Thursday, 25 October 2007

Teknologi Kapal Luar Angkasa V








Mars Orbiter Examines 'Lace' and 'Lizard Skin' Terrain




Added and Edited By:
Arip Nurahman Department of Physics, Faculty of sciences and Mathematics
Indonesia University of Education
&
Follower Open Course Ware at MIT-Harvard University, U.S.A.


Calendar / Announcements


11.12.09 Lecture series: Taking a Closer Look at Exoplanet Atmospheres
11.12.09 Teacher workshop: Lunar Certification
11.14.09 Teacher workshop: Connecting With Climate Change
12.03.09 Lecture series: Monitoring Earth's Changing Land Surface



SAN FRANCISCO - Scrutiny by NASA's newest Mars orbiter is helping scientists learn the stories of some of the weirdest landscapes on Mars, as well as more familiar-looking parts of the Red Planet.

One type of landscape near Mars' south pole is called "cryptic terrain" because it once defied explanation, but new observations bolster and refine recent interpretations of how springtime outbursts of carbon-dioxide gas there sculpt intricate patterns and paint seasonal splotches.

"A lot of Mars looks like Utah, but this is an area that looks nothing like Planet Earth," said Candice Hansen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., deputy principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In addition to radially branching patterns called "spiders," which had been detected by an earlier Mars orbiter, other intriguing ground textures in the area appear in the new images. "In some places, the channels form patterns more like lace. In others, the texture is reminiscent of lizard skin," Hansen said.

Results from all six instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars last year, are described in dozens of presentations this week by planetary scientists in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

This is a perspective view of a scene within Mars' Candor Chasma. It shows how the surface would appear to a person standing on top of one of the many hills in the region and facing southeast. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
› Full image and caption
By taking stereo pictures of a target area from slightly different angles during different orbits, HiRISE can show the surface in three dimensions. Channels found to widen as they run uphill in the cryptic terrain region testify that the channels are cut by a gas, not a liquid.

Earlier evidence for jets of gas active in the region came from fan-shaped blotches appearing seasonally, which scientists interpret as material fallen to the surface downwind of vents where the gas escapes. Some of the fans are dark, others bright. "The dark fans are probably dust, but the exact composition of the brighter fans had remained unknown until now," said Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Ariz.

Observations by the new orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars suggest that the bright fans are composed of carbon-dioxide frost. Here's the story researchers now propose: Spring warms the ground under a winter-formed coating of carbon dioxide ice. Thawing at the base of the coating generates carbon-dioxide gas, which carves channels as it pushes its way under the ice to a weak spot where it bursts free. The jet of escaping gas carries dust aloft and also cools so fast from expanding rapidly that a fraction of the carbon dioxide refreezes and falls back to the surface as frost.

The processes creating the cryptic terrain are current events on Mars. Repeated HiRISE observations of the same target area show the downwind fans can form and grow perceptibly in less than five days.

Other new findings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal processes of Martian environments long ago. A team including Chris Okubo of the University of Arizona, Tucson, used stereo HiRISE images to examine layered deposits inside Mars' Candor Chasma, part of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system in the solar system.

"The high-resolution structural map allowed us to interpret the geological history of the area," Okubo said. "The layers are tilted in a way that tells us they are younger than the canyon." Spectrometer studies of the composition of these deposits had indicated water played a role in their formation, but their age relative to the formation of the canyon had been uncertain. The new findings suggest water was present after the canyon formed.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars team, led by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad.



JPL HIGHER EDUCATION

JPL's Higher Education Group facilitates interactions among colleges and universities (including Caltech) and NASA's Education Office to develop and administer educational programs and research opportunities. The goal is to promote a deeper understanding of the NASA mission by all participants and inspire them to pursue related careers or projects in science, engineering, and technology.

Undergraduate student working with test Rovers While at JPL, most of the participants are JPL affiliates, not JPL employees, and most of their activities take place during several weeks of the summer. All of the programs have eligibility requirements and schedules that applicants must meet in order to be accepted, and awards are competitive.

