Southwest Research Institute

DIMPLE: DATING AN IRREGULAR MARE PATCH WITH A LUNAR EXPLORER

PROVIDE SUBSTANTIAL GUIDANCE AND INPUT TPROBABILISTIC DESIGN FOR ROTOR INTEGRITY

WE PROPOSE TO PLACE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE THERMAL HISTORY VERTICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL VARIABILITY OF THE MOON BY MEASURING ITS HEAT FLOW AND SUBSURFACE ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY STRUCTURE AT SCHRODINGER BASIN. ELECTRICAL COND

DE-FOA-00014564 AND CONTROL NUMBER 1564-1529. SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

NOVEL CONCEPTS FOR THE COMPRESSION OF LARGE VOLUMES OF CARBON DIOXIDE

NOVEL CONCEPTS FOR THE COMPRESSION OF LARGE VOLUMES OF CARBON DIOXIDE

DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH EFFICIENCY HOT GAS TURBO-EXPANDER AND LOW COST HEAT EXCHANGERS FOR OPTIMIZED CSP SUPERCRITICAL CO2 OPERATION

HOW THE CORONA IS HEATED TO TENS OF MEGAKELVIN (MK) IN SOLAR FLARES AND QUIESCENT (NON-FLARING) ACTIVE REGIONS IS STILL POORLY UNDERSTOOD. ELEMENTAL ABUNDANCES ARE A UNIQUE DIAGNOSTIC OF HOW MASS AND ENERGY FLOW INTO AND WITHIN THE CORONA.

RESEARCH TITLE: UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND BOMBARDMENT HISTORY OF THE MOON. THREE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS HAVE CHANGED OUR UNDERSTAND

MULTIPLE YEAR AWARD WITH INCREMENTAL FUNDING FOR YEARS ONE TO FIVE. THIS PROPOSAL IS ENTITLED "PROJECT ESPRESSO: EXPLORATION SCIENCE PATHFINDER RESEARCH FOR ENHANCING SOLAR SYSTEM OBSERVATIONS." THIS IS AWARDED IN RESPONSE TO COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE_CAN_NO. NNH16ZDA009C NASA SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION RESEARCH VIRTUAL INSTITUTE_SSERVI CYCLE THREE. THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR IS DR. ALEX H. PARKER WITH THE SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE_SWRI. PROJECT SUMMARY WE PROPOSE THE ESPRESSO PROJECT FOR SSERVI NODE THAT WILL PURSUE A BROAD RANGE OF PATHFINDING RESEARCH WITH SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS OBJECTIVES RELEVANT TO ENABLING AND ENHANCING EXPLORATION OF NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS_NEAS THE MOON AND THE MOONS OF MARS. THESE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ACHIEVED WITH A TIGHTLY INTEGRATED INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM TO DEVELOP IMPLEMENT AND CHARACTERIZED A SUITE OF ENABLING FACILITIES ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES AND INSTRUMENTATION TECHNOLOGIES. THE ESPRESSO OBJECTIVES ARE GUIDED BY THE FOLLOWING THREE THEMES:1_ENHANCING OPERATIONAL SAFETY.2_ENHANCING TARGET SELECTION SAMPLE SELECTION AND IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION (ISRU) POTENTIAL.3_ENHANCING TARGET CHARACTERIZATION AND ANALYSIS CAPABILITIES.BY VIRTUE OF THE DISTRIBUTED INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM ENABLED BY THE VIRTUAL INSTITUTE MODEL ESPRESSO WILL SUPPORT A DIVERSE ENSEMBLE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS GUIDED BY THESE THEMES. THE EIGHT ESPRESSO INVESTIGATIONS ARE:1_DEVELOPING INSTRUMENTED NANO-IMPACTORS FOR REMOTE GEOTECHNICAL HAZARD ASSESSMENTS.2_CHARACTERIZING GRAIN-SCALE THERMOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TARGET BODY CONSTITUENTS.3_PREDICTING TARGET BODY LANDSLIDE HAZARDS BY ADAPTING TERRESTRIAL HAZARD ANALYSIS TOOLS.4_CHARACTERIZING IMPACT EJECTA DYNAMICS TO UNDERSTAND POTENTIAL SIZE- AND CHEMISTRY-DEPENDENT REGOLITH MOBILIZATION PROCESSES ON TARGET BODIES.5_EXPERIMENTALLY CHARACTERIZING TARGET BODY REGOLITH GARDENING AND CRATERING PROCESSES.6_MEASURING OPTICAL CONSTANTS OF TARGET BODY CONSTITUENT MATERIALS FOR QUANTITATIVE REMOTE COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF TARGET BODIES.7_CHARACTERIZING LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY_LIBS RAMAN SCATTERING AND LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE FOR IN SITU TARGET BODY COMPOSITION ANALYSIS.8_DETERMINING THE EXPLORATION ROLES OF FIELD LIBS AND RAMAN FOR SAMPLE SELECTION RESOURCE PROSPECTING AND HAZARD IDENTIFICATION.TO ENABLE INVESTIGATIONS 1 3 4 AND 5 SWRI HAS PARTNERED WITH INDUSTRY TO DEVELOP THE AIRBORNE SPACE ENVIRONMENT CHAMBER_ASEC A LARGE GENERAL-PURPOSE VACUUM CHAMBER FLOWN IN REDUCED GRAVITY AIRCRAFT TO PROVIDE ESPRESSO AND OTHER SSERVI TEAMS WITH ACCESS TO A SPACE-LIKE GRAVITY AND PRESSURE EXPERIMENT ENVIRONMENT. THERE ARE 12 PLANNED ASEC MICROGRAVITY FLIGHTS SCHEDULED UNDER THE SWRI INSTITUTIONAL CONTRIBUTION FOR ESPRESSO WITH ASED FLIGHT SPACE AVAILABLE FOR OTHER SSERVI EXPERIMENTAL PAYLOADS. EXPRESSO'S INVESTIGATIONS ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO 20 OF THE SSERVI CAN SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION TOPICS AND ADDRESS AT LEAST SEVEN NASA STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE GAPS_SKGS INCLUDING SMALL BODY SKGS II.D-2 II.D-2 III.A-1 III.A-2 III.D-1 IV.A-1 AND NASA LUNAR EXPLORATION SKG III.C-1. ESPRESSO WAS DESIGNED TO CONSTRUCTIVELY INTEGRATE INTO THE SSERVI NETWORK BY EXPANDING CAPABILITIES AND FACILITIES AVAILABLE TO SSERVI AND WE HAVE DEVELOPED KEY COLLABORATIONS WITH FIVE EXISTING TEAMS.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN ULTRA-HIGH EFFICIENCY INTEGRALLY-GEARED SUPERCRITICAL CO2 COMPANDER

DE-FE0031929 WITH THE SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE TITLED ''DEVELOPMENT OF COAL SYNGAS OXY-COMBUSTION TURBINE FOR USE IN ADVANCED SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE (SCO2) POWER CYCLES''. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A COAL SYNGAS OXY-COMBUSTION TURBINE FOR SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE (SCO2) CYCLE ENVIRONMENTS TO IMPROVE THE STATE OF THE ART FOR THERMAL EFFICIENCY, PLANT COSTS, AND FLEXIBLE OPERATION, RESULTING IN IMPROVED PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTION OF A HIGH-PRESSURE STREAM OF CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2), SIMPLIFYING CARBON CAPTURE AND MAKING THE POWER PLANT NEAR EMISSION-FREE.

WE PROPOSE A CUBESAT MISSION TO STUDY SOLAR PARTICLES OVER THE EARTHS POLES: CUSPP A 4-YEAR LCAS PROJECT TO DESIGN, DEVELOP, AND INTEGRATE A 3U CUBES

22-SSERVI4_2-0017.CENTER FOR LUNAR ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION (CLOE)

FPDS BASE DESCRIPTION, MULTIPLE YEAR AWARD&INCREMENTAL FUNDING FOR YEARS ONE TO FIVE. THIS PROPOSAL IS ENTITLED, "INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF EXPLO

PROBABILISTIC INTEGRITY AND RISK ASSESSMENT OF TURBINE ENGINES, PHASE III

DE-FE0031580 PROJECT ENTITLED ''FLAMELESS PRESSURIZED OXY-COMBUSTION LARGE PILOT DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND OPERATION''

PROBABILITIES INTEGRITY RISK ASSESSMET OF TURBINE ENGINES, PHASE II

HIGH INLET TEMPERATURE COMBUSTOR FOR DIRECT FIRED SUPERCRITICAL OXY-COMBUSTION

20-HFORT20-0003.COMPOSITION AND DYNAMICS EXPERIMENT (CODEX) IN THE TOPSIDE IONOSPHERE

DE-EE0008873 WITH SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE TITLED ''ENERGY EFFICIENT MANEUVERING OF CONNECTED AND AUTOMATED VEHICLES WITH SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AT INTERSECTIONS''.

THIS PROPOSAL FOCUSES ON: 1) MODIFICATION OF AN EXISTING MASS SPECTROMETER ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT UNIT TO WITHSTAND ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING

WE PROPOSE TO ADVANCE FROM TRL-4 TO TRL-6 AN INSTRUMENT TO IDENTIFY AND QUANTIFY IN SITU THE ABUNDANCE OF COMPOUNDS OF KEY CHEMICAL AND ASTROBIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN PLANETARY GASSES AND LIQUIDS SUCH AS ICY MOON OCEAN WATER THE MELTWATER FROM PLANETARY ICES AND THE ORGANIC SEAS AND LAKES OF TITAN. THE OVERARCHING GOAL IS TO TAKE AN EXISTING COMMERCIAL LABORATORY MEASUREMENT SYSTEM (TRL 4) AND CARRY OUT THE NECESSARY TRADES DESIGN MODIFICATIONS MINIATURIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING REQUIRED TO DEMONSTRATE A PROTOTYPE INSTRUMENT THAT MAY BE CREDIBLY PROPOSED FOR FLIGHT. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS PROPOSAL THE PROTOTYPE INSTRUMENT IS DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED AROUND AN IMPLEMENTATION FOR A EUROPA LANDER. THE FULL INSTRUMENT CONCEPT CONSISTS OF A FRONT END SYSTEM THAT INGESTS SMALL AMOUNTS (MG) OF ICE MELTS THE SAMPLE IN A CONTROLLED MANNER AND ANALYZES THE RESULTING VAPOR WITH A NEW CLASS OF IR LASER SPECTROMETER. THE MAJOR ADVANTAGE TO THE PROPOSED SYSTEM COMPARED TO OTHER DIRECT MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES (E.G. GCMS OR RAMAN) IS A LARGE SAVING IN RESOURCES WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY PROVIDING RAPID (~ 1 MIN) AND UNAMBIGUOUS SPECTRAL IDENTIFICATION OF VOLATILIZED COMPOUNDS AND DISSOLVED GASES. IT ALSO HAS SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGES OVER REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY IN TERMS OF CAPABILITIES SIMPLICITY RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND SIGNAL-TO-NOISE. FOR EXTREMELY RESOURCE CONSTRAINED MISSIONS (E.G. THE EUROPA LANDER) SUCH LOWER RESOURCE AND HIGH CAPABILITY INSTRUMENTS MAY BE THE ONLY FEASIBLE PATH TO OBTAINING HIGH PRIORITY SCIENCE. THE WORK PLAN HAS THE FOLLOWING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: GOAL 1: PRODUCE A MEDIUM FIDELITY TRL-5 BRASSBOARD AND DEMONSTRATE OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN A SIMULATED OPERATION ENVIRONMENT WITH REALISTIC SUPPORT ELEMENTS. OBJECTIVE 1A: FINALIZE SCREENING AND SELECTION OF LASERS ELECTRONICS OPTOMECHANICS AND DETECTORS USING COMPONENTS WITH PATH TO FLIGHT; CONDUCT RADIATION TESTING OF KEY COMPONENTS. OBJECTIVE 1B: CLOSE MINIATURIZATION REPACKAGING TRADES AND FINALIZE MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL DESIGN INTO A CONFIGURATION THAT IS CLOSE TO THE EXPECTED FORM FIT AND FUNCTION OF FLIGHT INSTRUMENT. OBJECTIVE 1C: FABRICATE ASSEMBLE INTEGRATE AND TEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND MEASUREMENT OF TRACE GAS SPECTRA UNDER SIMULATED OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS. GOAL 2: PRODUCE A HIGH FIDELITY SYSTEM TRL-6 PROTOTYPE THAT ADEQUATELY ADDRESSES ALL CRITICAL SCALING ISSUES AND IS OPERATED IN A RELEVANT ENVIRONMENT TO DEMONSTRATE OPERATIONS UNDER CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. OBJECTIVE 2A: COMPLETE DELTA-DESIGN TRADES BASED ON KNOWLEDGE GAINED FROM TRL-5 BRASSBOARD. OBJECTIVE 2B: ASSEMBLE INTEGRATE AND TEST LASER OPTOMECHANICAL ELECTRONICS AND OPTICAL CELL SUBSYSTEMS. OBJECTIVE 2C: TEST PROTOTYPE UNDER RELEVANT CONDITIONS AND VALIDATE AGAINST PERFORMANCE DESIGN AND SCIENCE-DRIVEN MEASUREMENT REQUIREMENTS. THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT AND DEVELOPMENT WORK IS IN CONCERT WITH THE MATISSE SCOPE AND GOALS. THE TRL RANGE IS COMPLIANT AND THE RESULT WILL BE AN INSTRUMENT PROTOTYPE PROVIDING FORM FIT AND FUNCTION OF A FLIGHT SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN TESTED IN THE RELEVANT ENVIRONMENT.

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIC COMPOSITIONAL ANALYZER (OCA) BASED UP-ON THE ONLY MASS SPECTROMETER SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR THE HARSH ENVIRONMENT AT EUROPA MASPEX-EUROPA CLIPPER (FROM SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE SWRI). THIS WORK OPTIMIZES AN OCA FOR LANDED SAMPLE ANALYSIS BY COMBINING THE MATURITY OF MASPEX DEVELOPMENT FOR EUROPA CLIPPER WITH NOVEL MICRODEVICE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH AND SAMPLE PREPARATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AND JHU-APL RESPECTIVELY. THE COMBINED INSTRUMENT MASPEX-ORCA (MASS SPECTROMETER FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION-ORGANIC COMPOSITION ANALYZER) HAS EXCEPTIONAL CAPABILITIES TO SEARCH FOR ORGANIC SIGNATURES OF LIFE; ENABLE ASSESSMENTS OF THE CHEMISTRY OF THE LANDER ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING MOLECULAR INDICATORS OF HABITABLE CONDITIONS; AND UNLOCKS THE POWER OF ISOTOPE BIOGEOCHEMISTRY ON THE SURFACE OF AN ICY WORLD WITH THE BASELINE HIGH-RESOLUTION CONFIGURATION. MASS SIZE POWER AND DATA RESOURCES WILL ULTIMATELY LIMIT THE SCIENCE THAT CAN BE ACHIEVED BY ANY OCA ONBOARD EUROPA LANDER. THE MASPEX-ORCA INVESTIGATION DEFINES BASELINE AND THRESHOLD CONFIGURATIONS BASED ON THE GUIDANCE OF THE EUROPA LANDER STUDY 2016 REPORT AND 2018 EUROPA LANDER ARCHITECTURE UPDATE. EACH CONFIGURATION FEATURES A HIGH TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL (TRL) MASS SPECTROMETER EITHER MASPEX (BASELINE FROM SWRI) OR NEUTRAL GAS MASS SPECTROMETER (NGMS THRESHOLD FROM UNIVERSITY OF BERN) COUPLED TO STATE-OF-THE-ART MICROFLUIDICS AND A MICRODEVICE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL GAS CHROMATOGRAPH (GC-GC). THE THRESHOLD INVESTIGATION SELECTS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY OBJECTIVES FROM THE SDT REPORT THAT CAN BE ADDRESSED USING A MEDIUM RESOLUTION MASS SPECTROMETER. HOWEVER ACCESS TO HIGH-PRECISION ISOTOPIC RATIOS (BASELINE INVESTIGATION) OPENS A MUCH WIDER WINDOW INTO THE POSSIBLE BIOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF MOLECULAR SPECIES INCLUDING CUTTING-EDGE POSITION-SPECIFIC ISOTOPIC ANALYSES. OUR PROGRAM LEVERAGES THE HIGH MATURITY OF THESE MASS SPECTROMETERS APPLIES THEM TO THE RESOURCE-INTENSIVE ENVIRONMENT AND COMBINES THEM WITH DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES TO SEARCH FOR BIOSIGNATURES AT EUROPA S SURFACE. THE CAPABILITIES OF BOTH GC-GC-MS SYSTEMS (INCLUDING MASS RANGE MASS RESOLUTION COMPOUND SEPARATION AND DETECTION LIMITS) TO MEET THE PROJECTED PERFORMANCE FOR ANALYZING BIOMOLECULES HABITABILITY INDICATORS AND A RANGE OF OTHER MOLECULES ARE VERIFIED BY TESTING IN YEAR 1 (Y1). ON A PARALLEL TRACK IN Y1 JHU-APL DEVELOPS A ROBOTIC MICROFLUIDICS SAMPLE PREPARATION SYSTEM. INDIVIDUAL ENGINEERING TASKS ARE ALSO COMPLETED TO ADVANCE THE TRL OF THE GC-GC AND TO MODIFY MASPEX AND NGMS TO ENSURE COMPATIBILITY WITH THE CONSTRAINTS OF A LANDED MISSION ON EUROPA. COLLABORATION WITH THE PRE-PROJECT TEAM AND OTHER INSTRUMENT TEAMS MATURES SPACECRAFT ACCOMMODATION. AN EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE VERSUS RESOURCE TRADE SPACE FROM THE Y1 STUDY LEADS TO THE SELECTION OF A SYSTEM DESIGN THAT FORMS THE BASIS OF THE EUROPA LANDER OCA INSTRUMENT. THIS INSTRUMENT IS TECHNICALLY MATURED AND TESTED AS AN END-TO-END SYSTEM IN Y2. THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENTS ARE IMPORTANT FOR MASPEX-ORCA TO REACH TRL 6 BY 2021-2022 FOR A 2026-2027 EARLIEST FLIGHT OPPORTUNITY.

BONE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY PROFILING TO ADVANCE SKELETAL GENETICS AND BIOMECHANICS

OPTIMIZING THE CSP TOWER AIR BRAYTON CYCLE SYSTEM TO MEET THE SUNSHOT OBJECTIVES

THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS TO ADAPT THE NOVEL LOW RESOURCE HIGH CAPABILITY LASER ABSORPTION SPECTROMETER FOR VOLATILES AND EVOLVED GAS (LASVEGAS) TO THE LUNAR SURFACE ENVIRONMENT.

22-DALI22_2-0042 LUNAR RAMAN DEEP-ULTRAVIOLET VISIBLE SPECTROGRAPH (LR-DUV-VIS)

PRE-PROJECT PLANNING FOR A FLAMELESS PRESSURIZED OXY-COMBUSTION PILOT PLANT

EO14042 MINI FND DEVELOPMENT PHASE 2

ARRAKIS: ASSESSING REGIONAL REFLECTORS OF ASTROBIOLOGY IN KOBUK DUNES FOR INTERPLANETARY SCIENCE

TA2 DEVELOPMENT AND FIELD TESTING NOVEL NATURAL GAS SURFACE PROCESS EQUIPMENT FOR REPLACEMENT OF WATER AS

STANDARDIZED TESTING PROGRAM FOR CHEMICAL HYDRIDE AND CARBON STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES

UNDER PIDDP, NSF, AND INTERNAL FUNDING, WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN INSTRUMENT TO SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE ON MARS, TO REVEAL THE HISTORY OF HABITA

SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE- NEW AWARD CONTROL NUMBER:1858-2227 18-83926 GRID-SCALE ELECTRICITY STORAGE AT LOWEST POSSIBLE COST: ENABLED BY PUMPED HEAT ELECTRICITY STORAGE THE TEAM OF SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SWRI), MALTA INC., AND BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PROPOSES TO ADVANCE PUMPED HEAT ELECTRICITY STORAGE (PHES) TECHNOLOGY WITH A 100 KWE LABORATORY DEMONSTRATION. THIS SYSTEM DEMONSTRATION WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY A TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT EFFORT ADVANCING REVERSIBLE TURBOMACHINERY AND MOTOR-GENERATOR TECHNOLOGY, BOTH KEY PHES COMPONENTS ENABLING SYSTEM SIMPLIFICATION AND HIGH ROUND TRIP CONVERSION EFFICIENCIES AT LOW PLANT COST.

THE PROJECT OBJECTIVE IS TO RETIRE MULTIPHASE TURBINE DESIGN RISKS THROUGH AN UNDERSTANDING OF MULTIPHASE TURBINE OPERATION, ENABLING IMPROVED TURBINE PERFORMANCE (FIVE POINTS EFFICIENCY) AND OPERABILITY RANGE (MULTIPHASE TURBINE EXIT CONDITIONS). OVER THREE BUDGET PERIODS (BP), THE PROJECT TEAM WILL DESIGN AN ADVANCED MULTIPHASE-TOLERANT SCO2 TURBINE (BP1), PROCURE, ASSEMBLE, AND COMMISSION THE TURBINE AND TEST FACILITY (BP2), AND VALIDATE ITS PERFORMANCE, RELIABILITY, AND OPERATING ENVELOPE THROUGH A DEMONSTRATION TEST (BP3). IN THIS WAY, IMPROVEMENTS AT THE COMPONENT LEVEL WILL ADVANCE THE PERFORMANCE AND OPERABILITY OF PUMPED THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE (PTES) SYSTEMS.

