Apparatus and method for control of a solid fueled rocket vehicle Patent

Solid propellant rocket vehicle thrust control method and apparatu

Search for universality in one-dimensional ballistic annihilation kinetics

We study the kinetics of ballistic annihilation for a one-dimensional ideal gas with continuous velocity distribution. A dynamical scaling theory for the long time behavior of the system is derived. Its validity is supported by extensive numerical simulations for several velocity distributions. This leads us to the conjecture that all the continuous velocity distributions \phi(v) which are symmetric, regular and such that \phi(0) does not vanish, are attracted in the long time regime towards the same Gaussian distribution and thus belong to the same universality class. Moreover, it is found that the particle density decays as n(t)~t^{-\alpha}, with \alpha=0.785 +/- 0.005.Comment: 8 pages, needs multicol, epsf and revtex. 8 postscript figures included. Submitted to Phys. Rev. E. Also avaiable at http://mykonos.unige.ch/~rey/publi.html#Secon

Earth-Facing Antenna Characterization in Complex Ground Plane/Multipath Rich Environment

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) Testbed was a Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based payload launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in July of 2012. The purpose of the SCAN Testbed payload was to investigate the applicability of SDRs to NASA space missions in an operational environment, which means that a proper model for system performance in said operational space environment is a necessary condition. The SCAN Testbed has line-of-sight connections to various ground stations with its S-Band Earth-facing Near-Earth-Network Low Gain Antenna (NEN-LGA). Any previous efforts to characterize the NEN-LGA proved difficult, therefore, the NASA Glenn Research Center built its own S-Band ground station, which became operational in 2015, and has been used successfully to characterize the NEN-LGA's in-situ pattern measurements. This methodology allows for a more realistic characterization of the antenna performance, where the pattern oscillation induced by the complex ISS ground plane, as well as shadowing effects due to ISS structural blockage are included into the final performance model. This paper describes the challenges of characterizing an antenna pattern in this environment. It will also discuss the data processing, present the final antenna pattern measurements and derived model, as well as discuss various lessons learne

Earth-Facing Antenna Characterization in a Complex Ground Plane/Multipath Rich Environment

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) Testbed was a Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based payload launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in July of 2012. The purpose of the SCAN Testbed payload was to investigate the applicability of SDRs to NASA space missions in an operational space environment, which means that a proper model for system performance in said operational space environment is a necessary condition. The SCAN Testbed has line-of-sight connections to various ground stations with its S-Band Earth-facing Near-Earth Network Low Gain Antenna (NEN-LGA). Any previous efforts to characterize the NEN-LGA proved difficult, therefore, the NASA Glenn Research Center built its own S-Band ground station, which became operational in 2015, and has been successfully used to characterize the NEN-LGAs in-situ pattern measurements. This methodology allows for a more realistic characterization of the antenna performance, where the pattern oscillation induced by the complex ISS ground plane, as well as shadowing effects due to ISS structural blockage are included into the final performance model. This paper describes the challenges of characterizing an antenna pattern in this environment. It will also discuss the data processing, present the final antenna pattern measurements and derived model, as well as discuss various lessons learned

Characterization of an In-Situ Ground Terminal via a Geostationary Satellite

In 2015, the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed project completed an S-Band ground station located at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This S-Band ground station was developed to create a fully characterized and controllable dynamic link environment when testing novel communication techniques for Software Defined Radios and Cognitive Communication Systems. In order to provide a useful environment for potential experimenters, it was necessary to characterize various RF devices at both the component level in the laboratory and at the system level after integration. This paper will discuss some of the laboratory testing of the ground station components, with a particular focus/emphasis on the near-field measurements of the antenna. It will then describe the methodology for characterizing the installed ground station at the system level via a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), with specific focus given to the characterization of the ground station antenna pattern, where the max TDRS transmit power limited the validity of the non-noise floor received power data to the antenna main lobe region. Finally, the paper compares the results of each test as well as provides lessons learned from this type of testing methodology

Application of the Gillespie algorithm to a granular intruder particle

We show how the Gillespie algorithm, originally developed to describe coupled chemical reactions, can be used to perform numerical simulations of a granular intruder particle colliding with thermalized bath particles. The algorithm generates a sequence of collision ``events'' separated by variable time intervals. As input, it requires the position-dependent flux of bath particles at each point on the surface of the intruder particle. We validate the method by applying it to a one-dimensional system for which the exact solution of the homogeneous Boltzmann equation is known and investigate the case where the bath particle velocity distribution has algebraic tails. We also present an application to a granular needle in bath of point particles where we demonstrate the presence of correlations between the translational and rotational degrees of freedom of the intruder particle. The relationship between the Gillespie algorithm and the commonly used Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is also discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, to be published in J. Phys. A Math. Ge

Structural Information in Two-Dimensional Patterns: Entropy Convergence and Excess Entropy

We develop information-theoretic measures of spatial structure and pattern in more than one dimension. As is well known, the entropy density of a two-dimensional configuration can be efficiently and accurately estimated via a converging sequence of conditional entropies. We show that the manner in which these conditional entropies converge to their asymptotic value serves as a measure of global correlation and structure for spatial systems in any dimension. We compare and contrast entropy-convergence with mutual-information and structure-factor techniques for quantifying and detecting spatial structure.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, http://www.santafe.edu/projects/CompMech/papers/2dnnn.htm