2005-12-10 03:04:31

This reminds me of a trip I took to the Baikunor Comsodrome in 2002. I was there to launch a commercial geosynchronous telecommunications satellite. I was in charge of lifting the satellite onto the upper stage called the Block DM. Actually, my job was to lower the satellite so that it was about six inches above the upper stage. Then, officially the Russians would take over. Well, I lowered the satellite and the Russians took over. They were just sitting on tht inside of the Block DM about 80 above the floor without any safety harnesses or anything. I was totally amazed. They didn't seem to have a quality engineer check their work or anything. I ask our QE what's up with that. He had been to Baikonur many times before and he looked at me and said. "This is the Russian quality control, (in a heavy Russian accent) 'In Russia, if technician make mistake, he will be...SHOT!'" That was very funny... :mrgreen:

#3 Re: Water on Mars » Looking for information on how to test for water » 2005-11-05 01:15:59

It's a waste of time to look for evidence of water (carbonates and sulfates) on the moon.  There is no atmosphere there so that means the boiling point of water is very low and with pure sun or complete darkness any water would instantly evaporate or freeze.  That's why I recommended a sensor that can detect water vapor. 

I really hope that looking for water is not the assignment.  If it's to look for ice then I would understand.

Also I don't believe any of the Viking missions tested for water.  The only test was that water was added to mars regolith to see if there was any biological matter in it.

By "water" I meant H2O in any form. I always thought liquid water on the Moon is impossible. However, ice has apparently been "detected" indirectly by the Clementine spacecraft in 1994.

http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Dec96/IceonMoon.html

However, the Lunar Prospector found no water.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/te … 991013.txt

#4 Re: Water on Mars » Looking for information on how to test for water » 2005-11-02 20:28:22

I think you want a near-infrared spectrometer.

Here is a site about the one carried by the Mars rover ...

http://minites.asu.edu/

Particularly ...

http://minites.asu.edu/Mini-TES_Overview.pdf

Good luck with your project.  Let us know what you go with.
_

I found this on the link you gave me:

In Gusev Crater, mini-TES will look for minerals like carbonates and sulfates that form only in the presence of water. Finding them will provide strong evidence that Gusev was once a lake.

I don't know much about the lunar and Martian geology. Are these carbonates and sulfates also on the moon?

#5 Re: Water on Mars » Looking for information on how to test for water » 2005-11-02 20:11:42

Thanks for the info. The first step of our project is to design a mission architecture (SMAD is our textbook). I'm gathering information right now and determining mission objectives and mission parameters. I'll keep everyone posted.

#6 Re: Water on Mars » Looking for information on how to test for water » 2005-11-02 16:05:26

I'm taking a spacecraft design class at Stanford Uninversity. Our current class project is to design and build a simulated lunar rover to look for water on the surface of the moon. I wanted to get some information as to how the some of the Martian probes (Viking) and Lunar Rover tested for water. Does anyone know of some good websites I can research?

Thanks!

Torraway

#7 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Carbon nanotube material ready for practical applications » 2005-09-16 15:26:43

I can see immediate applications in aircraft and spacecraft vehicle design for these new materials.

#8 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Carbon nanotube material ready for practical applications » 2005-08-19 16:36:17

This caught my eye:

U. T. Dallas-Led Research Team Produces Strong, Transparent Carbon Nanotube Sheets

Numerous Electronic, Optical and Structural Uses Demonstrated;

Advance Reported in Aug. 19 Issue of Prestigious Journal Science

RICHARDSON, Texas (Aug. 18, 2005) – University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) nanotechnologists and an Australian colleague have produced transparent carbon nanotube sheets that are stronger than the same-weight steel sheets and have demonstrated applicability for organic light-emitting displays, low-noise electronic sensors, artificial muscles, conducting appliqués and broad-band polarized light sources that can be switched in one ten-thousandths of a second.