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AND MATURE PAYLOAD MASS, RADIATION, AND PLANETARY PROTECTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE MASS SPECTROMETER FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION (

HIGH-TEMPERATURE DRY-GAS SEAL DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING FOR SCO2 POWER CYCLE TURBOMACHINERY

LDRIMS GEOLOCATION AND NUCLEAR FORENSICS USING A REAL-TIME PORTABLE CHARATERIZATION INSTRUMENT

THAI-SPICE IS THE TESTBED FOR HIGH-ACUITY IMAGING - STABLE PHOTOMETRY AND IMAGE-MOTION COMPENSATION EXPERIMENT -- IT IS A LEAD PROPOSAL ACCOMPANIED BY A CO-INSTITUTIONAL PROPOSAL FROM MIT LL. THE OVER ARCHING GOAL OF THAI-SPICE IS TO ADVANCE BALLOONBORNE TELESCOPES TO THE POINT WHERE THEY CAN SURPASS HST IN TERMS OF SPATIAL RESOLUTION IN VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS AND SURPASS THE KEPLER MISSION IN TERMS OF OBSERVING EXOPLANET TRANSITS. BALLOON-BORNE TELESCOPES ARE BECOMING AN IMPORTANT PART OF NASA'S OBSERVING PROGRAMS -- EACH 100-DAY SUPER-PRESSURE BALLOON FLIGHT WILL PROVIDE 1000 HOURS OF DARK TIME OBSERVING EQUIVALENT TO ABOUT 1/3 OF THE TOTAL ON-TARGET TIME ALLOCATED IN AN HST CYCLE ACROSS ITS ENTIRE PORTFOLIO OF SCIENCE PROGRAMS. HOWEVER BALLOON-BORNE TELESCOPES FACE UNIQUE CHALLENGES FROM THE STRATOSPHERIC THERMAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE POINTING STABILITY OF A SUSPENDED PLATFORM. THIS PROPOSAL WILL STUDY AND TEST THREE AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT THAT WILL ENABLE HIGH-ACUITY IMAGE QUALITY AND STABLE PHOTOMETRY FROM BALLOON-BORNE TELESCOPES. - PASSIVE THERMAL CONTROL AND STABILIZATION OF BALLOON-BORNE OTAS (OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLIES). RECENT MODELING SUGGESTS THAT AN APPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENT OF SUNSHIELDS EARTH-SHIELDS AND TELESCOPE INSULATION CAN REDUCE DIURNAL TEMPERATURE EXCURSIONS FROM MORE THAN 40 C TO LESS THAN 2 C. FURTHERMORE MODELING ALSO SUGGESTS THAT THE STEADY-STATE TEMPERATURE OF AN OTA CAN BE REDUCED TO TEMPERATURES NEAR 180 K AN ADVANTAGE FOR INFRARED OBSERVING PROGRAMS. HOWEVER MOST MODELING PACKAGES (E.G. THERMAL DESKTOP) DO NOT ACCURATELY ACCOUNT FOR CONVECTION IN THE 3 TORR OR 8 TORR ENVIRONMENT OF ZERO-PRESSURE OR SUPER-PRESSURE BALLOONS. IN FACT IT IS HARD TO TELL WHETHER RADIATION OR CONVECTION IS A MORE SIGNIFICANT COOLING MECHANISM AT SUPER-PRESSURE BALLOON ALTITUDES. WE PROPOSE TO VERIFY OR UPDATE THERMAL DESKTOP RESULTS WITH A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS USING AN INSTRUMENTED OTA AND SUN- AND EARTH-SHIELDS. THE PAYOFF FROM THIS EXPERIMENT WILL BE BALLOON-BORNE TELESCOPES THAT EXHIBIT EXTREMELY STABLE TEMPERATURES THROUGH DAY-NIGHT CYCLES AND IN TURN AVOID OPTICAL MISALIGNMENT DUE TO TEMPERATURE EXCURSIONS. - ORTHOGONAL TRANSFER CCDS AS SOLID-STATE MOTION COMPENSATION DEVICES. IN ORDER TO STAY WITHIN A WAVEFRONT ERROR BUDGET THAT IS COMPARABLE TO WFIRST OR HST A BALLOON-BORNE IMAGING SYSTEM CANNOT AFFORD A SINGLE MEDIOCRE OPTICAL ELEMENT. FINE STEERING MIRRORS ARE ESPECIALLY PROBLEMATIC SINCE THEY ARE OFTEN THIN LIGHTWEIGHT AND MOUNTED TO A FAST-MOVING MECHANISM. WE WILL TEST THE PERFORMANCE OF OTCCDS ON ACTUAL BALLOON PLATFORMS TO ASSESS HOW THEY CAN COMPENSATE FOR FOCAL PLANE MOTION IN FLIGHT. IN ADDITION WE WILL MEASURE THE PHOTOMETRIC STABILITY AFFORDED BY OTCCDS AND WHETHER PURPOSELY MOVING A POINT SOURCE IN A PATTERN CAN IMPROVE PHOTOMETRY BY PSF-SHAPING AND SPREADING THE SIGNAL OVER MANY ARRAY ELEMENTS. - IN-FLIGHT WAVEFRONT ERROR MEASUREMENTS. DURING A 100-DAY MISSION IT WILL BE USEFUL TO MONITOR THE FOCUS AND OPTICAL ALIGNMENT OF THE TELESCOPE AND THE ATTACHED INSTRUMENTS. A SHACK-HARTMANN ARRAY LOCATED AT AN EXIT PUPIL WILL PROVIDE A DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF THE OPTICAL SYSTEM: COMPACT COMMERCIAL UNITS OFTEN PROVIDE OVER 15 ZERNIKE POLYNOMIALS. WE WANT TO TEST ANOTHER METHOD THE CURVATURE WAVEFRONT SENSING METHOD (AKA THE RODDIER METHOD). THE CWS METHOD ONLY REQUIRES IMAGES ON EITHER SIDE OF FOCUS. IT DOES NOT REQUIRE EXTRA HARDWARE NOR ACCESS TO AN EXIT PUPIL. WE WANT TO DEMONSTRATE THE CWS METHOD IN FLIGHT AND COMPARE ITS RESULTS TO A CONVENTIONAL SHACK-HARTMANN ARRAY. ALL OF THESE PROJECTS LEVERAGE PRIOR WORK SOME SUPPORTED BY PREVIOUS APRA PROJECTS SOME PART OF NASA'S ONGOING GHAPS PROJECT (GONDOLA FOR HIGH ALTITUDE PLANETARY SCIENCE). WE PROPOSE TWO DOMESTIC FLIGHTS WITH A 24-IN INSTRUMENTED TELESCOPE AND A GONDOLA CAPABLE OF COARSE POINTING. THIS PROJECT WILL INVOLVE STUDENTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA AND THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO.

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A QUADRUPOLE MASS SPECTROMETER (QMS) AS A PROTOTYPE DIAGNOSTIC CHEMISTRY TOOL SUITABLE FOR MISSION-SPECIFIC MULTI-PLATFORM INVESTIGATIONS

SYNTHETIC PULSE ARTEMIS RADAR FOR CRUSTAL IMAGING SPARCI

LINEAR MOTOR RECIPROCATING COMPRESSOR (LMRC) FOR FORECOURT HYDROGEN COMPRESSION

SMART METHANE EMISSION DETECTION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH-EFFICIENCY HYBRID DRY COOLER SYSTEM FOR SCO2 POWER CYCLES IN CSP APPLICATIONS

TRACKING 3D ICE SHELL EVOLUTION AND MATERIAL EXCHANGE AT EUROPA

AMORPHOUS ALLOY MEMBRANES FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE HYDROGEN SEPARATIONS

DETECTION OF (RECENTLY) EXTANT LIFE BY A LANDER ON THE SURFACE OF EUROPA WOULD RANK AMONG THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF ALL TIME. DETERMINING THE PROVENANCE OF SUCH LIFEFORMS IS CRITICAL TO UNDERSTANDING THE EXTENT OF EUROPA'S HABITABILITY AND TO FORMULATING EFFICIENT FOLLOW-UP. THE 2012 EUROPA LANDER STUDY SPECIFIES A MAGNETOMETER AND SEISMOMETER TO MEASURE THE DEPTH AND THICKNESS OF ANY WATER LAYERS PRESENT. HOWEVER THE MAGNETOMETER RELIES ON INDEPENDENT INFORMATION ABOUT SOURCE FIELDS THAT IS LACKING AT THE SHORTER PERIODS (<100 S) NECESSARY TO RESOLVE WATER WITHIN THE ICE SHELL AND THE CASE FOR SEISMIC DISCRIMINATION ASSUMES UBIQUITOUS SOURCES AND LOW-LOSS TRANSMISSION. FURTHERMORE ORBITAL OR LANDED SURFACE-PENETRATING RADAR IS RAPIDLY ATTENUATED WHEN ICE CONTAINS EVEN MINOR BRINE CHANNELS. TO FILL THESE POTENTIAL GAPS IN SUBSURFACE KNOWLEDGE WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A MAGNETOTELLURIC (MT) SOUNDER WHICH CAN DETERMINE THE DEPTH THICKNESS AND SALINITY OF WATER LAYERS IN THE ICE SHELLS OF OCEAN WORLDS. MT IS A LONG-ESTABLISHED BROADBAND APPROACH TO DETERMINING SUBSURFACE PROFILES OF ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY AND REQUIRES ONLY THAT THE PREVIOUSLY SPECIFIED MAGNETOMETER IS COMPLEMENTED WITH AN ELECTRIC-FIELD MEASUREMENT (ELECTROMETER). THIS PROVIDES THE ADDITIONAL NECESSARY CONSTRAINT FOR SOUNDING SUCH THAT INDEPENDENT INFORMATION ABOUT SOURCE FIELDS IS NOT REQUIRED. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE MT SOUNDER FOR EUROPA (ENTRY TRL 4 EXIT TRL 6). THE SYSTEM COMPRISES TWO BALLISTICALLY DEPLOYED ELECTRODES A BOOM-MOUNTED MAGNETOMETER AND A CENTRAL ELECTRONICS BOX. THE REMOTE ELECTRODES MUST BE DEPLOYED TO 20-M HORIZONTAL DISTANCE TO PROVIDE A SUITABLE BASELINE FOR ELECTRIC-FIELD MEASUREMENT; THE MAGNETOMETER BOOM EXTENDS 2 M VERTICALLY. SAMPLING RATES ARE HIGHER (256 SPS) IN ORDER TO CAPTURE MAGNETOSPHERIC WAVES. ALL COMPONENTS HAVE FLIGHT HERITAGE - THE SYSTEM IS ESSENTIALLY A SPACE- PHYSICS SUITE OPERATED ON THE GROUND - SO WE SEEK TO REDUCE RISK IN DEPLOYMENT AND OPERATIONS AT THE COLD AND IRRADIATED SURFACE OF EUROPA. KEY TASKS FOR TRL 6 ARE CALIBRATION OF THE MAGNETOMETER SENSOR AT LOW TEMPERATURE SO IT CAN FUNCTION WITHOUT HEATERS PERFORMANCE AND RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR A RADIATION-SHIELDED AND HEATED REMOTE ELECTRODE RADIATION SHIELDING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CENTRAL ELECTRONICS AND TESTING OF THE ELECTRODE LAUNCHER. THE PROPOSED EFFORT DIRECTLY ADDRESSES THE SECOND EUROPA LANDER OBJECTIVE CALLED OUT BY COLDTECH "ASSESS THE HABITABILITY OF EUROPA . VIA IN SITU TECHNIQUES UNIQUELY AVAILABLE TO A LANDED MISSION." THE SAME TECHNIQUES CAN BE APPLIED TO LANDERS ON OTHER OCEAN WORLDS SPECIFICALLY ENCELADUS AND TITAN. A SUCCESSFUL TWO-YEAR DEVELOPMENT AND TEST PROGRAM WILL ALLOW THE MT SOUNDER TO BE PROPOSED FOR THE FIRST EUROPA LANDING.

FULL SCALE NATURAL GAS COMPRESSOR LOOP TESTING WITH BLENDED HYDROGEN THE OVERALL OBJECT OF THE PROJECT IS TO TEST BLENDING HYDROGEN INTO A FULL-SCALE RECIPROCATING COM-PRESSOR PIPING LOOP DESIGNED FOR NATURAL GAS.

FOLLOW THE ENERGY: TRACING FROM EUROPA SURFACE CHEMISTRY BACK TO SUBSURFACE REDOX CONDITIONS

THE RAPID ACQUISITION IMAGING SPECTROGRAPH EXPERIMENT (RAISE) SOUNDING ROCKET PAYLOAD IS AN EXTREMELY HIGH SPEED SCANNING-SLIT IMAGING SPECTROGRAPH D

23-APRA23-0089 TRANSFORMING MICROCHANNEL PLATE PHOTODETECTORS FOR FUTURE UV INSTRUMENTS THROUGH NANO-SCALE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

22-HLCAS22-0016 CHASING THE ECLIPSE II: AUGMENTED AIRBORNE ECLIPSE OBSERVATIONS IN 2024 AND 2026 WITH NASA S WB-57S

BRIDGING STUDY FOR OPERATIONALLY STABLE FORMULATIONS

IMPROVEMENTS TO AN IN-SITU RB-SR GEOCHRONOLOGY INSTRUMENTSUMMARY: WE SEEK TO EVOLVE COMPONENTS OF A LASER DESORPTION RESONANCE IONIZATION MASS SPE

23-HTIDS23-0004 OPTICS FOR COMPACT TWO-DIMENSIONAL ENERGETIC ATOM (OCTEA)

DE-EE0008415, MODIFICATIONS TO SOLAR TITAN-130 COMBUSTION SYSTEMS FOR EFFICIENT, HIGH TURNDOWN OPERATION

HIGH PERMIABILITY TERNARY PALLADIUM ALLOY MEMBRANES WITH IMPROVED SULFUR AND HALIDE TOLERANCE

THIS PROJECT SEEKS TO TEST A NOVEL DUAL-MEDIA THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE (DMTES) FOR CONCENTRATING SOLAR THERMAL APPLICATIONS (CST). THE STORAGE SYSTEM IS A THERMOCLINE, WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY BOTH A SOLID ROCK-LIKE MATERIAL AND A TANK HEAT TRANSFER FLUID (THTF). A LOW-COST SOLID WITH FAVORABLE COST AND MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS WILL BE CHOSEN. THE STATE-OF-THE-ART FOR CONVENTIONAL THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE IS A TWO-TANK STORAGE SYSTEM WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVING COSTS LIMITED TO LOW-COST TANK AND STORAGE MATERIALS. A SINGLE-TANK THERMOCLINE SYSTEM, SUCH AS DMTES, CAN REDUCE COSTS BY REDUCING THE VOLUME REQUIRED OF TANK AND STORAGE MATERIAL.

NOVEL SEAL DESIGN FOR EFFECTIVE MITIGATION OF METHANE EMISSIONS FROM RECIPROCATING COMPRESSORS

PROBABILISTIC INTEGRITY AND RISK ASSESSMENT OF TURBINE ENGINES, PHASE II

IN THIS GRANT PERIOD WE PLAN TO FOCUS MORE EFFORT ON THE CHORUS WORK IN BOTH OBSERVATIONALAND JOINT

PROBABILISTIC INTEGRITY AND RISK ASSESSMENT OF TURBINE

23-HTIDS23-0017 A MINIATURE SOLAR WIND SENSOR (MSWIS) FOR FUTURE LOW-COST CONSTELLATION AND DEEP-SPACE MISSIONS

AUTOMATED LANDER PLANETARY ANALOG COMPOSITION ANALYZER (ALPACA)

THE AIRCRAFT ENGINE INDUSTRY IS CURRENTL

MAGNETIC INFLUENCE ON DIFFERENTIAL ROTATION THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR INTERIOR

GOALS. THIS PROPOSED WORK WILL EXTEND LASER ABLATION RESONANCE IONIZATION SPECTROMETRY (LARIMS) FROM THE PREVIOUSLY DEMONSTRATED RUBIDIUM-STRONTIUM (RB-SR) GEOCHRONOLOGY SYSTEM TO FOUR OTHER RADIOGENIC SYSTEMS ENABLING IN-SITU CONCORDANT AGE DETERMINATIONS TO BE MADE ON EXTRATERRESTRIAL BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS CAPABILITY ADDRESSES A CRITICAL NEED TO PROVIDE DATING INFORMATION TO FULFILL NASA S GOAL OF UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. ADVANTAGES INCLUDE PROVIDING AN INDEPENDENT TEST OF CONCORDANCE WHILE EXPANDING THE POTENTIAL RANGE OF SAMPLES THAT CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY MEASURED. TESTING FOR CONCORDANCE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE INDIVIDUAL ISOTOPIC DATING SYSTEMS CAN BE BIASED BY A VARIETY OF FACTORS. THESE BIASES ARE FREQUENTLY DISTINCT FOR DIFFERENT RADIOMETRIC SYSTEMS. IN ADDITION TO EXTENDING LARIMS TO ADDITIONAL GEOCHRONOLOGY SYSTEMS AN EXISTING BACKUP LASER SYSTEM WILL BE ADVANCED FROM TRL 2 TO TRL 3. OBJECTIVES. THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THE IMPORTANT NASA GOAL TO UNDERSTAND THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THE TIME OF KEY EVENTS IN SOLAR SYSTEM HISTORY ARE POORLY CONSTRAINED BY CURRENT SAMPLES GIVING IMPETUS TO FUTURE MISSIONS WITH SAMPLE RETURN AND IN-SITU (LANDED) DATING MEASUREMENTS. AN ISSUE FOR IN-SITU RADIOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS IS THE DESIRE FOR TESTING CONCORDANCE I.E. THE SAMPLES USING THE RB-SR METHOD AND WE HAVE COMPLETED PRELIMINARY WORK THAT DEMONSTRATES THE TECHNIQUE CAN BE EXTENDED TO PB-PB GEOCHRONOLOGY. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO PERFORM MEASUREMENTS THAT ENABLE US TO ASSESS LARIMS CAPABILITIES WITH OTHER GEOCHRONOLOGY SYSTEMS AND TO DETERMINE AND OVERCOME OBSTACLES TO DEVELOPING IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS BASED ON THESE SYSTEMS IN FUTURE MISSIONS. THIS WORK IN COMBINATION WITH OUR SUCCESSFUL (RB-SR) DATING PROGRAM OUR RECENT LEAD-LEAD (PB-PB) DATING STUDY AND OUR PRELIMINARY SAMARIUM-NEODYMIUM (SM-ND) SPECTROSCOPY MEASUREMENTS WILL COMPLETE A SYSTEMATIC STUDY TO ASSESS THE POTENTIAL RANGE OF RADIOMETRIC DATING APPROACHES FOR LARIMS ANALYSES USING A SUITE OF GEOCHRONOLOGY DATING SYSTEMS INCLUDING RB-SR PB-PB SM-ND RHENIUM-OSMIUM (RE-OS) AND LUTETIUM-HAFNIUM (LU-HF).