To get started, visit Find Your Place at JPL, a site geared for students and professionals who are interested in finding out how their field of study fits into JPL’s matrix environment.

The Pre-college Bridge Programs are for students just graduated from high school and on their way to college but not yet enrolled.

The Undergraduate Student Programs offer research challenges to rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

The Graduate Student Programs are for students pursuing degrees beyond the baccalaureate who seek opportunities for summer research projects or for extended collaboration with JPL technical staff tied to their graduate research projects.

The Postdoctoral Programs are primarily, but not solely, for recent recipients of doctoral degrees who are looking for extended research opportunities [two to three years] before accepting or returning to permanent positions in industry, academia, or at federally-funded research and development centers like JPL.

The Faculty Programs accept people in teaching and/or research positions at U. S. academic institutions who want to collaborate with JPL technical staff for professional advancement or to enhance their effectiveness as teachers.

Research Affiliate positions are available to selected scholars able to spend time at JPL conducting projects in concert with JPL technical staff.

A variety of Minority University Programs offer opportunities not different in kind from those mentioned above, but with different sources of support and with the emphasis on increasing the diversity of the NASA/JPL workforce.

Student Employment opportunities

Sumber:

Media Contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Arip Nurahman

Semoga Bermanfaat!

Saturday, 20 October 2007

Teknologi Kapal Luar Angkasa IV

The House of More Than a Decade of Tomorrows

Added and Edited By:
Arip Nurahman Department of Physics, Faculty of sciences and Mathematics
Indonesia University of Education



The House of More Than a Decade of Tomorrows

NASA engineer Pat Troutman


Pat Troutman leads a group of engineers in designing work facilities and exploration capabilities for astronauts on the moon and, eventually, Mars. But, he warns, "What I think they'll look like today is not what they're going to look like tomorrow. What we write down on the board really establishes the functions that they're going to have to do, but there are a thousand different answers to how you can do a specific function." Credit: NASA/Sean Smith.