Carbon nanotubes are like minute bits of string, and untold trillions of these invisible strings must be assembled to make useful macroscopic articles that can exploit the phenomenal mechanical and electronic properties of the individual nanotubes. In the Aug. 19 issue of the prestigious journal Science, scientists from the NanoTech Institute at UTD and a collaborator, Dr. Ken Atkinson from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a national laboratory in Australia, report such assembly of nanotubes into sheets at commercially useable rates.


Starting from chemically grown, self-assembled structures in which nanotubes are aligned like trees in a forest, the sheets are produced at up to seven meters per minute by the coordinated rotation of a trillion nanotubes per minute for every centimeter of sheet width. By comparison, the production rate for commercial wool spinning is 20 meters per minute. Unlike previous sheet fabrication methods using dispersions of nanotubes in liquids, which are quite slow, the dry-state process developed by the UTD-CSIRO team can use the ultra-long nanotubes needed for optimization of properties.

Strength normalized to weight is important for many applications, especially in space and aerospace, and this property of the nanotube sheets already exceeds that of the strongest steel sheets and the Mylar and Kapton sheets used for ultralight air vehicles and proposed for solar sails for space applications, according to the researchers. The nanotube sheets can be made so thin that a square kilometer of solar sail would weigh only 30 kilograms. While sheets normally have much lower strength than fibers or yarns, the strength of the nanotube sheets in the nanotube alignment direction already approaches the highest reported values for polymer-free nanotube yarns.

The nanotube sheets combine high transparency with high electronic conductivity, are highly flexible and provide giant gravimetric surface areas, which has enabled the team to demonstrate their use as electrodes for bright organic light emitting diodes for displays and as solar cells for light harvesting. Electrodes that can be reversibly deformed over 100 percent without losing electrical conductivity are needed for high stroke artificial muscles, and the Science article describes a simple method that makes this possible for the nanotube sheets.

The use of the nanotube sheets as planar incandescent sources of highly polarized infrared and visible radiation is also reported in the Science article. Since the nanotube sheets strongly absorb microwave radiation, which causes localized heating, the scientists were able to utilize a kitchen microwave oven to weld together plexiglas plates to make a window. Neither the electrical conductivity of the nanotube sheets nor their transparency was affected by the welding process -- which suggests a novel way to imbed these sheets as transparent heating elements and antennas for car windows. The nanotube sheets generate surprisingly low electronic noise and have an exceptionally low dependence of electronic conductivity on temperature. That suggests their possible application as high-quality sensors – which is a very active area of nanotube research.

“Rarely is a processing advance so elegantly simple that rapid commercialization seems possible, and rarely does such an advance so quickly enable diverse application demonstrations,” said the article’s corresponding author, Dr. Ray H. Baughman, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry and director of the UTD NanoTech Institute. “Synergistic aspects of our nanotube sheet and twisted yarn fabrication technologies likely will help accelerate the commercialization of both technologies, and UTD and CSIRO are working together with companies and government laboratories to bring both technologies to the marketplace.”

The breakthroughs resulted from the diverse expertise of the article’s co-authors. Dr. Mei Zhang and Dr. Shaoli Fang, NanoTech Institute research scientists, first demonstrated the nanotube sheet fabrication process, and this result was translated into diverse applications by the entire team. The other team members include Dr. Anvar Zakhidov, associate director of the NanoTech Institute; Christopher Williams, Zakhidov’s graduate student from the UTD Physics Department; Dr. Sergey Lee and Dr. Ali Aliev, research scientists at NanoTech Institute, in addition to Atkinson and Baughman.

The applications possibilities seem even much broader than the present demonstrations, Baughman said. For example, researchers from the Regenerative Neurobiology Division at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Dr. Mario Romero, Director, and Dr. Pedro Galvan-Garcia, Senior Researcher Associate, and Dr. Larry Cauller, associate professor in UTD’s neuroscience program, have initial evidence suggesting that healthy cells grow on these sheets – so they might eventually be applied as scaffolds for tissue growth.