WO WIDE-ANGLE IMAGING NEUTRALATOM SPECTROMETERS (TWINS) IS THE FIRST STEREOSCOPIC MAGNETOSPHERIC IMAGING MISSION. TWINS IS A NASA EXPLORER MISSION-OF

SCIENCE GOALS UNDER PIDDP NSF AND INTERNAL FUNDING WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN INSTRUMENT CALLED CODEX (THE CHEMISTRY ORGANICS AND DATING EXPERIMENT) TO SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE ON MARS REVEAL THE HISTORY OF HABITABILITY AND ASCERTAIN HOW THE LOCAL GEOLOGY EVOLVED; THESE ARE ALSO KEY SCIENTIFIC GOALS FOR THE MOON OTHER PLANETS AND ASTEROIDS. CODEX IS UNIQUELY ABLE TO ANALYZE THE MICROSCOPIC CHEMICAL AND ORGANIC MAKEUP OF A SAMPLE IN SPATIAL CONTEXT WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY DETERMINING ITS AGE. THE INSTRUMENT USES NANOSECOND LASER PULSES TO ABLATE IONS AND NEUTRALS WHICH CAN BE MEASURED DIRECTLY OR VIA SECONDARY IONIZATION. RECENTLY EXPERIMENTS USING ULTRASHORT PULSE LASER ABLATION HAVE DEMONSTRATED SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN MEASUREMENT PRECISION AND ACCURACY AND NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS HAVE RESULTED IN SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN THE REQUIRED SIZE POWER AND MASS OF LASERS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING THESE ULTRASHORT PULSES. THESE IMPROVEMENTS PRIMARILY HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED WITH LASER ABLATION MASS SPECTROMETRY (LAMS) AND IN LASER DESORPTION INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS SPECTROMETRY TECHNIQUES THAT RELY ON THE PRODUCTION OF IONS AND MICRO-PARTICULATES. BECAUSE CODEX USES LARIMS WHICH MEASURES NEUTRALS WE SUSPECT THAT USING ULTRASHORT PULSE ABLATION WOULD IMPROVE THE PRECISION AND ACCURACY OF OUR MEASUREMENTS. HOWEVER LITTLE IS YET KNOWN ABOUT THE PRODUCTION OF NEUTRALS USING ULTRASHORT PULSES; SOME WORK SUGGESTS THAT FRACTIONATION OF NEUTRALS IS REDUCED AS WELL. THUS IN THIS PROPOSAL WE WILL TEST AND ASSESS WHETHER ULTRASHORT PULSES CAN IMPROVE LARIMS DATING AS WELL. METHODOLOGY IN THIS PROPOSAL WE WILL RENT AND COMPARE SEVERAL FEMTO- AND PICO- SECOND LASERS FOR ION AND NEUTRAL PRODUCTION IN OUR PROTOTYPE INSTRUMENT AND IDENTIFY THE OPTIMAL PARAMETERS FOR IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF CHEMICAL ORGANIC AND RADIOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS. WE WILL EXPLORE A PARAMETER SPACE INCLUDING WAVELENGTH PULSE-LENGTH PEAK POWER THE EFFECT OF MULTIPLE SHOTS FLUENCE SAMPLE/STANDARD COMPOSITION PRODUCTION OF LONG-LIVE EXCITATION STATES AND THE IMPACT OF PLASMA GENERATION. THE LASER SYSTEMS UNDER CONSIDERATION WILL INCLUDE SMALL SYSTEMS CONSISTENT WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FOR SPACEFLIGHT. THE RESULTING CHEMISTRY ORGANICS AND DATING MEASUREMENTS ARE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE FOR MISSIONS TO MARS THE MOON AND POSSIBLY VESTA. RELEVANCE OUR MEASUREMENTS ARE RELEVANT TO MULTIPLE NASA GOALS FOR MARS AND THE MOON SUCH AS: FOR MARS THE NRC DECADAL SURVEY (DS) SPECIFICALLY SUPPORTS: "LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUMENTS ... FOCUSING ON THE MOST IMPORTANT FUTURE IN SITU MEASUREMENTS... [INCLUDING] ... IN SITU GEOCHRONOLOGY EXPERIMENTS" [NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 2012]; MEPAG GOALS III.A.3-10 BUT ESPECIALLY 3 SPECIFICALLY CALL FOR "CONSTRAIN[ING] THE ABSOLUTE AGES OF MAJOR MARTIAN CRUSTAL GEOLOGIC PROCESSES... AND THE CRATERING RATE. ... THIS INVESTIGATION COULD BE APPROACHED WITH BOTH IN SITU AND RETURNED SAMPLE ANALYSIS..."; FOR THE MOON THE NRC DS HAS A PRIMARY GOAL OF: "DETERMIN[ING] THE CHRONOLOGY OF BASIN-FORMING IMPACTS AND CONSTRAIN[ING] THE PERIOD OF LATE HEAVY BOMBARDMENT IN THE INNER SOLAR SYSTEM AND THUS ADDRESS[ING] FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF INNER SOLAR SYSTEM IMPACT PROCESSES AND CHRONOLOGY" [NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 2012].

WHILE THE IMPACT OF SOLAR VARIABILITY ON THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE AND GEOSPACE IS WELL ESTABLISHED AND UNDERSTOOD SOLAR IMPACT ON TERRESTRIAL WEATHER AND CLIMATE IS MUCH HARDER TO ASSESS. THE MAIN SOLAR VARIABLES WITH POTENTIAL LINKS TO TERRESTRIAL

GEOELECTRICAL METHODS HAVE BEEN USED FOR NEARLY A CENTURY TO EXPLORE FOR MINERALS AND GROUNDWATER AND TO CHARACTERIZE SUBSURFACE GEOLOGY. RECENT INST

NOVEL SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE POWER CYCLE UTILIZING PRESSURIZED OXY-COMBUSTION IN CONJUNCTION WITH CRYOGENIC COMPRESSION

IN THIS PROPOSAL WE ADDRESS THE THERMOCHEMICAL CONDITIONS AND RESULTING HABITABILITY FACTORS OF IMPACT-GENERATED HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS WITH THREE WELL-DEFINED INTERDISCIPLINARY TASKS.

THE EXPLORATION OF PLANETARY BODIES HAS BEEN DOMINATED BY REMOTE SENSING OF THE SURFACE. THE MARTIAN ORBITAL RADARS HAVE PRODUCED INCREDIBLY DETAILE

ABSORPTION/DESORPTION BASED HIGH EFFICIENCY SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE POWER CYCLES

A MULTI-SPACECRAFT APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND THE SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL EVOLUTION IN LARGE SOLAR.ENERGETIC PARTICLE EVENTS

THE OVERARCHING OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY ARE TO IDENTIFY THE PATHWAYS BY WHICH CORONAL MASS EJECTION (CME)-DRIVEN SHOCKS GAIN ACCESS TO SUPRATHERMAL IONS FROM SOLAR FLARES

STANDARDIZED TESTING PROGRAM FOR EMERGENT CHEMICAL HYDRIDE AND CARBON STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES

** SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES. SINGLY CHARGED OXYGEN PLAYS MULTIPLE KEY ROLES IN MAGNETOSPHERIC DYNAMICS. HOWEVER OUR QUANTITATIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE MULTISPECIES ION DYNAMICS INSIDE GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT IS STILL LIMITED BY SPARSE MEASUREMENTS. WE CREATE AN EMPIRICAL MODEL OF THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE MULTISPECIES ION PLASMA BASED ON VAN ALLEN PROBES DATA (2012-PRESENT) AND USE THIS MODEL TO ADDRESS SCIENCE QUESTIONS ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND ROLE OF O+. PROJECT OBJECTIVE: DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE EMPIRICAL MODEL OF THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE NEAR-EQUATORIAL MULTISPECIES ION ENVIRONMENT AND USE THE MODEL TO ADDRESS FOCUS SCIENCE TEAM (FST) SCIENCE. SCIENCE QUESTION 1: WHAT IS THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIFFERENT O+ POPULATIONS CO-LOCATED IN THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE AND WHAT CONTROLS THE DISTRIBUTION AMOUNT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF O+ DURING SOLAR CYCLE CHANGES? SCIENCE QUESTION 2: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF LOWER ENERGY (<40 KEV) HOT O+ IONS IN THE STORM-TIME RING CURRENT? ** METHODOLOGY. KEY DATA SOURCES FOR THE MODEL ARE VAN ALLEN PROBES DATA SINCE ITS LAUNCH IN LATE 2012: HOPE (ION DATA 1 EV THROUGH 50 KEV) RBSPICE (>150KEV FOR O+) EFW (SPACECRAFT POTENTIAL; TOTAL PLASMA DENSITY; DC ELECTRIC FIELD) EMFISIS (TOTAL PLASMA DENSITY; MAGNETIC FIELD) OMNI SOLAR WIND DATA (SOLAR WIND CONTEXT) AND STANDARD GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY INDICES (E.G. SYM-H AE ETC.). THE MODEL IS CENTERED AROUND AN EXTENSIBLE RELATIONAL DATABASE OF BINNED DATA WITH SOPHISTICATED QUERY AND ANALYSIS CAPABILITIES. THE MODEL DESCRIBES SPECIES-RESOLVED (O+ HE+ H+) ION CHARACTERISTICS (SPECTRA PADS MOMENTS) AND ENVIRONMENT PARAMETERS (E.G. TOTAL DENSITY DC FIELDS) AS A FUNCTION OF SOLAR WIND AND MAGNETOSPHERIC PARAMETERS ON A CONFIGURABLE 2D L/MLT GRID. TIME INFORMATION AND DATA SOURCE COORDINATES ARE RETAINED. PHYSICAL BOUNDARIES (E.G. PLASMAPAUSE) AND STATISTICAL UNCERTAINTIES OF ALL MODEL OUTPUTS ARE PROVIDED. OUTPUTS ARE VALIDATED WITH OTHER DATA-DRIVEN MODELS WHERE AVAILABLE. SCIENCE QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED BY CREATING MODEL OUTPUTS DRIVEN BY RELEVANT INPUT PARAMETERS AND FIDUCIAL MARKS FOLLOWED BY FURTHER ANALYSIS. SQ-1: WE PERFORM STATISTICAL ANALYSES OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS ION PLASMA POPULATIONS AND THEIR DRIVERS. THE PLASMAPAUSE MOSTLY SEPARATES WARM FROM COLD PLASMA THEREFORE WE STUDY POPULATIONS REFERENCED TO THE PLASMAPAUSE LOCATION. WE COMPARE STATISTICAL RESULTS TO HEIDI KINETIC MODEL CALCULATIONS OF THE ION DYNAMICS INSIDE GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT. SQ-2: WE PERFORM STATISTICAL ANALYSES ON ENSEMBLES OF STORMS FOLLOWED BY A DETAIL COMPARISON BETWEEN MODEL OUTPUTS AND HEIDI MODEL CALCULATIONS. HEIDI IS SEEDED BY PRE-STORM MODEL OUTPUTS. WE INVESTIGATE THE GLOBAL ROLE OF BELOW 40 KEV O+ ON RING CURRENT DECAY WITH HEIDI CALCULATIONS COMPARING WITH VAN ALLEN PROBES OBSERVATIONS. ** PROPOSED CONTRIBUTION TO THE FOCUS TEAM EFFORT. THIS PROPOSAL CONTRIBUTES SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE ION CIRCULATION FST. AS PER THE NRA: "PROPOSALS TO THIS FST SHOULD AIM TO DETERMINE HEAVY ION CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MAGNETOSPHERE ACROSS A WIDE RANGE OF L-SHELLS/ GEOMAGNETIC LATITUDES (...)" PROVIDING "IDENTIFICATION OF WHAT CONTROLS HEAVY ION CHARACTERISTICS IN THE IONOSPHERE AND MAGNETOSPHERE; (...)". SPECIFIC INVESTIGATIONS E.G. "DATA ANALYSIS THAT SEEKS TO CHARACTERIZE THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF O+ IN THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE (...)" ARE SUGGESTED. WE CHARACTERIZE THE HEAVY (AND LIGHT) ION ENVIRONMENT FOR POPULATIONS INSIDE GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT IN A COMPREHENSIVE AND FLEXIBLE WAY USING 5+ YEARS OF VAN ALLEN PROBES DATA. OUR MODEL AND SCIENCE ANALYSES ARE PERFORMED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE FST. THE MODEL AND ITS OUTPUTS ARE AVAILABLE TO THE FST DURING THE PROJECT. WE CAN EXPAND/MODIFY THE MODEL BASED ON FST INPUT. WE ANTICIPATE COLLABORATION WITH BOTH SIMULATIONS EFFORTS AND DATA STUDIES. THE MODEL IS DESIGNED TO FACILITATE EASY INCLUSION OF ADDITIONAL DATA IN RESPONSE TO FST NEEDS (E.G. WAVE DATA).

WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPA MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDER (EMS) AN INSTRUMENT THAT MEASURES AMBIENT ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS TO DETECT UNAMBIGUOUSLY ANY LIQUID WATER WITHIN 30 KM INCLUDING THE OCEAN (EUROPA LANDER SDT OBJECTIVE 2B1). ELECTROMAGNETIC (EM) METHODS ARE OPTIMAL FOR WATER DETECTION ON EUROPA BECAUSE EVEN A SMALL FRACTION OF DISSOLVED SALTS WILL MAKE WATER ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE MORE ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE THAN THE ICE SHELL. THE DISTANCE TO THE NEAREST WATER BODY CAN BE ACCURATELY MEASURED AND THE GEOMETRY OF THAT BODY (E.G. SILL OR DIKE) CAN BE DETERMINED. THE EM FIELDS AROUND EUROPA THAT WOULD SERVE AS SOURCES ARE ALREADY MOSTLY CHARACTERIZED. BOTH ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS ARE REQUIRED (MAGNETOTELLURIC METHOD): A MAGNETOMETER ALONE IS NOT SUFFICIENT BECAUSE THE SOURCE FIELD IS NOT KNOWN INDEPENDENTLY FROM THE RESPONSE AT THE HIGHER FREQUENCIES USED FOR SOUNDING WITHIN THE ICE SHELL. EMS WILL ALSO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE LOCAL MEASUREMENT OF THE ICE-SHELL THICKNESS AND DETERMINE THE DEPTH OF THE OCEAN (EUROPA LANDER SDT OBJECTIVES 2B4 AND 3A4). EMS COMPRISES CENTRAL ELECTRONICS A MAGNETOMETER ON A MAST AND REMOTELY LAUNCHED ELECTRODES TO MEASURE DIFFERENCES IN ELECTRIC POTENTIAL. UNDER CURRENT COLDTECH FUNDING THE PRESENT POINT DESIGN OF EMS WILL ACHIEVE TRL 6 BY THE END OF 2018. THIS INCLUDES FLIGHT-LIKE ELECTRONICS ABLE TO FUNCTION IN THE LANDER VAULT USING A SIMULATED SPACECRAFT INTERFACE FIRST-MOTION DEMONSTRATION OF SENSOR DEPLOYMENT AND FULL OPERATION OF THE DEPLOYED SENSORS IN VACUUM AT EUROPA TEMPERATURE AND RADIATION CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ENTIRE INSTRUMENT. OUR PROPOSED WORK UNDER ICEE-2 HAS THREE THEMES. FIRST WE WILL STUDY INSTRUMENT ACCOMMODATION WITH THE LANDER TEAM INCLUDING THE LOCATION (DECK OR SIDE) OF THE MAGNETOMETER AND ELECTRODE DEPLOYMENT MECHANISMS THE NUMBER AND ORIENTATION OF ELECTRODES AND THE VOLUME AND POWER REQUIRED BY THE CENTRAL (VAULT) ELECTRONICS. SECOND WE WILL IMPROVE THE ELECTROMETER SYSTEM INCLUDING ELECTRONIC AUGMENTATION TO MEASURE BOTH HORIZONTAL COMPONENTS OF THE ELECTRIC FIELD AND TO ALLOW FOR THE FULL RANGE OF PLASMA POTENTIALS LIKELY AT EUROPA S SURFACE VERIFICATION OF CABLE CONSTRUCTION AND WINDING FOR ROBUST DEPLOYMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SIMPLER AND LIGHTER-WEIGHT ELECTRODE-DEPLOYMENT MECHANISM. WE WILL ALSO COLLABORATE WITH SEISMOLOGISTS TO DETERMINE IF SUITABLE SEISMIC SENSORS CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO THE GROUND-CONTACTING REMOTELY DEPLOYED ELECTRODES. THE CHANGES MADE BY THE ACCOMMODATION STUDY AND THE ELECTROMETER IMPROVEMENTS WILL RESULT IN A MORE LANDERRELEVANT DESIGN THAT WILL REQUALIFY TO TRL 6 BY THE END OF THE ICEE-2 POP. THIRD WE WILL ALSO DEVELOP REQUIREMENTS (INCLUDING FURTHER LANDER ACCOMMODATION) CONDUCT PERFORMANCE COST AND RISK TRADES IDENTIFY AND PLAN PROGRAMMATIC RISK MITIGATION AND DEVELOP TIME-PHASED COST AND SCHEDULE ESTIMATES. ALL OF THE PROPOSED WORK BUT ESPECIALLY THIS LAST TASK WILL FACILITATE PREPARATION FOR AN AO DURING OR AFTER ICEE-2.

CURRENT UNDERSTANDING: ENHANCEMENTS OF>0.1 MEV/NUCLEON IONS NEAR 1 AU IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE PASSAGE OF AN INTERPLANETARY (IP) CORONAL MASS EJECTION (ICME) ARE OFTEN REFERRED TO AS ENERGETIC STORM PARTICLE (ESP) EVENTS. THE PRIMARY CANDIDATE OF PRODUCING THESE ENHANCEMENTS IS DIFFUSIVE SHOCK ACCELERATION (DSA). ESPS CAN PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN THE NEAR-EARTH PARTICULATE RADIATION AND POSE SEVERE HAZARDS TO ASTRONAUTS AND HARDWARE IN SPACE. PHYSICAL PARAMETERS THOUGHT TO AFFECT ESP PRODUCTION INCLUDE IP SHOCK PROPERTIES (E.G. SPEED STRENGTH OBLIQUITY) AND UPSTREAM CONDITIONS AHEAD OF THE PROPAGATING SHOCK (E.G. TURBULENCE SEED POPULATIONS SW AND IMF CONDITIONS). WHILE SEVERAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES AND THEORIES HAVE ATTEMPTED TO LINK ESP PRODUCTION TO THESE DRIVERS RELIABLE PREDICTION OF ESP PROPERTIES (E.G. INTENSITIES SPECTRA ABUNDANCES) INCLUDING THEIR EVENT-TO-EVENT VARIABILITY HAS SO FAR PROVEN ELUSIVE INDICATING AN INCOMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW ICME-DRIVEN IP SHOCKS ACCELERATE ESPS. GOAL AND SCIENCE QUESTIONS: OUR OVERARCHING GOAL IS TO IDENTIFY THE DOMINANT UPSTREAM AND SHOCK PARAMETERS THAT INFLUENCE ESP PROPERTIES AND LEAD TO THEIR EVENT-TO-EVENT VARIABILITY THEREBY ADVANCING CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF ICME-DRIVEN SHOCK PARTICLE ACCELERATION. WE WILL ALSO DETERMINE WHETHER THESE DRIVERS CAN BE USED TO PREDICT ESP PROPERTIES AT 1 AU. WE WILL ACHIEVE THIS GOAL BY ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING THREE SCIENCE QUESTIONS: Q1. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UPSTREAM CONDITIONS ESP PROPERTIES AND IP SHOCK PROPERTIES AT 1 AU? Q2. HOW DO UPSTREAM CONDITIONS AND IP SHOCK PROPERTIES AFFECT ESP PRODUCTION AND PROPERTIES? Q3. CAN UPSTREAM CONDITIONS AND IP SHOCK PROPERTIES BE USED TO PREDICT ESP PROPERTIES AT 1 AU? METHODOLOGY: WE USE ENERGETIC H-FE ION PLASMA AND MAGNETIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS FROM ACE WIND AND STEREO-A&B DURING SOLAR CYCLES 23 AND 24. USING SPECIFIC CRITERIA WE WILL IDENTIFY ALL SHOCKS AND ESP EVENTS MEASURED AT 1 AU. FOR EACH ESP AND WHEN AVAILABLE WE WILL DERIVE A MATRIX OF PARAMETERS DESCRIBING THE UPSTREAM CONDITIONS IP SHOCK AND ESP. STATISTICAL AND CORRELATION STUDIES WILL FOLLOW TO PINPOINT THE DOMINANT DRIVERS THAT INFLUENCE ESP PROPERTIES (Q1). ONCE THE UPSTREAM-SHOCK-ESP LINKAGE IS DETERMINED WE WILL UTILIZE THE PARTICLE ACCELERATION AND TRANSPORT IN THE INNER HELIOSPHERE (PATH) MODEL TO EXPLORE THE INFLUENCE OF THESE DOMINANT DRIVERS ON ESP PROPERTIES. PATH MODEL INPUTS CONSTRAINED BY OBSERVATIONS WILL BE VARIED SYSTEMATICALLY TO ISOLATE THE INFLUENCE OF EACH POTENTIAL DRIVER ON ESP INTENSITIES SPECTRA AND ABUNDANCES (Q2). USING THE PARAMETER MATRIX DERIVED IN Q1 WE WILL UTILIZE MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS TO DETERMINE IF AND HOW UPSTREAM AND SHOCK PARAMETERS CAN BE USED TO PREDICT ESP PROPERTIES (Q3). THE RELATIONSHIPS UNCOVERED IN THESE ANALYSES ARE EXPECTED TO LEAD TO A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF ICME-DRIVEN PARTICLE ACCELERATION AT 1 AU. RELEVANCE TO NASA AND LWS: OUR PROJECT RESPONDS DIRECTLY TO THE SECOND FOCUSED SCIENCE TOPIC (FST) AND TO TWO LWS PROGRAM SCIENCE GOALS AS INDICATED IN THE SPECIAL FST CONTRIBUTIONS ELSEWHERE IN THIS PROPOSAL. RESULTS ARE ALSO RELEVANT TO TWO SCIENCE GOALS OF THE 2012 SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY AND TO A KEY STRATEGIC GOAL OF NASAS HELIOPHYSICS DIVISION I.E. UNDERSTAND THE SUN AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH THE EARTH AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM INCLUDING SPACE WEATHER.