Like nature, Pat Troutman abhors a vacuum.
"I get so bored when things don't change within a week," says Troutman, laughing, which he does easily.
Embracing change is a requirement for his job: leading surface architecture integration for the Space Mission Analysis Branch. In that position, he oversees the creation process of the architecture that will be used when NASA goes back to the moon in 2020.
The work has generated models of what astronauts could live in on the moon, but Troutman quickly disabuses anyone's notion that any of those models will become the lunar home. "What I think they'll look like today is not what they're going to look like tomorrow," he says. "What we write down on the board really establishes the functions that they're going to have to do, but there are a thousand different answers to how you can do a specific function."
And then those answers can change with technological advances.
"What if, say, the automotive industry develops a fuel cell that's 10 times more efficient than what we've got?" Troutman asks. "Can I adapt that to the lunar surface, and how does that change how we build things?"
And answers can change with new partners.
"Let's say NASA might be the lead architect," he says, "but just like the space station, to be robust and sustainable, the more buy-in you have, the more players, the better off it is."
Answers can change with bosses.
"Whatever we come up with has to be palpable, doable, acceptable and affordable through multiple administrations," says Troutman, who has worked at NASA Langley Research Center for 23 years.
And answers can even change with destinations.
"There are a whole set of people out there who say we should be going to Mars first," he says. "Everything we've been working on up to now is perfectly applicable to Mars. There's no lost work there."
For now, though, the mission is to go back to the moon, which some critics argue is merely a repeat of Apollo and the 1960s. But it's so much more, and that more is what drives the architects. "Just to repeat Apollo is not enough," Troutman says. "We have to do more than that. We're going to go back, but this time we're going to stay around and explore."
The architects pick the brains of the Apollo-era engineers, and they listen to pronouncements of futurists who speak of cities on the moon, but their goal is something in between.
Troutman calls it establishing an "outpost."
"It's just a forward base to enhance exploration," he says. "It's a place that you can return to time and time again to facilitate your mission."
Lunar architecture, artist concept
Living off the land on the lunar surface, artist's concept. Credit: NASA
In that mission, four people will land on the moon and stay for extended periods, exploring and -- just as important -- getting used to living away from Earth. While the International Space Station has provided some of that education, it's still only a two-day flight from Kennedy Space Center.
But the moon is four days each way, and Mars is a year going and nine months returning, with stays of up to 500 days in between.
"On all of these trips, whether it's to the moon or to Mars or to ... some other solar system, forget Mother Earth," Troutman says. "You can't call her up and have her deliver a pizza. You're on your own, and you have to live with what you bring with you."
Or, in this case, what you might send ahead.
In NASA, it's called in-situ resource utilization, and exploration officials muse about "living off the land." Actually, it's living off the land and what you brought to it.
"One of the things we bring with us every time we bring someone to the moon is a two- or three-story lander full of tanks, materials, residual hydrogen and oxygen and stuff," Troutman says. "That's the first thing we're going to do in in-situ resource utilization. We're going to scavenge the heck out of that thing."
The idea is to design the habitat with interchangeable parts. Each lander then becomes a supply house for the next lander, offering computers and avionics equipment, hydrogen and oxygen, parts and pieces.
"That way," says Troutman, "when something goes out in the habitat, I can go out to the junkyard, pull one out and replace it."
The idea is to have a place to stay for the astronauts set up before they get to the moon.
"The way we're structuring the architecture right now -- and remember, that's at this moment; 10 years from now it might not be like that -- is we're doing something called an integrated cargo pallet," Troutman says. "This pallet has power and communications that are designed to work on the moon. And we're designing it so that it works with any lunar outpost element."