Baughman said that numerous other applications possibilities exist and are being explored at UTD, including structural composites that are strong and tough; supercapacitors, batteries, fuel cells and thermal-energy-harvesting cells exploiting giant-surface-area nanotube sheet electrodes; light sources, displays, and X-ray sources that use the nanotube sheets as high-intensity sources of field-emitted electrons; and heat pipes for electronic equipment that exploit the high thermal conductivity of nanotubes. Multifunctional applications like nanotube sheets that simultaneously store energy and provide structural reinforcement for a side panel of an electrically powered vehicle also are promising, he said.

UTD researchers began collaborating with their counterparts at CSIRO last year. In November 2004, the organizations achieved a breakthrough by downsizing to the nanoscale methods used to spin wool and other fibers to produce futuristic yarns made from carbon nanotubes.

The latest research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an agency of the United States Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Texas Advanced Technology Program, the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the Strategic Partnership for Research in Nanotechnology.

#9 Re: Interplanetary transportation » Project Orion » 2005-07-27 15:32:48

I was wondering if the Orion spacecraft can be a plausible transporation systems to Mars?

http://www.angelfire.com/stars2/projectorion/

I will definitely research this further.

#10 Re: Pictures of Mars » Favorite "Mars" movies » 2005-07-22 16:50:34

Here are some of my favorite "Mars" movies:

Robinson Crusoe on Mars
The Red Planet
Total Recall
The Martian Chronicles

#11 Re: Mars Rovers / University Rover Challenge » Any active rover projects going on right now? » 2005-07-12 10:23:15

I try to be helpful to all members, regardless of post count.

Since you're from Cali Torraway (an excellent State might I add) you might check California Instutite of Technology. It's not far from JPL and Old Town Pasadena is a good place for a weekend.

If you're up north, you might consider checking out if Berkley has any university groups doing research related to the things you're interested in.

Not sure of your background, but I do know that SpaceX (a private launch company) is based out of LA, so maybe you can garner your interest into a job. Never hurts to try.

Good luck.

How I miss so cal. [sigh]

Thanks Clark,

I've heard of Space X before. I just started a new job at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Sunnyvale, CA in May. Is there a Bay Area Mar Society chapter?

#12 Re: Mars Rovers / University Rover Challenge » Any active rover projects going on right now? » 2005-07-12 10:18:22

Well, here is one.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/]active rover project

Of course work slots might be filled...

Very funny!  big_smile

I actually have met the president of the company that fabricated the wheels for the Mars Rover. The company is called Next Intent based out of San Luis Obispo, CA. I worked with him on a student project when he worked for another company.

http://www.nextintent.com/parts.html]ht … parts.html

I toured Next Intent. and they do amazing work there.

#13 Re: Mars Rovers / University Rover Challenge » Any active rover projects going on right now? » 2005-07-11 15:17:06

I was wondering if there were any active rover projects going on right now? I'd like to get a web link, if possible, to these projects.

#15 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Stanford University spacecraft design class » 2005-07-08 14:19:57

I may be taking this certificate program at Stanford. It's looks very interesting. And my company will pay for it. Woohoo!

http://scpd.stanford.edu/scpd/pdf/Spacr … sbroch.pdf

#16 Re: Not So Free Chat » Greetings Everyone! » 2005-07-08 14:15:50

Hi, there Torraway!

What kind of tech projects did you have in mind?

Not sure really. I hoping maybe I can help somebody with a project. I have an extensive background in assembly, intergration, and test of satellites plus manufacturing processes (machining and composites). I plan to take some welding classes this fall. I just want to get my "hands dirty" on some cool projects.

#17 Re: Not So Free Chat » Greetings Everyone! » 2005-07-07 10:04:12

*Howdy and welcome to New Mars.

--Cindy

Thanks Cindy! I look forward to learning lots of new things here.

#18 Re: Not So Free Chat » Greetings Everyone! » 2005-07-07 09:58:40

I just joined today. I just wanted to say hello. I'm looking forward to meeting others and hopefully maybe working on some Mars technical projects.

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