RAPID ACQUISITION IMAGING SPECTOGRAPH (RAISE)\NTHE RAPID ACQUISITION LMAGING SPECTROGRAPH EXPERIMENT

SCIENCE GOALS WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN INSTRUMENT TO ASSESS AND REVISE THE HISTORY OF THE INNER SOLAR SYSTEM SEARCH FOR ORGANICS AND REVEAL THE HISTORY OF HABITABILITY CALLED THE CHEMISTRY AND DATING EXPERIMENT" (CDEX) INSTRUMENT. THE CDEX INSTRUMENT IS UNIQUELY ABLE TO MAP MICROSCOPIC CHEMICAL AND ORGANIC CONTEXT OF A SAMPLE WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY DETERMINING AGE. THE INSTRUMENT MEASURES RUBIDIUM-STRONTIUM (RB-SR) ISOTOPES USING LASER ABLATION RESONANCE IONIZATION MASS SPECTROMETRY (LA-RI-MS) FOR ISOBAR FREE ELEMENTAL SEPARATION. THE RI LASERS CAN BE TURNED OFF TO ASSESS CHEMISTRY IN LA-MS MODE OR ORGANICS IN TWO-STEP LASER MS MODE. THIS INSTRUMENT WAS THE BASIS FOR DISCOVERY AND MARS 2020 PROPOSALS AND PLANNING IS UNDERWAY FOR FUTURE DISCOVERY AND NEW FRONTIERS OPPORTUNITIES. THIS PROPOSAL SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSES INSTRUMENT TRL DEFICIENCIES IDENTIFIED UNDER THESE EARLIER FLIGHT PROPOSALS AND WILL IMPROVE THE TRL OF THE INTEGRATED INSTRUMENT FROM 4 TO 5-6. METHODOLOGY THIS PROPOSAL FOCUSES ON 1) DEVELOPMENT OF A RB FIBER LASER 2) DEVELOPMENT OF A SAMPLE GRIPPER AND GRINDER SUBSYSTEMS AND 3) INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION OF A COMPLETE TRL 5-6 CDEX INSTRUMENT. SPECIFICALLY BASED ON OUR SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF SR AND ABLATION LASERS UNDER A 2014 NASA MATISSE WE WILL PRODUCE A RB RI FIBER LASER SUBSYSTEM RAISING THE LASER SUBSYSTEM TRL FROM 4 TO 5-6. THE FIBER LASER DESIGN BUILT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AEROSPACE CORPORATION IMPROVES ON THE SOLID-STATE LASER SYSTEM WE BUILT EARLIER BY REDUCING INPUT POWER BY 50% INCREASING OUTPUT POWER BY 4X REDUCING MASS BY 3X AND REDUCING OPTICAL INTERFACES BY 10X. REDUCING THE NUMBER OF OPTICAL INTERFACES IS CRUCIAL TO REDUCING ALIGNMENT AND CONTAMINATION REQUIREMENTS. THE RB LASER WILL THEN BE TESTED AND INTEGRATED WITH THE EXISTING SR AND ABLATION LASERS SUBSYSTEMS ALONG WITH A CONTRIBUTED TRL 6-9 FLIGHT SPARE MASS SPECTROMETER FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BERN. THE INTEGRATED CDEX WILL BE LIFETIME TESTED IN RELEVANT ENVIRONMENTS AT SWRI AND VALIDATED BY REPEATING EXISTING BENCHTOP MEASUREMENTS. SAMPLE HANDLING FOR THE INSTRUMENT WILL BE DEMONSTRATED INCLUDING DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF A SAMPLE GRIPPER AND GRINDER FOLLOWED BY VERIFICATION MEASUREMENT ON CDEX. THE GRIPPER AND GRINDER DEVELOPMENT ADAPTS EXISTING HIGH TRL TECHNOLOGIES FROM MDA AND HONEYBEE ROBOTICS TO THE CDEX INSTRUMENT. FINALLY WE WILL CONTINUE OUR ONGOING SAMPLE BENCHTOP MEASUREMENT CAMPAIGN EXPANDING THE SUITE OF SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION MEASUREMENTS THEREBY RAISING THE MATURITY OF THE LARIMS DATING METHOD. PROPOSAL OBJECTIVES 1) DEFINE FLIGHT REQUIREMENTS ENVIRONMENTS AND INTERFACES; 2) DEVELOP BUILD ENVIRONMENTALLY TEST AND VALIDATE A RB FIBER-LASER SUBSYSTEM; 3) INTEGRATE ALL THREE LASERS (RB SR AND ABLATION) WITH A MINIATURE MASS SPECTROMETER; 4) VERIFY AND VALIDATE INSTRUMENT PERFORMANCE; 5) PERFORM LIFETIME AND LUNAR ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING; 6) VALIDATE SAMPLE HANDLING INCLUDING A GRIPPER GRINDER AND DOCKING INTERFACE; 7) BUILD SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT THROUGH ONGOING BENCH-TOP DATING MEASUREMENTS. RELEVANCE THESE MEASUREMENTS ARE RELEVANT FOR MISSIONS TO THE MOON AND MARS AS WELL AS OTHER INNER SOLAR SYSTEM TARGETS LIKE VESTA. SPECIFICALLY THE INSTRUMENT IS RELEVANT TO MULTIPLE NASA GOALS SUCH AS: A) FOR MARS THE NRC DECADAL SURVEY SPECIFICALLY SUPPORTS: DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUMENTS [INCLUDING] ... IN SITU GEOCHRONOLOGY EXPERIMENTS ; B) MEPAG GOALS III.A.3-10 BUT ESPECIALLY 3 SPECIFICALLY CALL FOR CONSTRAIN[ING] THE ABSOLUTE AGES OF MAJOR MARTIAN CRUSTAL GEOLOGIC PROCESSES... AND THE CRATERING RATE. ... WITH BOTH IN SITU AND RETURNED SAMPLE ANALYSIS... ; C) FOR THE MOON THE NRC DS HAS A PRIMARY GOAL OF: DETERMIN[ING] THE CHRONOLOGY OF BASIN-FORMING IMPACTS AND CONSTRAIN[ING] THE PERIOD OF LATE HEAVY BOMBARDMENT IN THE INNER SOLAR SYSTEM AND THUS ADDRESS[ING] FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF INNER SOLAR SYSTEM IMPACT PROCESSES AND CHRONOLOGY.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RECON, PROBING THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM WITH OCCULTATIONS

SCIENCE GOAL. THE SCIENCE GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DETERMINE THE SYSTEM-LEVEL EVOLUTION OF FINE-SCALE (0.05 EARTH RADII RE) DENSITY STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH'S PLASMASPHERE ON 1 TO 2 MINUTE TIME SCALES. FINE-SCALE COLD PLASMA STRUCTURE CAN EXERT A CRITICAL INFLUENCE ON WAVE AND PARTICLE DYNAMICS OF THE MAGNETOSPHERE AND IONOSPHERE. METHOD. TO ACHIEVE THE PROJECT SCIENCE GOAL WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP THE HIGH RESOLUTION PLASMASPHERE OBSERVATORY (HRPO) A PROTOTYPE WIDE-FIELD EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET (EUV) CAMERA WITH ORDER-OF-MAGNITUDE IMPROVED SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION COMPARED TO ANY PREVIOUSLY FLOWN PLASMASPHERE IMAGER. THE IMAGE EUV IMAGER FEATURED A LARGE (~30 DEGREES) FIELD-OF-VIEW BUT A RELATIVELY POOR (~0.6 DEGREES) SPATIAL RESOLUTION. IMAGE EUV WAS LIMITED BY A DETECTOR OBSCURING MOST OF THE ENTRANCE APERTURE (REDUCING THROUGHPUT AND DESIGN FLEXIBILITY). IMAGE EUV INCLUDED A SPHERICAL-SURFACE DETECTOR THAT WAS EXPENSIVE AND DIFFICULT TO MANUFACTURE. IMPROVEMENTS IN REFLECTIVE COATINGS OPTICAL SURFACE MANUFACTURING AND DETECTOR SENSITIVITY ALLOW FOR A NEW TWO-MIRROR OFF-AXIS OPTICAL DESIGN WITH A FLAT FOCAL SURFACE. THE PROTOTYPE IMAGER [DAVIS ET AL. 2014 PROC SPIE DOI:10.1117/12.2057020] WILL BE BUILT ALIGNED CALIBRATED AND ENVIRONMENTALLY TESTED OVER A THREE-YEAR PERIOD RAISING THE TRL FROM 2 (SOFTWARE DESIGN) TO 5 (PROTOTYPE THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING). THERE ARE TWO MAIN DRIVING REQUIREMENTS OF THIS INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT: (1) ANGULAR RESOLUTION LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO 0.36 DEGREES NEEDED TO RESOLVE 0.05 RE STRUCTURE (FROM A NOTIONAL 8 RE ORBIT) AND (2) EFFECTIVE AREA AT OR ABOVE 0.5 SQUARE CM NEEDED TO OBSERVE TENUOUS FINE STRUCTURE WITH A 1 TO 2 MIN IMAGE CADENCE. IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT (BUT NOT A DRIVING REQUIREMENT) TO MAXIMIZE THE CAMERA FIELD OF VIEW. THERE IS SIGNIFICANT MARGIN IN THE HRPO SOFTWARE DESIGN WHICH HAS 0.07 DEGREE ANGULAR RESOLUTION (FACTOR OF 5 BETTER THAN REQUIRED AND 9 TIMES BETTER THAN IMAGE EUV) AND EFFECTIVE AREA 1.2 SQUARE CM (FACTOR OF 2.4 BETTER THAN REQUIRED AND 4 TIMES BETTER THAN IMAGE). THE AVERAGE MARGIN ON PERFORMANCE OF INDIVIDUAL CAMERA ELEMENTS (MULTILAYER MIRROR FILTER AND DETECTOR) IS 20%. WORK PLAN. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT IS TO ADVANCE THE TRL OF THE PROTOTYPE EUV IMAGER FROM 2 TO 5. THE FIRST YEAR WILL BE SPENT FINALIZING THE OPTICAL DESIGN AND PROCURING OPTICS. BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MIRRORS ARE ASPHERIC SO A YEAR IS AN APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF TIME TO SPEND IN THEIR DESIGN AND FABRICATION. THE SECOND YEAR WILL BE SPENT APPLYING A MULTILAYER COATING SO THAT THE MIRRORS REJECT 58.4 AND 121.6 NM BACKGROUND LIGHT (CORRESPONDING TO NEUTRAL HE AND H EMISSIONS) WHILE REFLECTING 30.4 NM (HE+ EMISSION) SIGNAL LIGHT. THE COATING WORK WILL BE FOLLOWED BY CONSTRUCTION OF A BRASSBOARD INSTRUMENT UTILIZING THE NEW OPTICS AND IN-HOUSE EUV-SENSITIVE DETECTORS. THE THIRD YEAR WILL BE SPENT CALIBRATING THE SYSTEM AND ENVIRONMENTALLY TESTING THE BRASSBOARD INSTRUMENT OVER EXPECTED VIBRATIONAL LAUNCH LOADS AND OPERATIONAL THERMAL EXTREMES. AT THE END OF YEAR 3 WE FORMULATE A DETAILED PLAN TO GET FROM TRL 5 TO TRL 6. IMPORTANCE RELEVANCE TO NASA. THE PLASMASPHERE HOLDS MOST OF THE MASS/INERTIA OF THE MAGNETOSPHERE. IT IS OF CENTRAL IMPORTANCE IN GEOSPACE AND HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE NASA SMD SCIENCE PLAN AND THE HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY. A NEXT-GENERATION STATE-OF-THE-ART EUV CAMERA ADVANCES THE TYPE OF SCIENCE THAT CAN BE DONE WITH PLASMASPHERIC IMAGING BY MAKING SYSTEM-LEVEL OBSERVATION OF CROSSSCALE PLASMA STRUCTURE A REALITY. THE DECADAL SURVEY'S HIGHEST RANKED NEW MAGNETOSPHERIC MISSION CONCEPT MEDICI REQUIRES AN EUV CAMERA WITH THE SAME MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR SPATIAL/TEMPORAL RESOLUTION (0.05 RE 1 MIN) AS HRPO. THIS ITD IS AN INVALUABLE OPPORTUNITY TO QUALIFY HRPO: AN EUV CAMERA THAT MEETS/EXCEEDS RELEVANT DECADAL SURVEY REQUIREMENTS AND FILLS THE NEED FOR HIGH RESOLUTION SYSTEM-LEVEL PLASMASPHERIC IMAGING.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: CITIZEN CATE NEXT-GENERATION 2024 TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE EXPERIMENT, PHASE 2 -THIS IS A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT BETWEEN THE SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE, AND TWO OF NSF?S FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTERS ? THE NATIONAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY AND THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH. IN AUGUST OF 2017, THE GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE TRAVERSED THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES FROM OREGON TO SOUTH CAROLINA. THE CITIZEN CONTINENTAL-AMERICA TELESCOPIC ECLIPSE (CITIZEN CATE) SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYED OVER 300 VOLUNTEER CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AT 68 SITES TO CONTINUOUSLY OBSERVE TOTALITY FROM COAST TO COAST. THAT EFFORT RESULTED IN A NOVEL AND UNIQUE DATASET CONTAINING 90 MINUTES OF CONTINUOUS COVERAGE OF THE INNER SOLAR CORONA. ON APRIL 8, 2024, A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE (TSE) WILL AGAIN TRAVERSE UNITED STATES, THIS TIME FROM TEXAS TO MAINE. THE PROJECT OUTLINED HERE IS TO BUILD ON THE SUCCESSES OF CATE 2017 AND IMPROVE THE OBSERVATIONS WITH UPGRADED INSTRUMENTATION TO BETTER OBSERVE THE MIDDLE LAYER OF THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE (THE MIDDLE CORONA). CATE 2024 PROJECT WILL DEPLOY 40 TEAMS OF CITIZEN SCIENTISTS ALONG THE PATH OF TOTALITY TO COLLECT OVER 60 MINUTES OF HIGH-RESOLUTION DATA WHICH WILL BE USED TO STUDY SEVERAL OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS IN THE HARD TO OBSERVE MIDDLE CORONA. A PREVIOUS PLANNING WORK INCLUDING SITE SELECTION, IDENTIFICATION OF NECESSARY EQUIPMENT, AND INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITIZEN SCIENCE NETWORK AS ALREADY BEEN CARRIED OUT. THIS AWARD IS TO CARRY OUT THE PLANNED ACTIVITIES, WHICH INCLUDES EQUIPMENT PURCHASE AND TELESCOPE BUILDING, COORDINATION AND TRAINING FOR THE TEAMS, DATA COLLECTION DURING THE ECLIPSE AND PRELIMINARY COMPILATION OF THE DATA. THE BROADER IMPACTS INCLUDE ENGAGEMENT WITH NATIVE AMERICAN AND OTHER UNDERREPRESENTED COMMUNITY GROUPS ALONG THE ECLIPSE PATH, THE DONATION OF TELESCOPES TO THE COMMUNITY GROUPS FOR USE IN OTHER ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS, AND THE INCLUSION OF AN EARLY CAREER FEMALE SCIENTIST AS THE PROJECT MANAGER. CATE 2024 WILL USE HIGH-CADENCE HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) POLARIMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE CORONA TO CHARACTERIZE THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES THAT SHAPE THE HEATING, STRUCTURE, AND EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR CORONA AT SCALES THAT CANNOT BE STUDIED OUTSIDE OF A TSE. THE SCIENCE OBJECTIVES OF CATE 2024 ARE TO (1) DETERMINE THE CONNECTIVITY OF STRUCTURES THAT SPAN THE MIDDLE CORONA, WHERE THE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD TRANSITIONS FROM PRIMARILY CLOSED TO PRIMARILY OPEN; (2) MEASURE THE FLOW OF THE NASCENT SOLAR WIND, BY CHARACTERIZING SMALL SCALE DYNAMICS THAT OCCUR DURING THE ECLIPSE; AND (3) IDENTIFY AND CHARACTERIZE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION, WHICH IS BELIEVED TO GENERATE STRUCTURE IN THE SOLAR WIND AND TO HEAT THE LOW AND MIDDLE CORONA, BY IDENTIFYING FEATURES AND DYNAMICS RELATED TO THIS PROCESS. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

USING ELLIPTICAL CRATERS TO CONSTRAIN THE BOMBARDMENT HISTORY OF SATURNS MIDSIZED ICY MOONS

"A LASER RIM INSTRUMENT FOR IN-SITU RB-SR GEOCHRONOLOGY"CONSTRUCTION OF RIMS INSTRUMENT WILL FOCUS ON INTEGRAION OF THE LASER SUBSYSTEM WITH THE MB-

CONNECTED VEHICLE NEXT STAGE CERTIFICATION ENVIRONMENT

DE-FE0031644, DIGITAL TWIN MODEL FOR ADVANCED MANUFACTURE OF A ROTATING DETONATION ENGINE INJECTOR

---------- SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE: NEW CONDITIONAL FLECCS AWARD. CONTROL #: 2220-1568 TITLE: OXYGEN STORAGE INCORPORATED INTO THE ALLAM OXY-FUEL POWER CYCLE THE SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE WILL ANALYZE THE CYCLE PERFORMANCE BENEFITS OF OXYGEN STORAGE, ASSESS PART-LOAD OPERATION OF THE AIR SEPARATION UNIT INCLUDING BOTH TURBOMACHINERY AND HEAT EXCHANGERS, AND PERFORM SIZING REQUIREMENTS OF CRYOGENIC OXYGEN STORAGE SYSTEMS. ----------

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE UV RESPONSIVITY OF SILICON-BASED IMAGING ARRAYS MOTIVATE US TO DEVELOP AND TEST A FULLY UV-OPTIMIZED CMOSDETECTOR FOCAL-PLANE ARRAY (FPA) PROTOTYPE. NOTABLE INNOVATIONS IN SILICON-BASED FPAS HAVE LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF DETECTORS WITH QUANTUM EFFICIENCIES AT MID-UV WAVELENGTHS (200-300 NM) THAT ARE COMPETITIVE WITH STATE OF THE ART MICROCHANNEL PLATE (MCP) TECHNOLOGY (E.G. BAI ET AL. SPIE 2008; NIKZAD ET AL. 2011) WITH THE ADDED ADVANTAGE THAT UNLIKE MCPS THEY DO NOT REQUIRE HIGHVOLTAGE POWER SUPPLIES. HENCE THE UTILIZATION OF THESE INNOVATIVE DETECTORS IN FUTURE UV SPECTROGRAPHS OR IMAGERS WILL REDUCE THE POWER MASS AND COMPLEXITY OF SUCH INSTRUMENTS OVER THEIR CURRENT EQUIVALENTS MAKING THEM WELL-SUITED FOR FUTURE LOW-COST PLANETARY MISSIONS INCLUDING THOSE BASED ON CUBESATS AND OTHER SMALLSAT PLATFORMS. IN PREVIOUS STUDIES WE CHARACTERIZED THE FAR-UV (100-200 NM) PERFORMANCE OF UV-OPTIMIZED N-TYPE SILICON DEVICES AT SWRI (DAVIS ET AL SPIE 2012) AND BEGAN TO DEVELOP METHODS OF ENHANCING THE FAR-UV RESPONSE BY DOPING THINNED-SILICON WAFERS WITH ANTIMONY USING MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY (MBE) (RETHERFORD ET AL. JATIS 2015). THIS WORK DEMONSTRATED THAT THE MBE PROCESS IS FEASIBLE FOR SILICON WAFERS WITH THICKNESSES AS LITTLE AS 100 MICRONS; AN IMPORTANT RESULT GIVEN THE SHORT ABSORPTION DEPTH OF FAR-UV PHOTONS IN SILICON. METHODS OF CLEANING THE WAFERS PRIOR TO MBE WERE INVESTIGATED AT MIT LINCOLN LABORATORY AND THE MBE PROCESS WAS OPTIMIZED THROUGH A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS IN WHICH THE TARGET DOPING CONCENTRATIONS GROWTH TEMPERATURES AND EPITAXIAL-SILICON THICKNESSES WERE VARIED. EXPLOITING THIS INITIAL SUCCESS WE INTEND TO (1) COMPLETE THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE MBE PROCESS FOR N-TYPE BACKSIDE-ILLUMINATED CMOS HYBRID ARRAYS FROM TELEDYNE (2) EXPAND THE ASSESSMENT TO INCLUDE MBE PROCESS ON STATE-OF-THE-ART P-TYPE CMOS MONOLITHIC ARRAYS MADE USING ~10-MICRON EPITAXIAL-WAFERS FROM TELEDYNE E2V AND INVESTIGATE OPTIONS FOR ANTI-REFLECTANCE COATINGS TO REJECT LONGER WAVELENGTH LIGHT AND (3) FABRICATE AND TEST UV-OPTIMIZED PHOTODIODES ANALYZING THEIR RESPONSE TO WAVELENGTHS FROM FAR UV TO THE VISIBLE. WE WILL ALSO DEVELOP A FULL PROTOTYPE FUV-OPTIMIZED CMOS FPA TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FLIGHT-HERITAGE ARRAY FORMATS SUCH AS HAWAII-1RG. FOR THE COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPED IN THIS PROGRAM THE ENTRANCE TRL OF 3 WILL BE RAISED TO TRL 4 OR HIGHER UPON EXITING THE PROGRAM. ONCE DEVELOPED THESE UV-OPTIMIZED DEVICES WILL ENABLE HIGHLY CAPABLE SMALLSAT INVESTIGATIONS OF LUNAR POLAR VOLATILES VENUSIAN UPPER ATMOSPHERE COMPOSITION AND DYNAMICS WATER VAPOR PLUMES AT ENCELADUS AND/OR EUROPA AND OTHER TARGETED SCIENCE MEASUREMENTS DETAILED WITHIN THE VISION AND VOYAGES PLANETARY DECADAL SURVEY.

THE GOALS OF THE HELIOPHYSICS TECHNOLOGY AND INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT FOR SCIENCE (HTIDS) IS TO DEVELOP AND ADVANCE TECHNOLOGIES AND PROMOTE THEIR APPLICATIONS AND INFUSIONS INTO MISSIONS TO ENABLE/ENHANCE INVESTIGATION OF KEY HELIOPHYSICS SCIENCE QUESTIONS.