The pallet is taken aloft by an Ares V rocket, and it's taken to the lunar surface by the lander.
"That's something they couldn't do with Apollo," Troutman says. "We have technology that (allows us to) push a button and go land on the moon at a certain spot. It took people to do that with Apollo."
Once the habitat is in place, the astronauts who are propelled aloft by Ares I can land on the moon.
Lunar architecture, artist concept
Getting around on the lunar surface, artist's concept. Credit: NASA
"When they get there, there's a habitat, there's power, there's hot and cold running water, there's a bathroom and stuff," says Troutman. "So all they have to bring is themselves. The Orion crew exploration vehicle and another lander act as an Earth-moon taxi. They take the four-day trip to the moon and they come down and hop out and just go live in this. … And we're not going to send any people to the moon or Mars until we know there's a fully functioning habitat waiting for them."
The living's not easy, but it is adequate.
"The Ares V is up to a 10-meter (cargo) shroud, which is 33 feet (in diameter)," Troutman says. "The back of my house is 60 or 70 feet, so it's half my house long. And you can get almost a two-story-high building in that thing. For four people, that's pretty good living."
It's also a different way of life for the four people than any of their space predecessors have lived. For one thing, they're going to have to be handy around the house, fixing things on the fly. Lessons from the International Space Station have showed them the way.
"One of the things we've learned from space station is that they've spent precious time fixing it," says Troutman, who worked on the station's design. "It's important to consider methods and techniques for repairing and sustaining it. Stuff breaks down, and we've learned a lot of lessons about sustainability and operability that we'll apply to the lunar surface."
In that, NASA's partners on the space station have an example.
"The Russians have a great philosophy," Troutman says. "When something goes wrong, they're generalists. They don't go back to Earth and say, 'come up with a procedure for fixing this.' They try to get it to work first, and that's what our lunar astronauts are going to have to do."
It's all so new, and yet it's not. Though many would believe that the notion of returning to the moon and then going on to Mars is three years old and began with President Bush's "Vision" speech on Jan. 14, 2004. But Troutman reminds that the "S" in NASA is an indicator that exploring space is never far out of the minds of the agency's scientists and engineers.
"(Werner) Von Braun's intent always was to continue on through the moon and to Mars and to spread human society all throughout the solar system and beyond," he says. "It never died after Apollo. It just goes into hibernation at various stages."
So the architects use the work of various study groups, that of Apollo and of missions since. And they try to understand what the future might -- or might not -- hold.
NASA Langley Research Center Office of Education
The Office of Education is part of the NASA Langley Research Center's Office of Strategic Communications and Education, or OSCE.
OSCE provides a wide range of services in public and media relations, formal and informal education activities and Agency leadership responsibilities for NASA's Digital Learning Network and NASA's Aerospace Education Services Project.
Langley's educational initiatives have produced a number of innovative, highly-successful programs.
The experienced, professional staff at Langley supports many NASA educational projects. They have also developed several programs that have been adopted by other NASA Centers.
Langley has been a NASA leader in the use and integration of instructional technologies in K-12 education.
Langley's instructional television programs -- Digital Media Lab and Technology Immersion Workshops -- continue to provide students and educators with outstanding multimedia and interactive resources featuring NASA personel, facilities and research.
In terms of higher education programs, the Langley-developed Pre-Service Teacher Project -- with its annual national conference and summer institutes at Langley and other Centers -- has acquainted thousands of pre-professional teachers with NASA's rich array of educational materials.
Contact Us:
Office of Education
NASA Langley Research Center
100 NASA Road
Hampton, VA 23681-2199

