A normative price for energy from an electricity generation system: An Owner-dependent Methodology for Energy Generation (system) Assessment (OMEGA). Volume 2: Derivation of system energy price equations

The methodology presented is a derivation of the utility owned solar electric systems model. The net present value of the system is determined by consideration of all financial benefits and costs including a specified return on investment. Life cycle costs, life cycle revenues, and residual system values are obtained. Break-even values of system parameters are estimated by setting the net present value to zero

A normative price for energy from an electricity generation system: An Owner-dependent Methodology for Energy Generation (system) Assessment (OMEGA). Volume 1: Summary

The utility owned solar electric system methodology is generalized and updated. The net present value of the system is determined by consideration of all financial benefits and costs (including a specified return on investment). Life cycle costs, life cycle revenues, and residual system values are obtained. Break even values of system parameters are estimated by setting the net present value to zero. While the model was designed for photovoltaic generators with a possible thermal energy byproduct, it applicability is not limited to such systems. The resulting owner-dependent methodology for energy generation system assessment consists of a few equations that can be evaluated without the aid of a high-speed computer

Meteoroid detector

A meteoroid detector is described which uses, a cold cathode discharge tube with a gas-pressurized cell in space for recording a meteoroid puncture of the cell and for determining the size of the puncture

SAGE 3: A visible wavelength limb sounder

A brief description is presented for the SAGE 3 (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 3) instrument that has been selected to fly onboard the National Polar Platform 1 (NPOP 1) for the Earth Observational System (Eos) in 1996. The SAGE 3 instrument will perform earth limb sounding with the solar occultation technique measuring the ultraviolet (UV), the visible, and the near infrared (IR) wavelength solar radiation. The instrument will produce atmospheric data for the vertical distribution of aerosol, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, water vapor, and oxygen. The details of the instrument design, data flow, and processing requirements are discussed

Observations of atmospheric water vapor with the SAGE 2 instrument

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 2 (SAGE 2) is discussed. The SAGE 2 instrument was a multichannel spectrometer that inferred the vertical distribution of water vapor, aerosols, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone by measuring the extinction of solar radiation at spacecraft sunrise/sunset. At altitudes above 20 km, the SAGE 2 and LIMS (Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere) data are in close agreement. The discrepancies below this altitude may be attributed to differences in the instruments' field of view and time of data acquisition

A methodology for design of lightweight robotic arm links in harsh environments

A methodology for the creation of functionally graded material (FGM) parts in harsh environments has been developed. It uses a two-stage optimisation approach that focusses first on the task-dependent material choice and then on the topological optimisation (TO) of the part. Constraints are in place to ensure the part can be manufactured, including the extent/smoothness of material blending and the minimum feature size and layer thickness. Thought is also put into space-specific concerns, such as radiation and cyclic thermal heating. The methodology assumes an initial design solution has already been generated, and covers from the beginning of the CAD phase to the end of the computational testing phase. Design constraints are created with additive manufacture (AM) in mind, and suggestions are made for material mixing processes for FGM, material layout strategies and manufacturability, including scanning strategies and surface finish

The design of a robotic arm link using functionally graded materials : a case study

The development and design of a functionally-graded material (FGM) robotic arm for supporting and manipulating a vision system is discussed in this paper. The aim is to understand if using FGMs effectively reduce mass compared to single material parts. The evolution of ideas using topological optimisation (TO) and FGMs towards the design are shown and reviewed. The final design uses TO, and as such needs to be manufactured using additive manufacture (AM). Constraints have been put in place to ensure physical manufacturability is possible. The final design reduces the mass compared to the original arm by 61.4%

SAM 2 data user's guide

This document is intended to serve as a guide to the use of the data products from the Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement (SAM) 2 experiment for scientific investigations of polar stratospheric aerosols. Included is a detailed description of the Beta and Aerosol Number Density Archive Tape (BANAT), which is the SAM 2 data product containing the aerosol extinction data available for these investigations. Also included are brief descriptions of the instrument operation, data collection, processing and validation, and some of the scientific analyses conducted to date

SAM-2 ground-truth plan: Correlative measurements for the Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement-2 (SAM 2) sensor on the Nimbus G satellite

The SAM-2 will fly aboard the Nimbus-G satellite for launch in the fall of 1978 and measure stratospheric vertical profiles of aerosol extinction in high latitude bands. The plan gives details of the location and times for the simultaneous satellite/correlative measurements for the nominal launch time, the rationale and choice of the correlative sensors, their characteristics and expected accuracies, and the conversion of their data to extinction profiles. The SAM-2 expected instrument performance and data inversion results are presented. Various atmospheric models representative of polar stratospheric aerosols are used in the SAM-2 and correlative sensor analyses