NOVEL SOC AND SOH ESTIMATION THROUGH SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

SWEPAM MO&DA IN SUPPORT OF ADVANCED COMPOSITION EXPLORER (ACE)1) DATA PRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS

ADVANCES TOWARD A NEAR REAL TIME DESCRIPTION OF THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE AND INNER HELIOSPHERE WE PROPOSE TO ADAPT THREE CURRENT DEMONSTRATED ANALYSIS METHODS INTO A NOWCASTING FACILITY FOR THE SOLAR WIND NEAR THE SUN. THE METHODS ARE: FLUXON MODELING OF GLOBAL MAGNETIC FIELD EVOLUTION IN THE VICINITY OF THE SUN MAGNETIC TRACKING OF MAGNETIC FOOTPOINTS IN PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNETOGRAMS DIRECT AUTOMATED MEASUREMENT OF WIND FLOW SPEED VIA FOURIER SPEED FILTERING IN CORONAGRAPH AND HELIOSPHERIC IMAGER DATA THESE THREE TECHNIQUES COMBINED HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REPLACE WSA WITH A MORE PHYSICS-BASED INTEGRATIVE AND ASSIMILATIVE MODEL OF THE SOLAR WIND AT THE BASE OF THE HELIOSPHERE. THE FLUXON MODEL FLUX WAS DEVELOPED AT SWRI AND TREATS THE SOLAR MAGNETIC FIELD AS A SKELETON OF MAGNETIC FIELD LINES EACH OF WHICH SUPPORTS A 1-D PLASMA MODEL; THIS GREATLY REDUCES THE COMPUTATIONAL LOAD REQUIRED TO DEVELOP 3-D REDUCED-MHD CORONAL MODELS BY ELIMINATING NUMERICAL RESISTIVITY; THE COST IS THAT ONLY DISCRETE AND NOT CONTINUOUS RECONNECTION CAN BE MODELED. THE CODE IS CURRENTLY UNDERGOING DEVELOPMENT INTERNALLY FUNDED BY SWRI TO PRODUCE QUASI-SMOOTH RECONNECTION AND ENABLE GLOBAL INTEGRATIVE SIMULATION. SWAMIS IS A PIONEERING MAGNETIC TRACKING CODE THAT HAS BEEN USED FOR NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS BUT WAS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY TO DRIVE GLOBAL FLUXON MODELS. DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF WIND SPEED VIA IMAGE SPEED-SPECTRUM ANALYSIS WAS RECENTLY PIONEERED AND DEMONSTRATED BY THE PI. WE NOW PROPOSE TO USE IT TO INTEGRATE WIND SPEED DATA INTO THE SUITE OF 1-D WIND MODELS EMBODIED IN A GLOBAL FLUXON SIMULATION OF THE SUN. BY EVOLVING THE MODEL WITH INPUT FROM SWAMIS AND FROM ROUTINE CORONAGRAPH IMAGES WE WILL PRODUCE AN IMPROVED NOWCASTING MODEL THAT CAN BE USED TO DRIVE A HELIOSPHERIC PREDICTIVE SIMULATION SUCH AS ENLIL. WE WILL DISSEMINATE THE MODEL TO THE COMMUNITY VIA CCMC AND DIRECT CODE DISTIBUTION.

EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGENCY S EXPLORATION INITIATIVE FOCUSING ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF ON AND FROM THE MOON LUNAR ORBIT MARS AND BEYOND. ADVANCE DISCOVERY IN EMERGING FIELDS BY IDENTIFYING AND EXPLOITING CROSS-DISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES DEVELOP A DIRECTORATE-WIDE TARGET-USER FOCUSED APPROACH TO APPLIED PROGRAMS INCLUDING EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS SPACE WEATHER PLANETARY DEFENSE AND SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS.

CONTINUE WORKING WITH MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY PERSONNEL TO UPDATE PROCESS AND ARCHIVE PEACE DATA. CONTINUE CIS DATA PROCESSING AND ARCHIVING INCLUDING THE NEW AND UNIQUE SPINPAD DATA. PROCESS AND ARCHIVE OTHER DATA PRODUCTS AS WARRANTED. INTERFACE WITH THE CLUSTER ACTIVE ARCHIVE AND OTHER EXTERNAL CLUSTER ARCHIVES AS DIRECTED. CONTINUE TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN DATA AVAILABILITY AND ACESSIBILITY VIA THE WEB. CONTINUE WORK ON MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATA SETS AND PROVIDE A GENERIC DISPLAY SOLUTION.

21-ORSAPS21_2-0044 -CARBON TRACERS OF GEOLOGIC ACTIVITY IN SAMPLES FROM ASTEROID BENNU: ORIGINS AND RELATIONSHIP OF CARBONATE AND ORGANIC PHASES

OBJECTIVES: WE PROPOSE TO DETERMINE IF A VARIETY OF LAYERED-EJECTA (LE) CRATERS ON MARS AND GANYMEDE CAN BE FORMED BY MIXTURES OF IMPACT-FRAGMENTED ROCK AND ICE AND SPECIFICALLY WHETHER A SURFACE LAYER OF ICE CAN EXPLAIN THE OCCURRENCE.

METER-SCALE IMPACT EXPERIMENTS TO MEASURE MOMENTUM ENHANCEMENT FACTOR SIZE SCALING EFFECTS. THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO ACHIEVE A

CHARACTERIZATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF PROMPT AGENT DEFEAR MATERIALS

SCIENCE AND DATABASE BACKGROUND: IMPACT CRATERS ARE ARGUABLY THE MAIN EXOGENIC PROCESS THAT MAKES A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE POST-FORMATION EVOLUTION OF SOLID BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. CRATERS SPAN THE ENTIRE OBSERVABLE HISTORY OF THE MOON AND UNDERSTANDING THEIR POPULATIONS IS A MAJOR TOOL FOR UNRAVELING THE HISTORY OF ITS SURFACE THE IMPACTOR POPULATION THAT AFFECTED IT AND UNDERSTANDING HOW CRATERS FORM. THERE IS NO BROAD PUBLICLY AVAILABLE LUNAR CRATER DATABASE THAT EXISTS DOWN TO KILOMETER-SCALE FEATURES. THIS IS A CRITICAL DIAMETER RANGE THAT WOULD INFORM MANY POORLY UNDERSTOOD LUNAR PROCESSES AND EXISTING DATABASES AT LARGE DIAMETERS OMIT MORPHOMETRY AND MORPHOLOGY DATA THAT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR NUMEROUS SCIENCE INVESTIGATIONS. THE PI HAS BEEN IN THE PROCESS OF PRODUCING SUCH A CRATER DATABASE FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS AND THE BASIC INFORMATION (CRATER LATITUDE CRATER LONGITUDE AND CRATER DIAMETER) HAS BEEN COMPLETED FOR ALL CRATERS WITH DIAMETERS D 1 KM BY THE PDART STEP-2 SUBMISSION DEADLINE. WHILE THIS BASIC INFORMATION IS USEFUL INCLUDING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT EACH IMPACT CRATER WOULD VASTLY INCREASE THE UTILITY OF THIS DATABASE. SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSAL: THIS 3-YEAR PROPOSAL IS TO DO THIS ADDITIONAL WORK TO MAKE THIS DATABASE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE USEFUL TO THE COMMUNITY. ROBBINS AND HOOVER WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ADDING THE MORPHOLOGY AND MORPHOMETRY DATA. THEY WOULD USE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DATA PRIMARILY FROM THE LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER'S CAMERA'S (LROC) WIDE-ANGLE CAMERA (WAC) AND LASER ALTIMETER (LOLA) IN CONJUNCTION WITH KAGUYA'S TERRAIN CAMERA (TC) MOSAICS AND DTMS. MORPHOLOGY: MORPHOLOGY CLASSIFICATION IS A TWO-STEP PROCESS. FIRST THE GLOBAL MOSAICS WOULD BE SYSTEMATICALLY SEARCHED AND FIELDS OF OBVIOUS SECONDARY IMPACT CRATERS WOULD BE IDENTIFIED. SECOND EACH IMPACT CRATER WOULD BE EXAMINED INDIVIDUALLY AND THE SECONDARY CRATER CLASSIFICATION VALIDATED AND THEN INTERIOR MORPHOLOGY (SIMPLE COMPLEX FEATURES) EJECTA PRESENCE AND RELATIVE ALBEDO PRESERVATION CLASS AND CONFIDENCE THE FEATURE IS AN IMPACT CRATER WOULD BE RECORDED. MORPHOMETRY: THE WAC LOLA AND KAGUYA DTMS WOULD BE USED TO ANALYZE EACH D 1 KM CRATER THAT IS RESOLVABLE IN THESE DATASETS TO DERIVE RIM HEIGHT APPROXIMATE SURROUNDING SURFACE ELEVATION AND FLOOR DEPTH. THE METHOD USES COMPUTER-ASSISTED CODE THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN AND VALIDATED ON 10S OF THOUSANDS OF MARTIAN IMPACT CRATERS (ROBBINS&HYNEK 2012 2013). DATA ARCHIVING AND DATA VALIDATION: THIS FINAL DATASET WOULD BE SUBMITTED TO PDS AND OTHER REPOSITORIES FOR ARCHIVING. WHILE THE PDS SUBMISSION PROCESS DOES A BASIC VALIDATION OF THE DATA (E.G. FLAG A CRATER AT +1200 N) IT DOES NOT CHECK EACH CRATER FOR VALIDITY OF THE PARAMETERS. BECAUSE WE WANT TO PRODUCE A REFERENCE DATABASE THAT THE COMMUNITY CAN CONFIDENTLY USE CO-IS CHAPMAN KIRCHOFF SINGER WOULD SPEND 2 WEEKS EACH YEAR TO CHECK 1000S OF CRATERS AND PROVIDE VALIDATION OF THE MEASUREMENTS. WE ANTICIPATE THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO CHECK 3-4% OF THE DATABASE WHICH VIA RANDOM SAMPLING WOULD PROVIDE A GOOD ESTIMATE FOR THE OVERALL RELIABILITY OF THE DATABASE. RELEVANCE: THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PDART PROGRAM IS "TO GENERATE HIGHER-ORDER DATA PRODUCTS " INCLUDING "GENERATE NEW REFERENCE INFORMATION" AND "REFERENCE DATABASE CREATION." THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CREATE A REFERENCE DATABASE ( 1.4 OF THE PDART CALL) A HIGHER-ORDER DATA PRODUCT FROM LUNAR IMAGERY AND TOPOGRAPHY DATA. SPECIFICALLY PDART SOLICITS "PROPOSALS TO CREATE REFERENCE DATABASES USEFUL FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE RESEARCH." THERE WILL ALSO BE NO HYPOTHESIS-BASED SCIENCE IN THIS PROPOSED WORK.

WE PROPOSE A COMBINATION OF SUBSURFACE SURFACE AND HIGH ALTITUDE GAS DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS OF THE ENCELADUS GAS JETS TO QUANTITATIVELY ESTIMATE THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE FOLLOWING PHYSICAL PROCESSES

REDUCED PETROLEUM USE THROUGH EASILY-REFORMED FUELS AND DEDICATED EXHAUST GAS RECIRCULATION (EGR)

COST EFFECTIVE METHOD FOR PRODUCING SELF SUPPORTED PD ALLOY MEMBRANES FOR USE IN EFFICIENT PRODUCTION OF COAL DERIVED HYDROGEN

EARTH MOON MARS RADIATION EXPOSURE MODEL (EMMREM)

GOALS & OBJECTIVES: OUR FIRST OBJECTIVE IS TO CREATE A GLOBAL SET OF FULLY CONTROLLED SPICE DATA FOR THE CTX DATASET. (FULLY CONTROLLED MEANS THAT EACH IMAGE PIXEL IS IN THE CORRECT LOCATION BOTH RELATIVE TO OTHER IMAGES' PIXELS AND ON THE SURFACE A

1. SCIENCE GOALS ELECTROMAGNETIC (EM) SOUNDING USES INDUCTION FROM NATURAL SOURCES TO BUILD PROFILES OF ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF PLANETARY INTERIOR

HOW DO SUPER-MERCURIES FORM?

THE GIANT IMPACT (GI) THEORY SUGGESTS THAT THE MOON FORMED FROM DEBRIS EJECTED BY A COLLISION BETWEEN A ROUGHLY MARS-SIZED PROTOPLANET AND THE EARTH.

BEPICOLOMBO ENABLED STUDIES OF VENUS' ENERGY BUDGET AND CLIMATE DRIVERS

HYDRATION OF LUNAR REGOLITH IN THE VICINITY OF APOLLO LANDING SITES IS CONSTRAINED BY FAR-ULTRAVIOLET (FUV) REFLECTANCE DATA FROM LYMAN ALPHA MAPPING PROJECT (LAMP) INSTRUMENT ONBOARD LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (LRO). HOWEVER REPORTED ACCURACY AND

THE ORIGIN OF EARTH'S VOLATILE ELEMENTS (NOTABLY C H N AND S HEREINAFTER CHNS) PERMEATES MANY DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF PLANETARY SCIENCES WITH FAR-REACHING IMPLICATIONS SPANNING BROAD AREAS OF RESEARCH INCLUDING DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF THE EARLY

REDUCING METHANE EMISSIONS WITH AN ENGINE FUEL REFORMER THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO REDUCE METHANE EMISSIONS BY 20-60% FROM LARGE-BORE NATURAL GAS ENGINES DEPENDING ON VINTAGE AND CONFIGURATION OF THE ENGINE. THE EMISSION REDUCTION WILL BE ACHIEVED BY REFORMING AN ENGINE’S NATURAL GAS FUEL FEED INTO A HYDROGEN-CONTAINING FUEL MIXTURE THAT MAXIMIZES METHANE OXIDATION DURING COMBUSTION.

MULTIFUNCTIONAL, ALIGNED COLLAGEN MATERIALS FOR TENDON/LIGAMENT REPAIR

WE WILL DEMONSTRATE THAT THE TECHNIQUE OF COMBINING SONIC ANEMOMETRY AND TUNABLE LASER SPECTROSCOPY INTO A SINGLE INSTRUMENT CAN BE USED TO OBTAIN TH

THIS IS THE LEAD PROPOSAL FOR A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT BETWEEN A TEAM LED BY DR. MARILIA SAMARA (LEAD PROPOSAL, PI, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE, SAN A

SHINE: ACTIVE LONGITUDES: WINDOW IN THE DYNAMO? -THIS PROJECT WILL EXAMINE THE ORIGIN OF ?ACTIVE LONGITUDES?, WHICH ARE REGIONS ON THE SUN?S SURFACE WHERE MAGNETIC FIELDS TENDS TO EMERGE. THE TEAM WILL ANALYZE AVAILABLE DATA FROM THE NATIONAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY?S GLOBAL OSCILLATION NETWORK GROUP (GONG) TO CONSTRAIN MODELS OF THE SOLAR DYNAMO, WHICH IS AN ELECTRIC GENERATOR IN THE SUN?S INTERIOR. THIS PROJECT WILL ALSO PRODUCE NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS WHICH WILL BE COMPARED WITH THE GONG DATA TO IMPROVE PREDICTIONS OF VELOCITY AND MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTH ACROSS THE SUN. THIS RESEARCH WILL TEST PREDICTIONS OF SOLAR CONVECTION, WHICH IS THE PROCESS BY WHICH ENERGY IS LIBERATED FROM THE SUN. IT WILL ALSO PROBE HOW CONVECTION IS CONNECTED TO CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS, WHICH ARE GIANT MAGNETIC SOLAR STORMS THAT CAN CAUSE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS ON EARTH. THE WORK HAS POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS IMPROVING PREDICTIONS FOR SPACE WEATHER AND FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW OTHER STARS SHINE. THE PROJECT WILL HELP TRAIN AN EARLY-CAREER RESEARCHER IN SOLAR ASTROPHYSICS AND HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING TECHNIQUES. THE INVESTIGATORS WILL ACCOMPLISH THIS WORK BY USING THREE-DIMENSIONAL MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICAL NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS TO INVESTIGATE THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH ACTIVE MAGNETIC LONGITUDES ARISE. THEY WILL ALSO ANALYZE 17 YEARS OF GONG MAGNETOGRAM DATA WHICH PROVIDES POLARIZED INTERFEROMETRY OF THE NI I LINE AT 6768 ANGSTROMS TO GENERATE MAPS OF LINE-OF-SIGHT DOPPLER VELOCITY AND MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTH ACROSS THE SOLAR DISK. THE MAPS ARE PRODUCED WITH A SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF 5 ARC SECONDS AND A 60-SECOND CADENCE TO RECORD CHANGES OVER TIME. FINALLY, THEY WILL INTERCOMPARE THE SIMULATIONS AND DATA TO CONSTRAIN MODELS OF THE SOLAR DYNAMO AND CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

ENHANCEMENTS OF>0.1 MEV/NUCLEON IONS NEAR 1 AU IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE PASSAGE OF AN INTERPLANETARY CORONAL MASS EJECTION (ICME) ARE OFTEN REFERRED TO AS ENERGETIC STORM PARTICLE (ESP) EVENTS. THESE EVENTS ARE THOUGHT TO OCCUR VIA DIFFUSIVE SHOCK ACCELERATION (DSA) AT SHOCKS DRIVEN BY FAST ICMES AS THEY PLOUGH THROUGH THE INTERPLANETARY MEDIUM. THE IONS AND ELECTRONS ENERGIZED IN THESE EVENTS CAN PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN NEAR-EARTH PARTICULATE RADIATION THAT POSE SEVERE RADIATION HAZARDS TO ASTRONAUTS AND HARDWARE IN SPACE. PHYSICAL PARAMETERS THOUGHT TO AFFECT ESP PRODUCTION INCLUDE THE ICME SHOCK SPEED STRENGTH AND OBLIQUITY THE UPSTREAM SEED PARTICLE POPULATION AND INTERPLANETARY TURBULENCE AMONG OTHERS. WHILE SEVERAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES AND THEORIES HAVE ATTEMPTED TO LINK THE PROPERTIES OF ESPS TO THESE DRIVERS RELIABLE PREDICTION OF ESP PROPERTIES (E.G. INTENSITIES SPECTRA AND ABUNDANCES) INCLUDING THEIR EVENT-TO-EVENT AND INTRA-EVENT VARIABILITY HAS SO FAR PROVEN ELUSIVE. THIS POINTS TO AN INCOMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW ICME SHOCKS ACCELERATE ESPS IN INTERPLANETARY SPACE. OUR OVERARCHING GOAL IS TO ADVANCE CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF ESP ACCELERATION AT INTERPLANETARY SHOCKS NEAR 1 AU. WE WILL ACHIEVE THIS GOAL BY ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING THREE SCIENCE QUESTIONS: 1. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOCALLY OBSERVED SHOCK PROPERTIES AND ESP PROPERTIES SUCH AS INTENSITIES ENERGY SPECTRA AND ABUNDANCES? 2. HOW DO AMBIENT TURBULENCE LEVELS AND THE PRESENCE OF SUPRATHERMAL SEED POPULATIONS AFFECT ESP PROPERTIES? 3. WHAT CAUSES THE INTRA-EVENT VARIABILITY IN ESPS OBSERVED AT TWO OR MORE LONGITUDINALLY SEPARATED SPACECRAFT DURING SOLAR CYCLE 24? BY ADDRESSING THESE QUESTIONS WE WILL PINPOINT THE PHYSICAL PARAMETERS AND PROCESSES THAT INFLUENCE ESP PROPERTIES AND LEAD TO THEIR EVENT-TO-EVENT AND INTRA-EVENT VARIABILITY THEREBY ADVANCING CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF ICME-DRIVEN PARTICLE ACCELERATION AT 1 AU. OUR STUDY WILL UTILIZE THE PARTICLE ACCELERATION AND TRANSPORT (PATH) MODEL TO EXAMINE THE INFLUENCE OF SHOCK PROPERTIES TURBULENCE AND SUPRATHERMAL SEED PARTICLES ON ESP PROPERTIES. THE PATH MODEL INPUTS CONSTRAINED BY OBSERVATIONS WILL BE VARIED SYSTEMATICALLY TO ISOLATE THE INFLUENCE OF EACH POTENTIAL DRIVER ON ESP INTENSITIES SPECTRA AND ABUNDANCES. PATH WILL ALSO BE USED TO MODEL SELECTED MULTI-SPACECRAFT ESP EVENTS TO HELP IDENTIFY THE MECHANISMS RESPONSIBLE FOR PRODUCING ANY INTRA-EVENT VARIATIONS. THE MODELING EFFORT WILL BE SUPPORTED BY ANALYSIS OF ENERGETIC H HE O AND FE ION SOLAR WIND PLASMA AND INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS FROM ACE WIND AND STEREO DURING SEVERAL (>100) ESP EVENTS OBSERVED NEAR EARTH ORBIT. THESE MEASUREMENTS WILL BE USED TO QUANTIFY THE RANGE IN THESE ESP PROPERTIES AND THEIR CORRELATION WITH LOCAL SHOCK PROPERTIES TURBULENCE AND SEED PARTICLES. THESE RESULTS WILL BE COMPARED TO RESULTS FROM PREVIOUS SOLAR CYCLES. THE RELATIONSHIPS UNCOVERED IN THESE ANALYSES ARE EXPECTED TO LEAD TO A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF ICME-DRIVEN PARTICLE ACCELERATION AT 1 AU. OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH DIRECTLY RESPONDS TO THE ROSES 2016 SH: HSR BY COMBINING MODELING AND DATA ANALYSIS TO ADDRESS A TOPIC RELATED TO PARTICLE ACCELERATION TRANSPORT MODULATION IN THE HELIOSPHERE . OUR RESULTS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICS OF ICME-DRIVEN PARTICLE ACCELERATION AT 1 AU WHICH STRONGLY IMPACTS A KEY STRATEGIC GOAL OF NASA S HELIOPHYSICS DIVISION I.E. UNDERSTAND THE SUN AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH THE EARTH AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM INCLUDING SPACE WEATHER. OUR STATED OBJECTIVES ALSO RESPOND TO TWO SCIENCE GOALS OF THE 2012 SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY NAMELY (1) DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF THE SUN S ACTIVITY AND PREDICT THE VARIATIONS OF THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT AND (4) DISCOVER AND CHARACTERIZE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.