Phone: (757) 864-6300
Fax: (757) 864-6521

Langley Exploration Features

Jim Hodges
The Researcher News
NASA Langley Research Center

Arip Nurahman
Semoga Bermanfaat

Thursday, 18 October 2007

Indonesian Space Force Command

Indonesian Space Force Command  
(Komando Angkatan Antariksa Indonesia)




F-16 Fighting Falcon

F-16 Fighting Falcon "Viper"



F-16 Fighting Falcon
A USAF F-16C over Iraq
Role Multirole Fighter
National origin United States
Manufacturer General Dynamics
Lockheed Martin
First flight 2 February 1974
Introduction 17 August 1978
Status Active
Primary users United States Air Force
25 other users (see operators page)
Number built 4,450+[1]
Unit cost F-16A/B: US$14.6 million (1998 dollars)[2]
F-16C/D: US$18.8 million (1998 dollars)[2]
Variants General Dynamics F-16 VISTA
Developed into General Dynamics F-16XL
Mitsubishi F-2


The original F-16 was designed as a lightweight air-to-air day fighter. Air-to-ground responsibilities transformed the first production F-16s into multirole fighters. The empty weight of the Block 10 F-16A is 15,600 pounds. The empty weight of the Block 50 is 19,200 pounds. The A in F-16A refers to a Block 1 through 20 single-seat aircraft. The B in F-16B refers to the two-seat version. The letters C and D were substituted for A and B, respectively, beginning with Block 25. Block is an important term in tracing the F-16's evolution. Basically, a block is a numerical milestone. The block number increases whenever a new production configuration for the F-16 is established. Not all F-16s within a given block are the same. They fall into a number of block subsets called miniblocks. These sub-block sets are denoted by capital letters following the block number (Block 15S, for example). From Block 30/32 on, a major block designation ending in 0 signifies a General Electric engine; one ending in 2 signifies a Pratt & Whitney engine.
The F-16A, a single-seat model, first flew in December 1976. The first operational F-16A was delivered in January 1979 to the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The F-16B, a two-seat model, has tandem cockpits that are about the same size as the one in the A model. Its bubble canopy extends to cover the second cockpit. To make room for the second cockpit, the forward fuselage fuel tank and avionics growth space were reduced. During training, the forward cockpit is used by a student pilot with an instructor pilot in the rear cockpit.
  • Block 1 and Block 5 F-16s were manufactured through 1981 for USAF and for four European air forces. Most Blocks 1 and 5 aircraft were upgraded to a Block 10 standard in a program called Pacer Loft in 1982.
  • Block 10 aircraft (312 total) were built through 1980. The differences between these early F-16 versions are relatively minor.
  • Block 15 aircraft represent the most numerous version of the more than 3,600 F-16s manufactured to date. The transition from Block 10 to Block 15 resulted in two hardpoints added to the chin of the inlet. The larger horizontal tails, which grew in area by about thirty percent are the most noticeable difference between Block 15 and previous F-16 versions.
The F-16C and F-16D aircraft, which are the single- and two-place counterparts to the F-16A/B, incorporate the latest cockpit control and display technology. All F-16s delivered since November 1981 have built-in structural and wiring provisions and systems architecture that permit expansion of the multirole flexibility to perform precision strike, night attack and beyond-visual-range interception missions. All active units and many Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units have converted to the F-16C/D, which is deployed in a number of Block variants.
  • Block 25 added the ability to carry AMRAAM to the F-16 as well as night/precision ground-attack capabilities, as well as an improved radar, the Westinghouse (now Northrop-Grumman) AN/APG-68, with increased range, better resolution, and more operating modes.
  • Block 30/32 added two new engines -- Block 30 designates a General Electric F110-GE-100 engine, and Block 32 designates a Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 engine. Block 30/32 can carry the AGM-45 Shrike and the AGM-88A HARM, and like the Block 25, it can carry the AGM-65 Maverick.
  • Block 40/42 - F-16CG/DG - gained capabilities for navigation and precision attack in all weather conditions and at night with the LANTIRN pods and more extensive air-to-ground loads, including the GBU-10, GBU-12, GBU-24 Paveway laser-guided bombs and the GBU-15. Block 40/42 production began in 1988 and ran through 1995. Currently, the Block 40s are being upgraded with several Block 50 systems: ALR-56M threat warning system, the ALE-47 advanced chaff/flare dispenser, an improved performance battery, and Falcon UP structural upgrade.
  • Block 50/52 Equipped with a Northrop Grumman APG-68(V)7 radar and a General Electric F110-GE-129 Increased Performance Engine, the aircraft are also capable of using the Lockheed Martin low-altitude navigation and targeting for night (LANTIRN) system. Technology enhancements include color multifunctional displays and programmable display generator, a new Modular Mission Computer, a Digital Terrain System, a new color video camera and color triple-deck video recorder to record the pilot's head-up display view, and an upgraded data transfer unit. In May 2000, the Air Force certitified Block 50/52 [aka Block 50 Plus] F-16s to carry the CBU-103/104/105 Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser, the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon, the GBU-31/32 Joint Direct Attack Munition, and the Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System. Beginning in mid-2000, Lockheed-Martin began to deliver Block 50/52 variants equipped with an on-board oxygen generation system (OBOGS) designed to replace the obsolete, original LOX system.
  • Block 50D/52D Wild Weasel F-16CJ (CJ means block 50) comes in C-Model (1 seat) and D-Model (2 seat) versions. It is best recognized for its ability to carry the AGM-88 HARM and the AN/ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System (HTS) in the suppression of enemy air defenses [SEAD] mission. The HTS allows HARM to be employed in the range-known mode providing longer range shots with greater target specificity. This specialized version of the F-16, which can also carry the ALQ-119 Electronic Jamming Pod for self protection, became the sole provider for Air Force SEAD missions when the F-4G Wild Weasel was retired from the Air Force inventory. The lethal SEAD mission now rests solely on the shoulders of the F-16 Harm Targeting System. Although F-18s and EA-6Bs are HARM capable, the F-16 provides the ability to use the HARM in its most effective mode. The original concept called for teaming the F-15 Precision Direction Finding (PDF) and the F-16 HTS. Because this teaming concept is no longer feasible, the current approach calls for the improvement of the HTS capability. The improvement will come from the Joint Emitter Targeting System (JETS), which facilitates the use of HARM's most effective mode when launched from any JETS capable aircraft.
  • Block 60 - In May 1998 the UAE announced selection of the Block 60 F-16 to be delivered between 2002-2004. The upgrade package consists of a range of modern systems including conformal fuel tanks for greater range, new cockpit displays, an internal sensor suite, a new mission computer and other advanced features including a new agile beam radar.

Specifications (F-16C Block 30)

Orthographically projected diagram of the F-16.

Testing of the F-35 Diverterless Supersonic Inlet on an F-16 testbed. The original intake is shown in the top image.
Data from USAF sheet,[2] International Directory of Military Aircraft,[103] GlobalSecurity,[104] AerospaceWeb[105]
General characteristics
Performance

M61A1 on display.
Armament
Avionics
Sumber:

Wikipedia


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