NANOPLATELET REINFORCED SMECTIC GLASSES FOR DENTAL RESTORANTS

EUROPA IS ONE OF THE BEST PLACES IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM TO LOOK FOR EXTANT LIFE. ITS VAST SUBSURFACE OCEAN AND YOUNG SURFACE RICH WITH GEOLOGIC FEATURES IMPLY MATERIAL EXCHANGE WITHIN THE SHELL AND THE POSSIBLE TRANSPORT OF OCEAN MATERIAL TO THE SURFACE BOTH OF WHICH STRONGLY AFFECT EUROPA'S OVERALL HABITABILITY. ALTHOUGH LIQUID WATER WITHIN THE ICE SHELL IS INVOKED BY MANY MODELS OF SURFACE FEATURE FORMATION AND THERE IS A PREPONDERANCE OF TECTONIC ACTIVITY AT THE SURFACE WE STILL DO NOT KNOW HOW AND WHEN LIQUID WATER ENTERS EUROPA'S ICE SHELL OR WHETHER FRACTURES PROVIDE PATHWAYS TO BRING OCEAN WATER TO THE SHALLOW SUBSURFACE. UNDERSTANDING THESE TRANSPORT PROCESSES AND OVERALL ICE SHELL DYNAMICS IS CRITICAL TO INTERPRETING EUROPA'S SURFACE GEOLOGY CHARACTERIZING ITS HABITABILITY AND PLANNING FOR FUTURE EXPLORATION. MUCH OF OUR LACK OF UNDERSTANDING COMES FROM UNCERTAINTY IN EUROPA'S CURRENT INTERIOR STRUCTURE AND HOW THE INTERIOR AND ORBIT HAVE CHANGED WITH TIME ALL OF WHICH AFFECT TIDAL STRESS TIDAL DISSIPATION AND THE GEOPHYSICS OF THE ICE SHELL. FOR EXAMPLE AS EUROPA'S INTERIOR COOLS ITS ICE SHELL FREEZES AND THICKENS GENERATING LARGE EXTENSIONAL STRESSES IN THE UPPER PORTION OF THE ICE SHELL AND PRESSURIZING THE UNDERLYING OCEAN. HENCE COOLING CAN SUPPLY STRESSES THAT COMBINE WITH DIURNAL TIDAL STRESSES TO INITIATE FRACTURES. IT ALSO PROVIDES A MECHANISM FOR DRIVING OCEAN WATER UP INTO THE SHELL THROUGH BASAL FRACTURES. HOWEVER EUROPA'S THERMAL-ORBITAL EVOLUTION HAS LIKELY OSCILLATED BETWEEN EPOCHS OF COOLING AND WARMING. HOW EACH STATE AND THE TRANSITIONS BETWEEN THEM HAVE AFFECTED EUROPA'S GEOLOGIC ACTIVITY HAS NOT BEEN SUFFICIENTLY EXPLORED. WE WILL QUANTIFY HOW EUROPA'S RECENT THERMAL-ORBITAL EVOLUTION HAS AFFECTED ITS SURFACE GEOLOGY FRACTURE FORMATION AND LIQUID WATER TRANSPORT THROUGH THE ICE SHELL OVER TIME. WE MODEL THE THERMAL-ORBITAL EVOLUTION OF EUROPA TRACKING CHANGES IN ICE SHELL THICKNESS VISCOSITY STRUCTURE AND HEAT TRANSPORT AS THE ORBIT EVOLVES. WE THEN CALCULATE STRESSES CAUSED BY TIDES WHICH DEPEND ON ECCENTRICITY OBLIQUITY AND INTERIOR STRUCTURE AND STRESSES INDUCED BY FREEZING OR MELTING OF THE ICE SHELL. FINALLY WE MODEL FRACTURE FORMATION ACROSS EUROPA'S SURFACE THE NUCLEATION AND PROPAGATION OF FAULTS WITHIN THE SHELL AND THE FORMATION OF WATER POCKETS WHEN FAULTS REACH THE OCEAN. THIS WORK WILL BETTER CHARACTERIZE EUROPA'S THERMAL-ORBITAL EVOLUTION AND THE SOURCES OF STRESS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO GEOLOGIC ACTIVITY QUANTIFY HOW DIFFERENT EPOCHS OF TIDAL HEATING PROMOTE OR INHIBIT DIFFERENT TYPES OF GEOLOGIC ACTIVITY AND IDENTIFY POTENTIAL PATHWAYS FOR LIQUID WATER TRANSPORT FROM THE OCEAN TO THE SURFACE. THE GOALS OF OUR PROPOSED WORK ALIGN WITH THOSE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS PROGRAM TO "BETTER UNDERSTAND THE PROCESSES AND INPUTS THAT CAUSE TECTONIC ACTIVITY" "DETERMINE THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE" AND "UNDERSTAND THE ROLE THAT REGIONAL AND GLOBAL STRESS FIELDS PLAY IN THE FORMATION OF LARGE-SCALE SURFACE FEATURES AND HOW THOSE FEATURES INFORM STUDIES OF GLOBAL STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS" OF EUROPA.

TAS::57 3600::TAS TOWARDS INSERTING MAGNETIC EJECTA INTO A SPACE WEATHER MODEL

SCIENCE GOALS&OBJECTIVES OUR FOCUSED SCIENCE OBJECTIVE IS TO DETERMINE THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF EXTERNAL SOLAR WIND CONDITIONS AND WAVE-PARTICLE INTERACTIONS IN HEATING THE PLASMA AND ACCELERATING PARTICLES AT HIGH MACH NUMBER QUASI-PERPENDICULAR PORTIONS OF THE EARTH'S BOW SHOCK. TO ACHIEVE THIS OBJECTIVE WE WILL ANSWER THE FOLLOWING THREE SCIENCE QUESTIONS: 1) HOW DO EXTERNAL FACTORS (E.G. SOLAR WIND CONDITIONS PLASMA BETA DENSITY&TEMPERATURE) DETERMINE THE BOW SHOCK'S MACRO-SCALE STRUCTURE AND AFFECT THE ASSOCIATED ION AND ELECTRON VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS 2) HOW ARE PROPERTIES OF AMBIENT TURBULENCE PLASMA INSTABILITIES AND LOCALLY-GENERATED WAVES RELATED TO THE EVOLUTION OF ELECTRON AND ION DISTRIBUTIONS UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM OF THE SHOCK 3) WHAT PORTIONS OF THE ION AND ELECTRON POPULATIONS IN VELOCITY SPACE PARTICIPATE IN GETTING HEATED AND ACCELERATED AT THE BOW SHOCK? SCIENTIFIC IMPORTANCE / SIGNIFICANCE COLLISIONLESS SHOCKS ARE A MAJOR PRODUCER OF SUPRATHERMAL AND ENERGETIC PARTICLES IN SPACE AND ASTROPHYSICAL PLASMA ENVIRONMENTS. THEORETICAL STUDIES COMBINED WITH IN-SITU OBSERVATIONS DURING THE SPACE AGE HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY ADVANCED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH SHOCKS. HOWEVER IT IS STILL POORLY UNDERSTOOD EXACTLY HOW COLLISIONLESS SHOCKS ARE FORMED THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY EVOLVE AND DISSIPATE THEIR ENERGY AND THE PHYSICAL MECHANISMS BY WHICH THEY HEAT AND ACCELERATE THE LOCAL PLASMA. METHODOLOGY: DATA ANALYSIS WE ANSWER THE ABOVE SCIENCE QUESTIONS THROUGH A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF HIGH TIME RESOLUTION BURST DATA FROM NASA'S MAGNETOSPHERIC MULTISCALE (MMS) MISSION DURING MULTIPLE BOW SHOCK CROSSINGS. WE CHARACTERIZE THE EVOLUTION OF PARALLEL AND PERPENDICULAR TEMPERATURES AND THE VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS OF IONS AND ELECTRONS IN THE UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM REGIONS. WE USE THE HIGHEST-TIME-RESOLUTION ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELD DATA TO DERIVE THE POWER SPECTRAL DENSITIES AND POLARIZATION CHARACTERISTICS TO IDENTIFY THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF TURBULENCE INSTABILITIES WAVES (AMBIENT AND SELF-EXCITED) ASSOCIATED WITH QUASI-PERPENDICULAR BOW SHOCK CROSSINGS. WE USE A NOVEL FIELD-PARTICLE CORRELATION ANALYSES TECHNIQUE TO PERFORM CROSS-SENSOR ANALYSES AND IDENTIFY KEY PARAMETERS THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE ION AND ELECTRON POPULATIONS IN VELOCITY SPACE THAT PARTICIPATE IN DISSIPATION AND ENERGIZATION AT EACH SHOCK CROSSING. FINALLY WE USE A STATE-OF-THE-ART GLOBAL ELECTROMAGNETIC HYBRID (KINETIC IONS AND FLUID ELECTRONS) SIMULATIONS TO MODEL THE SHOCK STRUCTURE AND STUDY WAVE-PARTICLE BEHAVIOR IN ~2-3 CASE STUDIES. MISSION DATA LAUNCHED IN MARCH 2015 MMS HAS FOUR SPACECRAFT SEPARATED BETWEEN ~10-40 KM AND EQUIPPED WITH IDENTICAL STATE-OF-THE-ART INSTRUMENTS THAT ACQUIRE MAGNETIC AND ELECTRIC FIELD PLASMA WAVE AND PARTICLE DATA AT UNPRECEDENTED TEMPORAL RESOLUTION TO STUDY THE FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE. SERENDIPITOUSLY DURING PHASE 1A FROM OCTOBER 2015 THROUGH DECEMBER 31 2015 MMS ALSO ENCOUNTERED AND CROSSED THE EARTH'S BOW SHOCK MORE THAN ~400 TIMES AND MORE IMPORTANTLY ACQUIRED HIGHEST TIME RESOLUTION BURST DATA DURING>230 SUCH CROSSINGS. RELEVANCE TO MMS AND DECADAL SURVEY THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE MMS-GI PROGRAM AS IT USES THE HIGHEST CADENCE OR TIME RESOLUTION MMS BURST DATA DURING NUMEROUS BOW SHOCK CROSSINGS TO ADDRESS A FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION THAT IS CRITICAL FOR NASA'S HELIOPHYSICS DIVISION - HOW DO COLLISONLESS SHOCKS HEAT THE LOCAL PLASMA AND ACCELERATE THE PARTICLES OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH ALSO ADDRESSES TWO OF THE 2012 SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY GOALS NAMELY DS2: DETERMINE THE DYNAMICS AND COUPLING OF EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE IONOSPHERE AND ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR RESPONSE TO SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL INPUTS. DS4: DISCOVER AND CHARACTERIZE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.

EO14042 TYPICAL SIGNATURES OF ATYPICAL FLUX TRANSFER EVENTS (FTES)

WINDS OF CHANGE: A MULTI-DECADE STUDY OF TITAN'S MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE ACROSS SEASONS

THE PROPOSAL OBJECTIVE IS TO DETERMINE LIKELY LOCATIONS SEASONS AND TIME-OF-DAY WHERE DELIQUESCENCE COULD OCCUR ON THE SURFACE AND SUBSURFACE OF MARS.

SEVERAL MOONS OF THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM ARE THOUGHT TO POSSESS SUBSURFACE LIQUID WATER OCEANS MAKING THEM PRIME TARGETS FOR STUDIES OF HABITABILITY. HOWEVER MANY MOONS HAVE YET TO BE SUFFICIENTLY EXPLORED WITH SPACECRAFT

EO14042 EARLY ESTIMATION OF FLUX EMERGENCE AND ACTIVE REGION PROPERTIES RELEVANT FOR SPACE WEATHER FORECAST USING SOHO+SDO OBSERVATIONS: A MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH

21-EW21-0033 PLANETESIMAL FORMATION EVOLUTION AND IMPACTS

PLASMA-BASED SCALE-UP SYNTHESIS AND LINEAR STRAND BURN TESTING OF NOVEL PROPELLANT MATERIALS

SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES THE SCIENCE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DETERMINE THE STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF MAGNETIC FLUX EMERGENCE IN THE QUIET SUN AND TO USE THESE PROPERTIES TO PROBE THE STRUCTURE OF MAGNETIC FLUX JUST BELOW THE SOLAR SURFACE. RELEVANCE TO DECADAL SURVEY THIS PROJECT IS RELEVANT TO THE DECADAL SURVEY GOAL 1) DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF THE SUN S ACTIVITY AND 4) DISCOVER AND CHARACTERIZE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE. METHODOLOGY INCLUDING DATA MODELS AND ANALYSIS USING SDO/HMI MAGNETOGRAMS WE WILL CONDUCT A SURVEY OF NON-ACTIVE-REGION FLUX EMERGENCE OVER MUCH OF THE SOLAR DISK DURING SEVERAL BRIEF (~1 DAY) PERIODS. WE WILL ADAPT AND USE STATE-OF-THE-ART STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE WHETHER THERE ARE SPATIOTEMPORAL PATTERNS IN THE EMERGENCE LOCATIONS AND WHETHER AND HOW THOSE PATTERNS ARE DEPENDENT ON THE SCALE OF FLUX EMERGENCE. WE WILL CONDUCT A SIMILAR ANALYSIS ON BOTH NATIVE- AND DEGRADED-RESOLUTION LARGE-DOMAIN NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF BOTH THE SMALLSCALE DYNAMO AND MAGNETO-CONVECTION. AFTER DETERMINING WHETHER FLUX EMERGENCE IN THE SIMULATIONS EXHIBITS THE SAME PATTERNS AND DEPENDENCIES (OR LACK THEREOF) AS THE DATA WE WILL THEN USE THE SIMULATIONS TO EXPLORE THE SOURCE OF THESE PATTERNS AND TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES AMONG THE SIMULATIONS AND BETWEEN THE SIMULATIONS AND THE REAL SUN. THIS COMBINATION OF ANALYSIS OF DATA AND SIMULATIONS WILL ALLOW US TO DETERMINE WHETHER FOR EXAMPLE SIMULTANEOUS BUT LARGELY SEPARATED (50-150 MM) FLUX EMERGENCE EVENTS ARE SIGNATURES OF LARGE-SCALE SUBSURFACE MAGNETIC STRUCTURES.

EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGENCY S EXPLORATION INITIATIVE FOCUSING ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF ON AND FROM THE MOON LUNAR ORBIT MARS AND BEYOND. ADVANCE DISCOVERY IN EMERGING FIELDS BY IDENTIFYING AND EXPLOITING CROSS-DISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES DEVELOP A DIRECTORATE-WIDE TARGET-USER FOCUSED APPROACH TO APPLIED PROGRAMS INCLUDING EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS SPACE WEATHER PLANETARY DEFENSE AND SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

SOURCE AND FLOW DYNAMICS OF MARTIAN RECURRING SLOPE LINEAE RECURRING SLOPE LINEAE (RSL) ARE THE BEST EVIDENCE FOR CONTEMPORARY LIQUID WATER FLOWING

THIS PROPOSAL CONSISTS OF FIVE TASKS CONCERNING DYNAMICAL PROCESSES IN THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM. (1) A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM OF RESEARCH INTO THE ORIGIN O

.THE OSIRIS-REX MISSION TO BENNU WILL RETURN PRIMITIVE CARBONACEOUS REGOLITH TO EARTH. A PRIMARY MISSION GOAL IS TO ANALYZE THE SAMPLES IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND BENNU S GEOLOGICAL/DYNAMICAL HISTORY. TO DO THIS WORK HOWEVER SAMPLE AGES MUST BE LINKED

MARTIAN DYNAMIC HABITABILITY FROM THE RECENT PAST TO THE PRESENT DAY

THIS WORK WILL ANSWER THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE QUESTIONS: DOES ION IRRADIATION OF LUNAR GRAINS ACTIVATE THEIR SURFACES IN A MANNER THAT RECREATES THE ACTIVE SURFACES AND ARGON ADSORPTION BEHAVIOR UNDERSTOOD TO EXIST ON THE MOON? WHAT IS THE DISTRIBUTION OF ADSORPTION SITE ENERGIES FOR WATER AND ARGON MOLECULES ON ION-IRRADIATED LUNAR GRAIN SURFACES? DO THE MEASURED DISTRIBUTIONS OF ADSORPTION SITE ENERGIES SUPPORT OR REFUTE A DIURNAL CYCLE FOR LUNAR WATER ADSORPTION? WE ARE PRESENTLY IN AN ERA OF REEXAMINING THE BEHAVIOR AND ABUNDANCE OF VOLATILES ON THE MOON MERCURY CERES PHOBOS/DIEMOS AND SMALL BODIES. NEW LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS ARE NEEDED TO ANSWER OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS FROM RECENT MISSIONS AND TELESCOPIC OBSERVATIONS SUCH AS THE PROPOSED DIURNAL WATER CYCLE ON THE MOON. BERNATOWICZ AND PODOSEK (1991) DEMONSTRATED THE NEED TO ACTIVATE MINERAL SURFACES IMMEDIATELY BEFORE CONDUCTING MEASUREMENTS OF ARGON ADSORPTION BUT THEIR TECHNIQUE IS CHALLENGING DESTROYS THE LUNAR ROCK BEING ANALYZED AND WAS TOO SLOW TO ACCESS THE HIGHEST ENERGY ADSORPTION SITES. WE PROPOSED TO DEMONSTRATE AN IMPROVED TECHNIQUE THAT WOULD PROVIDE HIGHER FIDELITY MEASUREMENTS ACCESSING THE HIGHEST ENERGY ADSORPTION SITES AND REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF LUNAR SAMPLE REQUIRED TO PERFORM THE MEASUREMENT. ION-IRRADIATION EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED BY THE SPACE WEATHERING COMMUNITY HAVE SHOWN CREATION OF NANO-PHASE IRON AMORPHOUS RIMS AND OTHER ASPECTS OF SPACE WEATHERED EXTRATERRESTRIAL SAMPLES BUT NO WORK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED EXAMINING VOLATILE ADSORPTION BEHAVIOR TO SUCH AN ARTIFICIALLY-WEATHERED SURFACE. WE HYPOTHESIZE THAT ION IRRADIATION OF GRAIN SURFACES WILL ACTIVATE GRAIN SURFACES FOR LUNAR-LIKE VOLATILE ADSORPTION AND WE WILL PERFORM EXPERIMENTS TO TEST THIS HYPOTHESIS. SHOULD OUR HYPOTHESIS PROVE TRUE IT WILL OPEN UP A NEW AND WIDELY AVAILABLE TECHNIQUE FOR CREATING ACTIVE GRAIN SURFACES. SUCH A TECHNIQUE WOULD HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REVOLUTIONIZE OUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF VOLATILES ON ROCKY AIRLESS BODIES. WE WILL THEN USE OUR TECHNIQUE TO MEASURE THE ADSORPTION BEHAVIOR OF WATER ON ACTIVATED LUNAR GRAIN SURFACES AND APPLY OUR RESULTS TO THE CONTROVERSIAL DIURNAL WATER CYCLE THAT HAS POTENTIALLY BEEN OBSERVED ON THE MOON. THIS WORK IS RELEVANT TO SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS (SSW) AND IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR ANY OTHER NASA SMD ROSES PROGRAM (SEE SEPARATE RELEVANCE SECTION IN THE COVER SHEETS).

WE USE REMOTE SENSING OBSERVATIONS SPANNING MULTIPLE REGIMES TO CHARACTERIZE THE NATURE OF EMISSION IN THE MIDDLE CORONA (1.3 3 RSUN) AND DERIVE THE CONDITIONS PROCESSES AND MAGNETIC CONNECTIVITY THAT GIVE RISE TO TRANSIENT AND STEADY OUTFLOWS THAT

INTERPLANETARY (IP) SHOCKS DRIVEN BY CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS OR THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH COROTATING INTERACTION REGIONS ARE THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF ENERGETIC ION POPULATIONS IN THE HELIOSPHERE.

BALLOON-BORNE TELESCOPES IN THE EARTH'S STRATOSPHERE ARE EXPECTED TO PERFORM AS WELL AS MORE COSTLY SPACE-BASED COUNTERPARTS IF THE BALLOON-BORNE TEL

EXPLORING CONSTRAINTS ON DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF EXOPLANETS

PHYSICAL OBSERVATIONS OF VERY YOUNG DYNAMICAL FAMILIES OF ASTEOROIDS WE PROPOSE TO MAKE A SUITE OF OBSERVATIONS OF THE YOUNGEST ASTEROIDS KNOWN. WE

THE OBJECTIVE OF OUR PROPOSAL IS TO UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICS OF WAVES GENERATED IN THE MULTI-SCALE BOUNDARY LAYERS OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION (ELECTRON AND ION DIFFUSION REGIONS SEPARATRICES INFLOW AND EXHAUST REGIONS) AND THE ROLES AND EFFECTS OF THESE DYNAMICS ON THE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION PROCESS. THE INTRINSIC MULTI-SCALE STRUCTURE OF RECONNECTION INCLUDING INFLOW EXHAUST AND DIFFUSION REGIONS DRIVES VARIOUS WAVE MODES. THOSE WAVES IN THE RECONNECTION SITE IN PARTICULAR IN THE ELECTRON DIFFUSION REGION CAN PROVIDE ANOMALOUS RESISTIVITY WHICH COULD BE A CRUCIAL INGREDIENT IN TRIGGERING RECONNECTION. PREVIOUS SIMULATIONS AND SPACECRAFT OBSERVATIONS INDICATED THAT ELECTRON/ION DISTRIBUTIONS AND PLASMA PARAMETERS VARY NOT ONLY IN TERMS OF THE SPATIAL LOCATION IN RECONNECTION TOPOLOGY BUT ALSO THE TEMPORAL PHASE OF RECONNECTION PROCESSES. THE RECENTLY-LAUNCHED MMS SPACECRAFT PROVIDING DETAILED HIGH-RESOLUTION PARTICLE AND FIELD DATA AT AND NEAR THE NIGHTSIDE (SYMMETRIC) AND DAYSIDE (ASYMMETRIC) RECONNECTION SITES HAVE SHOWN THAT PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS ARE HIGHLY STRUCTURED AND ACCORDINGLY LOCALIZED WAVES ARE OFTEN OBSERVED. SUCH DEFORMATIONS IN THE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS CAN SUPPLY FREE ENERGY FOR WAVES. IN TURN PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS ALTER BY GENERATING WAVES AND/OR INTERACTING WITH WAVES. THEREFORE WAVES TOGETHER WITH PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS CAN REPRESENT BOTH SPATIAL LOCATIONS IN RECONNECTION GEOMETRY AND TEMPORAL PHASES OF THE RECONNECTION PROCESS. HOWEVER WE HAVE NOT YET DEVELOPED A COMPLETE CONTEXT OF THOSE WAVES IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIATIONS OF RECONNECTION PROCESSES. HERE WE PLAN TO INVESTIGATE THE FOLLOWING SCIENTIFIC QUESTIONS VIA OUR PROJECT. (Q1) WHETHER OR NOT AND BY WHAT MEANS ARE WAVES RESPONSIBLE FOR RECONNECTION? (Q2) WHAT ARE GENERATION MECHANISMS AND PROPERTIES OF WAVES IN THE MULTI-SCALE RECONNECTION SITE? (Q3) CAN WAVE OBSERVATIONS RECONSTRUCT THE RECONNECTION GEOMETRY AND THE EVOLUTIONARY PHASES? BY ANSWERING Q1-3 WE WILL ADDRESS THE IMPACT AND ROLES OF WAVES IN THE RECONNECTION PROCESSES AND HOW WAVES ENABLE US TO CONSTRUCT THE FULL CONTEXT OF RECONNECTION TOPOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS WE WILL USE COMBINED METHODOLOGIES USING IN-SITU MMS DATA AND BOTH EXPLICIT/IMPLICIT PARTICLE-IN- CELL (PIC) CODES SUPPORTED BY ANALYTIC STUDIES. FIELD DATA (EDP FGM AND SCM) WILL BE ANALYZED TO INVESTIGATE WAVE MODES AND PROPERTIES WHICH WILL BE COMPARED WITH THE SIMULATION RESULTS. PARTICLE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS AND MOMENT DATA (FPI) WILL BE ANALYZED FOR THE COMPARISON WITH SIMULATIONS AS WELL AS USED FOR THE INPUT PARAMETERS OF SIMULATIONS. EXPLICIT PIC WHICH MOST APPROPRIATELY RESOLVE ELECTRON SCALE WAVES AND THE KINETIC THEORY WITH MMS DATA AS INITIAL CONDITIONS WILL ENABLE US TO SORT OUT WAVE MODES AND GENERATION MECHANISMS AND TRACK DOWN WAVE-PARTICLE INTERACTIONS AND SATURATIONS IN PARTICULAR IN THE ELECTRON DIFFUSION REGION. IMPLICIT PIC WILL BE USED TO INVESTIGATE THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG THE ELECTRON/ION SCALE WAVES PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS AND SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATIONS OF RECONNECTION PROCESS ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT RECONNECTION TOPOLOGY (E.G. WITH/WITHOUT A GUIDE FIELD). BY SYNTHESIZING MMS OBSERVATIONS SIMULATIONS AND THEORETICAL STUDIES WE WILL TACKLE A LONG-STANDING QUESTION IN RECONNECTION DISCIPLINE WHETHER OR NOT AND HOW EFFECTIVELY WAVES INFLUENCE (TRIGGER/MODULATE) RECONNECTION PROCESSES AND ANSWER HOW THE PARTICLE AND WAVE DATA CAN BE USED FOR MAPPING THE MMS LOCATION OR TRAJECTORY WITHIN THE RECONNECTION REGION. OUR PROGRAM IS KEY TO UNDERSTANDING RECONNECTION ONE OF MOST FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE (DSG #4) WHICH IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE GOALS OF MMS MISSION. THIS PROGRAM WILL ALSO IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE DYNAMICS AND COUPLING OF EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE IONOSPHERE AND ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR RESPONSE TO SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL INPUTS (DSG #2).

THIS PROPOSAL CONTAINS FOUR TASKS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF PLANETS AND LARGE SATELLITES. IN TASKS I AND 2 WE PROPOSE TO MODEL PLANETARY ACCRETION IN

DETERMINING THE CONTRIBUTION OF CORONAL JETS TO THE SOLAR WIND VIA DEEP MACHINE LEARNING AND COMPUTER VISION

IN THE OUTER HELIOSPHERE THE SOLAR WIND SLOWS AND HEATS AS INTERSTELLAR NEUTRALS ARE IONIZED AND PICKED UP BY THE SOLAR WIND. OUR PROPOSAL FOCUSES ON

WAVE-MEAN INTERACTION IN PLUTO'S ATMOSPHERE

ROUNDING UP CRATERS LINKING THE FORMATION CONDITIONS OF ELLIPTICAL AND CIRCULAR CRATERS ON SATURNS MOONS

IMPROVING LONG TERM FORECASTS OF SOLAR VARIABILITY WITH THE ADVECTIVE FLUX TRANSPORT MODEL

21-NFDAP21_2-0005 REDDENING OF CHARON'S POLES BY ENERGETIC PARTICLES: EXTENDING BEYOND LYMAN-A

PLANET-DISK INTERACTIONS AND PLANET MIGRATION:THIS PROPOSAL CONTAINS A FIVE TASKS PERTAINING TO THE FORMATION OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS. TASK #1 ADDRESSE

LOCOMOTIVE PERFORMANCE AND ENGINE DURABILITY ASSESSMENT OF B5 TO B20 BIODIESEL FUEL USAGE

WE PROPOSE TO PREDICT OBSERVE AND ANALYZE OCCULTATIONS BY OBJECTS IN THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM. OCCULTATIONS ARE THE DEFINITIVE METHOD FOR GETTING THE SIZES OF AIRLESS BODIES. SIZES LEAD TO ACCURATE ALBEDOS WHICH CAN BE USED TO ADJUST OUR ESTIMATED ALBEDOS AND DIAMETERS FOR LARGE CLASSES OF OBJECTS. IN SOME CASES THIS CAN BE COMBINED WITH THERMAL INFRARED MEASUREMENTS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THERMAL PROPERTIES. THE NEW HORIZONS TARGET 2014 MU69 "ULTIMA THULE " IS THE SMALLEST KBO TO HAVE BEEN OBSERVED BY STELLAR OCCULTATION. ITS DECIDEDLY NON-SPHERICAL SHAPE HINTS AT A TRANSITION BETWEEN SPHERICAL AND NON-SPHERICAL BODIES THAT MIGHT OCCUR NEAR 100 KM DIAMETER. OCCULTATIONS WITH MULTIPLE CHORDS CAN DERIVE PROJECTED SHAPES AT THE TIME OF THE OCCULTATION AND PROBE THIS TRANSITION. OTHER BODIES SIMILAR IN SIZE TO PLUTO AND TRITON HAVE FROZEN VOLATILES DETECTED ON THEIR SURFACES WHICH ARE LIKELY TO RAISE TEMPORARY ATMOSPHERES. RINGS HAVE BEEN DETECTED AROUND HAUMEA AND SEVERAL CENTAURS. LARGE KBOS HAVE PROVEN PARTICULARLY DIVERSE. OCCULTATIONS ARE SENSITIVE TO ATMOSPHERES AT THE NBAR LEVEL AND TO NARROW DENSE RINGS. FOR PLUTO AND TRITON OCCULTATIONS ARE THE MOST ACCURATE METHOD FOR MEASURING THE CHANGING ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AS ALREADY DEMONSTRATED BY FACTORS-OF-SEVERAL CHANGES SEEN ON BOTH BODIES ON DECADAL TIMESCALES. OCCULTATIONS CAN ALSO BE USED TO PROBE OR CONSTRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY WINDS AND HAZE OPACITY. EVENTS THAT PROBE THE CENTRAL 100 KM OF THE SHADOW WHERE THE ATMOSPHERE FOCUSES THE OCCULTED STARLIGHT INTO A BRIGHT "CENTRAL FLASH." THE PROPOSED WORK WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHAT WILL BE A GOLDEN AGE FOR OCCULTATIONS. GAIA IS GIVING US AS STELLAR POSITIONS AS PRECISE AS WE COULD PRACTICALLY USE (SUB-MILLARCSEC) BUT ONLY FOR SOME NUMBER OF YEARS BEFORE PROPER MOTION ERRORS BECOME SIGNIFICANT. AT THE SAME TIME ROUTINE ACCESS TO ASTROMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF FAINT KBOS HELPS US REFINE KBO ORBITS. FOR SOME KBOS ASTROMETRY IS AUGMENTED BY NEW HORIZONS PARALLAX OBSERVATIONS. THIS WILL LET US KNOW THE SHADOW POSITION TO 10S OF KM. EVEN FOR LARGER OBJECTS GAIA ASTROMETRY WILL DECREASE THE NUMBER OF TELESCOPES NEEDED FOR DEPLOYMENT SIMPLIFYING OPERATIONS AND MAKING THEM MORE COST EFFICIENT. SCIENCE THAT IS POTENTIALLY ENABLED BY THIS INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING: * OCCULTATIONS BY 500 TO 2000-KM CLASS KBOS TO ESTABLISH SHAPE SIZE AND ALBEDO AND TO CONSTRAIN ATMOSPHERES AND RINGS. * OCCULTATIONS BY PLUTO TO PROVIDE CONTINUED INFORMATION ON THE CLIMACTIC CHANGES IN ITS ATMOSPHERES. * OCCULTATIONS MAPPING THE 100-KM WIDE CENTRAL FLASH OF PLUTO. * DIAMETERS AND SHAPES OF 30-KM CLASS KBO OCCULTATIONS. THIS DEMONSTRATES THE RANGE OF SCIENCE ENABLED BY GAIA AND THE OCCULTATION TECHNIQUE. THIS WORK IS PRIMARILY TO OBSERVE NEW OCCULTATIONS AND AS SUCH IS APPROPRIATE FOR SSO. THE ANALYSIS IS A SMALL PART OF THE EFFORT AND SO THIS IS NOT AN SSW PROJECT. SPACECRAFT ASTROMETRY FROM GAIA AND POTENTIALLY NEW HORIZONS AID THE GROUND-BASED OBSERVING BUT ARE NOT THE MAIN FOCUS AND SO THIS IS NOT A NFDAP PROJECT EITHER.

PROTOLUNAR DISK EVOLUTION AND THE MOON'S EARLY STATEONE OF THE PRIMARY SCIENCE OBJECTIVES OF THE A

MRI: ACQUISITION OF A SUITE OF ADVANCED IMAGERS FOR AURORAL AND UPPER ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

BUILDING GLOBAL AND HIGH-RESOLUTION REGIONAL CRATER DATABASES FOR CERES

MOST REGIONS ON SATURN'S MOONS ARE HEAVILY CRATERED WITH THE EXCEPTIONS OF TITAN AND RESURFACED TERRAINS ON ENCELADUS AND DIONE. CASSINI ISS IMAGED THE CLASSICAL SATELLITES AT SCALES BETTER THAN 1 KM/PIXEL.

CHARON S RED-COLORED NORTH POLAR TERRAIN HAS BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO THOLIN-LIKE MATERIAL RESULTING FROM IPM LY-? PHOTOLYSIS OF METHANE ACCRETING ONTO CHARON S WINTER POLE FOLLOWING ESCAPE FROM PLUTO. THIS PROPOSITION IF CORRECT WOULD CONSTITUTE A SEMINAL DISCOVERY OF THE NEW HORIZONS MISSION THAT SIGNIFICANTLY ADVANCES OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE SYNERGISM BETWEEN GAS TRANSFER EXOSPHERICSURFACE INTERACTION AND PHOTOLYTIC PROCESSES IN THE PLUTO-CHARON SYSTEM. FORTUNATELY THIS HYPOTHESIS IS HIGHLY TESTABLE VIA LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND EXOSPHERIC MODELING SINCE THE REQUIRED PARAMETERS OF CHARON S SURFACE TEMPERATURES METHANE ESCAPE RATE AND IPM LY-? PHOTON FLUX ARE CONSTRAINED FROM NEW HORIZONS OBSERVATIONS AND CAN BE REPRODUCED IN THE LABORATORY. WE THEREFORE PROPOSE A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS A CHARON EXOSPHERIC MODEL AND RADIATIVE TRANSFER SPECTRAL REFLECTANCE MODELING TO QUANTITATIVELY ESTIMATE THE CONTRIBUTION OF METHANE PHOTOLYSIS TO THE RED COLOR OF CHARON S NORTH POLAR TERRAIN. THE PROPOSAL GOALS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY EXECUTING THE FOUR TASKS OVER THE THREE-YEAR DURATION. TASK (1) - APPLY OUR STATE-OF-ART EXOSPHERIC MODELING TO ESTIMATE THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CH4 ACCRETION AND REFRACTORY FORMATION ON CHARON S SURFACE. TASK (2) - MEASURE THE LY-? DESTRUCTION CROSS-SECTION/REFRACTORY YIELD/V-NIR COLOR MODIFICATION OF PHOTOLYZED SOLID METHANE. SPECIFICALLY PERFORM SIMULTANEOUS DEPOSITION AND IRRADIATION AND ESTIMATE THE REFRACTORY YIELD ON CHARON AT DIFFERENT DEPOSITION/IRRADIATION. TASK (3&4) - CREATE A COLOR MAP OF CHARON S MODELED SURFACE AND COMPARE WITH MVIC IMAGES TO ESTIMATE THE IPM LY-? CONTRIBUTION TO THE RED MATERIAL S ORIGIN. RELEVANCE: THE PROPOSAL USES LABORATORY AND MODELING EFFORTS TO SIGNIFICANTLY ADVANCE THE INTERPRETATION OF NEW HORIZONS MVIC/LORRI IMAGES AND THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE OF CHARON S RED NORTH POLAR TERRAIN AND THUS THE PROPOSAL IS RELEVANT TO THE NEW FRONTIERS DATA ANALYSIS PROGRAM S OBJECTIVE OF ENHANCING THE UTILIZATION OF DATA OBTAINED BY THE NEW FRONTIERS MISSIONS . ADDITIONALLY THE METHANE RAM FLUX ONTO CHARON AND THE IPM LY-? FLUX ARE BOTH CRITICAL CONSTRAINTS ON OUR EXOSPHERIC MODEL AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS. BOTH THE CH4 RAM AND LY-? FLUX HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED FROM ALICE (ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROGRAPH) OBSERVATIONS. ACCORDINGLY OUR PROPOSAL ENHANCES THE UTILIZATION OF UVS DATA. FINALLY THIS PROPOSAL PROVIDES AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SCIENTISTS EXTERNAL TO THE NEW HORIZONS TEAM (PI RAUT CO-I TEOLIS) TO CONDUCT AN INVESTIGATION IN COLLABORATION WITH NEW HORIZONS TEAM MEMBERS CO-I KAMMER AND COLLABORATORS HOWETT AND GLADSTONE THEREBY BROADENING SCIENTIFIC PARTICIPATION IN THE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF NEW HORIZONS DATA.

AWARD DE-FE0031619 TO SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE ENTITLED ''ADVANCED GAS TURBINE AND SCO2 COMBINED CYCLE POWER SYSTEM'' - ISSUE NEW AWARD.

DEVELOPMENT OF A THIN FILM PRIMARY SURFACE HEAT EXCHANGER FOR ADVANCED POWER CYCLES

QUANTIFYING FAR-ULTRAVIOLET MINERAL ABUNDANCE CONSTRAINTS: EXAMINING LRO-LAMP DATA WITH LABORATORY SAMPLE AND SIMULANT COMPARISONS

FLARE FORECASTING IS MADE DIFFICULT BY THE RELATIVE RARITY OF THE EVENTS THAT MATTER (M AND X-CLASS FLARES). THIS MEANS THAT A SINGLE INSTRUMENTAL ERA ONLY HAS DOZENS OF X-CLASS FLARES (~40) AND HUNDREDS OF M-CLASS FLARES (~700 FOR THE SDO ERA).

LOCOMOTIVE EMISSIONS MEASUREMENT FOR VARIOUS BLENDS OF BIODIESEL FUEL

23-SOGI23_2-0018 SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLE DROPOUTS INSIDE 1 AU

REDUCING UNCERTAINTY OF QUANTIFYING THE BURNING RATE OF UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE

THE WORK WILL BE CONDUCTED USING THE TEXES MID-IR SPECTROGRAPH AT THE NASA IRTF AND THE GEMINI TELESCOPE.

WE PROPOSE TO INCLUDE NEW PHYSICAL PROCESSES IN OUR EXISTING VOLATILE TRANSPORT MODEL, PROVIDING A SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED (AND PUBLICLY AVAILABLE) CA

EO14042 MODELING THE EXOSPHERES OF THE FIVE MAJOR URANIAN MOONS

PI: CRAIG DEFOREST/SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTESOLAR MAGNETIC FEATURE TRACKING WITH HINODE AND SDOSUMMARY: WE PROPOSE TO APPLY MAGNETIC FEATURE TRA

21-NFDAP21_2-0024 EXPLORING THE COMPOSITION OF JUPITER'S HAZE AND CLOUD FEATURES OBSERVED BY JUNOCAM

IDENTIFICATION AND DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF ASTEROID FAMILIES

TIMESCALES OF VOLATILE TRANSPORT AND SUBSURFACE PROPERTIES ON PLUTO FROM REGIONAL GEOLOGY AND COMPOSITION

WE SEEK TO DETERMINE THE NATURE OF THE SOLAR DYNAMO: IS THERE ONE SOLAR DYNAMO OR TWO? IS THE DYNAMO A SINGLE FUNDAMENTALLY COMPLEX MECHANISM? OR DO TWO SEPARATE MECHANISMS GIVE RISE TO THE OBSERVED SOLAR CYCLE AND THE SMALL SCALE SALT AND PEPPER FIELD? RECENT THEORETICAL ADVANCES HAVE CALLED INTO QUESTION THE LONG-HELD SEPARATION OF THE SOLAR DYNAMO INTO A GLOBAL-SCALE MECHANISM THAT GENERATES SUNSPOTS AND ASSOCIATED PHENOMENA OF THE SOLAR CYCLE AND A SMALL-SCALE MECHANISM THAT GENERATES MAGNETIC FIELD AT ALL PHASES OF THE SOLAR CYCLE. ACCORDING TO THIS NEW THINKING THE GLOBAL-SCALE AND SMALL-SCALE COMPONENTS OF THE DYNAMO ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED INTO A SINGLE FUNDAMENTALLY COMPLEX MECHANISM ENCOMPASSING BOTH LARGE AND SMALL SCALES. HOWEVER OBSERVATIONAL TESTS OF THIS HAVE NOT KEPT UP WITH THE THEORETICAL ADVANCES DUE IN PART TO THE LACK OF A LONG-TERM BASELINE OF FULL-DISK HIGH RESOLUTION OBSERVATIONS AND VALIDATED MULTI-SCALE DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS CAPABLE OF MEANINGFULLY EXPLOITING SUCH DATA. OUR INVESTIGATION IS ORGANIZED AROUND THREE SPECIFIC WELL-FORMED QUESTIONS: 1) DO MAGNETIC FEATURES NATURALLY DIVIDE INTO DISTINCT CLASSES THAT ARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO SEPARATE DYNAMOS? 2) WHAT IS THE SCALE AND NATURE OF THE TRANSITION BETWEEN SMALL- AND LARGE-SCALE FLUX EVOLUTION? 3) HOW DO THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN LARGE- AND SMALL-SCALE MAGNETISM CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF THE SOLAR CYCLE? WE WILL USE SDO/HMI LINE-OF-SIGHT MAGNETOGRAMS FROM THE 720 S DATA SERIES. THESE MAGNETOGRAMS PROVIDE FULL-DISK HIGH RESOLUTION CONTINUOUS OBSERVATIONS OF THE PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNETIC FIELD AND NOW HAVE A LONG ENOUGH BASELINE TO MEANINGFULLY PROBE THE SOLAR DYNAMO ACROSS A LARGE PORTION OF A SOLAR CYCLE. WE WILL ANALYZE THE MAGNETOGRAMS USING THE FEATURE TRACKING CODE SWAMIS (SOUTHWEST AUTOMATIC MAGNETIC IDENTIFICATION SUITE) AND CONDUCT STATISTICAL ANALYSES ON THE RESULTING CATALOG. IN PARTICULAR WE WILL 1) SEARCH FOR DISTINCT CLASSES OF FEATURES ACROSS SCALE IN EACH OF SEVERAL ALTERNATE INDICATORS OF MAGNETIC ACTIVITY; 2) USE THE STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF THOSE CLASSES OF FEATURES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THEIR FORMATION MECHANISMS; 3) ASSESS THE LENGTH- AND TIME-SCALES AND MECHANISMS OF BIRTH AND DEATH OF MAGNETIC FEATURES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW MAGNETIC FLUX CASCADES UP AND DOWN IN SPATIAL SCALES; AND 4) EXAMINE HOW THESE PROPERTIES CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF THE SOLAR CYCLE. THIS PROPOSAL IS RELEVANT TO THE SDO MISSION QUESTIONS WHAT MECHANISMS DRIVE THE QUASI-PERIODIC 11-YEAR CYCLE OF SOLAR ACTIVITY? AND HOW IS ACTIVE REGION MAGNETIC FLUX DISPERSED ACROSS THE SOLAR SURFACE? AND TO THE DECADAL SURVEY GOAL DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF THE SUN S ACTIVITY AND PREDICT THE VARIATIONS IN THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT. THE ANALYSIS OF THE DYNAMOS AND THE COUPLING OF MAGNETIC FIELDS ACROSS A WIDE RANGE OF SPATIAL SCALES IS IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE SUN S MAGNETIC FIELD ON SHORT AND LONG TIME SCALES.

SEVERAL PROPERTIES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM INCLUDING THE WIDE RADIAL SPACING AND ORBITAL ECCENTRICITIES OF THE GIANT PLANETS CAN BE EXPLAINED IF THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM EVOLVED THROUGH A DYNAMICAL INSTABILITY FOLLOWED BY MIGRATION OF PLANETS IN THE PLANETESIMAL DISK. RECENTLY WE DEVELOPED THE LATEST GENERATION OF INSTABILITY/MIGRATION MODELS WHOSE INITIAL CONDITIONS ARE TIGHTLY LINKED TO OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR PLANET FORMATION IN THE PROTOPLANETARY NEBULA. THESE MODELS WERE SUBSEQUENTLY USED TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICAL ORIGIN OF THE KUIPER BELT JUPITER TROJANS AND IRREGULAR SATELLITES. HERE WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE THESE STUDIES WITH AN EYE TO DETERMINING HOW THE INSTABILITY/MIGRATION MODELS CAN BE CONSTRAINED FROM THE PRESENT SOLAR SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE. SPECIFICALLY WE PROPOSE TO STUDY THE FOLLOWING TWO THEMES: THEME 1: THE DYNAMICAL STRUCTURE OF THE KUIPER BELT IS A BLUEPRINT OF NEPTUNE'S ORBITAL HISTORY. MUCH OF THIS STRUCTURE CAN BE EXPLAINED IF NEPTUNE MIGRATED SMOOTHLY OR NOT OVER SEVERAL AU AND/OR IF NEPTUNE WAS SCATTERED TO AN ECCENTRIC ORBIT DURING PLANETARY INSTABILITY. THESE PROCESSES AND THEIR TIMESCALES ARE KEY TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE KUIPER BELT. HERE WE PROPOSE TO STUDY THE DYNAMICS OF THE KUIPER BELT WITH THE AIM OF CONSTRAINING NEPTUNE'S MIGRATION AND THE DYNAMICAL STATE OF THE ORIGINAL PLANETESIMAL DISK. PARTICULAR ATTENTION WILL BE GIVEN TO THE ORIGIN OF THE SCATTERED DISK. WE WILL ALSO TEST THE 5TH GIANT PLANET HYPOTHESIS. THEME 2: IT HAS BEEN RECENTLY PROPOSED THAT THE ORBITAL ALIGNMENT OF DISTANT TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS (TNOS) CAN BE INTERPRETED AS A GRAVITATIONAL SIGNATURE OF AN UNSEEN DISTANT PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM (HEREAFTER PLANET NINE). THE STUDIES TENTATIVELY SUGGESTED PLANET'S MASS ~10 EARTH MASSES A LARGE ORBIT (SEMIMAJOR AXIS A~700 AU) AND SIGNIFICANT ECCENTRICITY (E~0.6). ADDITIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON PLANET NINE WERE OBTAINED FROM THE CASSINI RADIO RANGING DATA. THE OBSERVATIONAL DETECTION OF PLANET NINE IS CHALLENGING BECAUSE THE EXISTING RESULTS DO NOT CONFINE PLANET NINE'S EXPECTED POSITION ON THE SKY SUFFICIENTLY WELL. HERE WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER THE PROPERTIES OF PLANET NINE CAN BE BETTER CONSTRAINED FROM ITS GRAVITATIONAL INFLUENCE ON DISTANT TNOS. WE WILL ALSO INCLUDE PLANET NINE IN A FORMATION MODEL TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE HYPOTHESIZED PLANET WOULD ACT DURING KUIPER BELT FORMATION AND WHETHER IT COULD HELP TO EXPLAIN THE HIGHLY INCLINED ORBITS OF SOME TNOS. RELEVANCE THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS FUNDAMENTAL TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS IS A CENTRAL THEME OF NASA'S STRATEGIC GOALS AND THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM. SPECIFICALLY THE NRA FOR THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM STATES THAT THE PROGRAM ``AIMS TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED'' AND THAT THE PROGRAM OBJECTIVES INCLUDE ``FORMATION ACCRETION AND STABILITY OF SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES'' AND ``EARLY DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM''. THE TYPES OF STUDIES THAT ARE SUPPORTED INCLUDE ``THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS''. HERE WE PROPOSE THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE FORMATION AND EARLY DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF THE KUIPER BELT AND THE PLANET NINE HYPOTHESIS. BOTH THESE THEMES ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE NASA STRATEGIC GOALS AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND TO THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM IN PARTICULAR. OUR GOAL IS TO CONSTRAIN PLANETARY FORMATION PROCESSES AND THE EVENTS THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM OVER ITS HISTORY.

THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS FUNDAMENTAL TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS IS A CENTRAL THEME OF NASA'S STRATEGIC GOALS AND THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM. SPECIFICALLY THE NRA FOR THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM STATES THAT THE PROGRAM ``AIMS TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED'' AND THAT THE PROGRAM OBJECTIVES INCLUDE ``FORMATION ACCRETION AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES'' AND ``EARLY DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM''. HERE WE PROPOSE THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE FORMATION AND EARLY DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS INCLUDES THE PLANETESIMAL ACCRETION PROCESSES EARLY DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF PLANETESIMALS AND PLANETARY MIGRATION/INSTABILITY. THESE THEMES ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE NASA STRATEGIC GOALS AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND TO THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM IN PARTICULAR.

IMPROVEMENT OF CRYOGENIC FLUID STORAGE AND TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY FOR IN-SPACE PROPULSION AND STORAGE SYSTEMS IS REQUIRED FOR THE LONGTERM DEVELOPMENT OF CISLUNAR SPACE. CURRENT TECHNOLOGY RELIES ON THE CAPILLARY FORCE WITHIN SCREENED CHANNELS OF A LIQUID ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD) TO DELIVER VAPOR-FREE CRYOGENIC LIQUID DURING ENGINE RESTART AND CRITICAL TRANSFER PROCESSES. HOWEVER DUE TO THE LOW TEMPERATURES ASSOCIATED WITH CRYOGENIC FLUIDS EXTERNAL HEATING ACTING ON THE TANK WHERE THIS FLUID IS STORED WILL CAUSE VAPOR BUBBLES TO FORM WITHIN THE LAD THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO REMOVE IN EXISTING DESIGNS. A MORE EFFICIENT DESIGN IS NEEDED TO RELIABLY REMOVE VAPOR BUBBLES WITHOUT COSTLY THRUSTING MANEUVERS OR ACTIVE SEPARATION SYSTEMS. A SMALL MODIFICATION TO A COMMONLY USED LAD IS PROPOSED: A TAPERED CHANNEL. THIS DESIGN PASSIVELY REMOVES OR PUMPS-OUT CRYOGENIC VAPOR BUBBLES THAT ARE INTERNALLY GENERATED USING SURFACE TENSION FORCES SUBSTANTIALLY IMPROVING TRANSFER OR DELIVERY OF CRYOGENIC FLUIDS. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO UTILIZE THE EXPERIENCE GAINED IN GROUND TESTS AND A PREVIOUS SUBORBITAL MICROGRAVITY TEST OF SMALL-SCALE TAPERED LADS TO FURTHER DEVELOP THE TECHNOLOGY AT LARGER SCALE IN A RELEVANT MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT. THE TEST APPARATUS WILL INCLUDE LARGE-SCALE TAPERED SCREEN CHANNELS FILLED WITH LIQUID AND A GAS BUBBLE. A CAMERA WILL RECORD GAS BUBBLE MIGRATION UNDER VARIOUS ACCELERATIONS INCLUDING LONG-DURATION MICROGRAVITY. THESE DATA WILL BE USED TO FURTHER VALIDATE THE CONCEPT AND IMPROVE MODELS FOR DESIGNING TAPERED LADS.

SIMULTANEOUS WIND VELOCITIES AND TRACE GAS RETRIEVALS FOR VENUS MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE FROM GROUNDBASED OBSERVATIONS

DEVELOPMENT OF CFAST BASED FIRE SIMULATION TOOLKIT FOR FIRE INVESTIGATORS

INTRODUCTION: THERE ARE STRONG REASONS TO EXPECT ATMOSPHERES AROUND LARGE TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS (TNOS) EVEN THROUGH NONE HAVE YET BEEN DETECTED.

IDENTIFYING CLOUD PROPERTIES AND ALTITUDE: SPECTRAL IMAGE CUBES TO ACCOMPANY AKATSUKI IMAGE DATA THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO PROVIDE SPECTRAL

THE OBJECTIVE OF OUR PROPOSAL IS TO UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICS OF THE EARTH S MAGNETOPAUSE IN THE PRESENCE OF FLOW SHEARS AND THE EFFECTS OF THESE DYNAMICS ON SOLAR WIND-MAGNETOSPHERE COUPLING AND THE GLOBAL FIELD-ALIGNED CURRENT SYSTEM. ALTHOUGH UBIQUITOUS IN THE GEOSPACE ENVIRONMENT THE VELOCITY SHEARS THAT TRIGGER THE ONSET OF THE KELVIN-HELMHOLTZ INSTABILITY (KHI) AND GENERATE FLOW VORTICITY ARE PARTICULARLY PROMINENT ON THE MAGNETOPAUSE AND ALONG THE INNER EDGE OF THE LOW-LATITUDE BOUNDARY LAYER. SIMULATIONS AND RECENT MULTI-SPACECRAFT OBSERVATIONS SUGGEST THAT THE KHI AND MAGNETIC RECONNECTION CAN OPERATE SIMULTANEOUSLY ON MAGNETOPAUSE AND ALSO THAT FLOW VORTICES CAN GENERATE FIELD-ALIGNED CURRENTS IN THE REGION-1 CURRENT SYSTEM SENSE. THESE STUDIES INDICATE THAT THE ROLES AND EFFECTS OF FLOW SHEARS AROUND THE MAGNETOPAUSE RANGE FROM THE MICROSCOPIC INTERACTIONS WITH RECONNECTION AND CONSEQUENT MODIFICATION OF RECONNECTION PROCESSES TO THE MACROSCOPIC ASPECTS SUCH AS MASS MOMENTUM ENERGY TRANSFER ACROSS THE MAGNETOPAUSE AND THE VORTEX-GENERATED FIELD-ALIGNED CURRENTS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE GLOBAL CURRENT SYSTEM. YET OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE ACTUAL INFLUENCE AND IMPORTANCE OF FLOW VELOCITY SHEAR IN SUCH MICRO-TO-MACROPHYSICAL PROCESSES REMAINS PRIMITIVE. VIA OUR PROJECT WE AIM TO ANSWER INFLUENCES OF FLOW SHEAR AND KINETIC-SCALE VORTICES ON RECONNECTION PROCESSES AND HOW KHI AND RECONNECTION INTERACT ON THE MICROAND MESO-SCALES (Q1) ION/ELECTRON VORTEX DYNAMICS IN TERMS OF THE ORIENTATION/MAGNITUDE OF FLOW VORTICIES (Q2) AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE REGION-1 CURRENT SYSTEM (Q3). THESE TOPICS ARE WELL INTEGRATED TO MAXIMIZE THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN FROM MMS ABILITY TO CALCULATE THE ION AND ELECTRON FLOW VORTICITIES USING ITS TETRAHEDRON FORMATION WITH VARYING INTER-SPACECRAFT SEPARATION DOWN TO THE ELECTRON SCALE. OUR AIM IN ANSWERING Q1-3 IS TO BRING THE MICRO-TO-MACROSCOPIC PIECES OF FLOW SHEAR PROCESSES TOGETHER TO CONSTRUCT A COMPREHENSIVE PICTURE OF THE ROLES AND IMPACTS OF FLOW VORTICES ON THE SOLAR WIND-MAGNETOSPHERE-IONOSPHERE COUPLING. WE WILL ADDRESS THESE QUESTIONS USING A COMBINATION OF METHODOLOGIES THAT INCORPORATE THE AMPLE MMS (FPI FGM EDP EPD HPCA ETC.) OBSERVATIONS OF RECONNECTION WITH/WITHOUT FLOW SHEAR KH VORTICES AND CONJUGATE GROUND MAGNETOGRAMS AND NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS. TO DETERMINE SOLAR WIND AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS AND PLACE THE MMS OBSERVATIONS IN CONTEXT WE USE SIMULTANEOUS OBSERVATIONS FROM WIND ACE ARTEMIS CLUSTER AND GEOTAIL. WE WILL MAKE FULL USE OF HIGH PERFORMANCE SIMULATION TOOLS 3-D PIC SIMULATIONS. OUR PLAN IS VIA COMPARATIVE STUDIES TO INTEGRATE OUR PHYSICAL UNDERSTANDING GAINED FROM THE SIMULATIONS WITH IN-SITU MMS OBSERVATIONS. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTS OF ION AND ELECTRON FLOW VORTICES GENERATED ALONG THE MAGNETOPAUSE WILL IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE DYNAMICS AND COUPLING OF EARTH S MAGNETOSPHERE IONOSPHERE AND ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR RESPONSE TO SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL INPUTS (DSG #2). IN PARTICULAR OUR STUDY WILL ADDRESS TWO OF THE MOST CRUCIAL PHYSICAL PROCESSES I.E. KHI AND MAGNETIC RECONNECTION THAT ARE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE (DSG #4). ALL THESE ASPECTS MANIFEST THE RELEVANCE OF OUR PROJECT TO THE FOUR GOALS IN THE HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY. THIS PROJECT IS ALSO KEY TO MMS MISSION. THE PROPOSED INVESTIGATION IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE GOALS OF MMS MISSION: INVESTIGATION OF THE VELOCITY SHEAR EFFECTS ON THE SMALL-SCALE THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE THIN CURRENT LAYERS AND FAST-MOVING ELECTRON DIFFUSION REGION.

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO GENERATE A GENERALIZED CONTROL SCHEME THAT CAN BE USED TO ADVISE THE OPERATION OF SCO2 COMPRESSORS EMPLOYING VARIABLE INLET GUIDE VANES (IGVS). IT IS EXPECTED THAT INCORPORATION OF IGVS TO SCO2 COMPRESSORS OPERATING NEAR THE SUPERCRITICAL DOME CAN IMPROVE OFF-DESIGN EFFICIENCY BY UP TO 20%.

21-SSW21-0043 CONSTRAINING THE STRUCTURE EVOLUTION AND DYNAMICS OF TITANAS ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY LAYER

"ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF ICY SATELLITES AND PLANETS"THIS PROPOSAL INVOLVES DYNAMICAL MODELS OF THE ORIGIN AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF ICY SATELLITES AND

THE SCIENTIFIC GOALS OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH ARE TO DEVELOP THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MODEL THUS FAR FOR PLANETESIMALS BOMBARDMENT DURING THE HADEAN EO

BASED ON RECENT MODELING DISSOLVED NITROGEN APPEARS TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE THE EVAPORATION RATE OF LIQUID METHANE ON THE SURFACE OF TITAN. WE HAVE DEVELOPED A NEW METHOD FOR CALCULATING THE EVAPORATION RATE OF LIQUID METHANE SATURATED WITH NITROGEN UNDER TITAN S 1.5 BAR ATMOSPHERE. THE NEWLY DERIVED EVAPORATION RATES WERE COMPARED TO EVAPORATION RATES CALCULATED FOR PURE METHANE AS A FUNCTION OF BOTH TEMPERATURE AND RELATIVE HUMIDITY. WE FIND THAT THE PURE METHANE ASSUMPTION SIGNIFICANTLY OVERESTIMATES THE METHANE EVAPORATION RATE FROM SURFACE POOLS ON TITAN. FOR EXAMPLE AT 94 K AND 60% HUMIDITY THE PURE METHANE ASSUMPTION OVERESTIMATES THE METHANE EVAPORATION RATE BY MORE THAN 40%. THIS PREVIOUS OVERESTIMATION OF EVAPORATION RATES LIKELY HAS A PROFOUND IMPACT ON PREVIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF CASSINI VIMS OBSERVATIONS OF TITAN S SURFACE AND OF CLOUDS IN TITAN S ATMOSPHERE. FOR EXAMPLE RECENT OBSERVATIONS OF NORTHERN SUMMER CLOUDS IN TITAN S TROPOSPHERE HAVE BEEN SPARSER AND LESS FREQUENT THAN PREDICTED BY GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS (GCMS). AN OVERESTIMATION OF METHANE EVAPORATION FROM TITAN S LAKES AND SEAS COULD EXPLAIN THIS DISCREPANCY BETWEEN OBSERVATIONS AND EXISTING PREDICTIONS. THE SEASONAL EVOLUTION OF THE METHANE AND ETHANE SEAS DEPEND ON NOT JUST THE EVAPORATION OF METHANE SATURATED WITH NITROGEN BUT ALSO ON THE EVAPORATIVE PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH NITROGEN-METHANE-ETHANE MIXTURES. WE PROPOSE TO MODEL THE EVAPORATIVE PROCESSES OF BINARY MIXTURES OF NITROGEN-METHANE AND TERNARY MIXTURES OF NITROGEN-METHANEETHANE AND TO THEN INCORPORATE THESE RESULTS INTO A GENERAL CIRCULATION MODEL (GCM) OF TITAN. WE WILL COMPARE THE GCM PREDICTIONS OF CLOUD FORMATION DERIVED USING THE NEW EVAPORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS TO CASSINI VIMS OBSERVATIONS OF CLOUDS (E.G. BROWN ET AL. 2009 AP.J 706; RODRIGUEZ ET AL. 2011 ICARUS 216; TURTLE ET AL. 2011 GRL 38). OUR PROPOSAL IS RELEVANT TO THE CDAP PROGRAM. IN PARTICULAR CDAP SOLICITS RESEARCH PROPOSALS TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS UTILIZING OR ENHANCING THE UTILIZATION OF DATA OBTAINED BY THE CASSINI MISSION. TASKS RESPONSIVE TO THIS CALL INCLUDE . . . 3) NONDATAANALYSIS TASKS THAT SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCE THE USE OR FACILITATE THE INTERPRETATION OF MISSION DATA. OUR INVESTIGATION WILL ENHANCE THE USE OF CASSINI DATA AND FACILITATE THE INTERPRETATION OF CASSINI DATA. SPECIFICALLY OUR INVESTIGATION WILL PROVIDE NEW INSIGHT INTO CASSINI VIMS OBSERVATIONS OF TROPOSPHERIC CLOUDS. WE WILL IMPROVE THE INTERPRETATION OF THIS DATA THROUGH THE USE OF NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART MODELING OF THE EVAPORATIVE PHYSICS OF BINARY AND TERNARY MIXTURES IN THE LAKES/SEAS AND ON THE SURFACE OF TITAN. BECAUSE OUR PROPOSED WORK INCLUDES THE REINTERPRETATION OF CASSINI VIMS OBSERVATIONS AND IS SO CLOSELY TIED TO AND CONSTRAINED BY CASSINI OBSERVATIONS IT IS NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF OTHER NASA PROGRAMS INCLUDING SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS OR EMERGING WORLDS.

EVALUATING THE TUNGSTEN CONSTRAINT ON LUNAR ORIGIN

THIS PROJECT HAS TWO MAIN COMPONENTS: IT WILL CONTINUE INFRARED OBSERVATIONS OF VENUS DURING UPCOMING INFERIOR CONJUNCTIONS TO COMPLEMENT AKATSUKI'S CURRENT INSTRUMENT SUITE AND IT WILL ANALYZE PAST AND UPCOMING OBSERVATIONS TO DETERMINE CLOUD VELOCITIES CLOUD PROPERTIES (PARTICLE SIZES AND ACIDITIES) AND TRACE GAS ABUNDANCES. THE GOALS OF THIS PROJECT ARE TO HELP AKATSUKI DATA SETS ADDRESS A HOST OF KEY QUESTIONS (LISTED BELOW) BY SUPPLEMENTING THEM WITH GROUND-BASED SPECTRAL IMAGE CUBES THAT IMPART CLOUD PROPERTIES O2 (1 D) AIRGLOW MAPS AND TRACE GAS DISTRIBUTIONS PLUS NIGHTSIDE CLOUD MOTIONS. WE WILL APPLY FOR OBSERVING TIME TO CARRY OUT THE OBSERVATIONAL COMPONENT OF THIS PROJECT. WE HAVE ALREADY APPLIED FOR TIME AT THE IRTF AND NOT (NORDIC OPTICAL TELESCOPE) FOR THE JUNE/JULY 2020 INFERIOR CONJUNCTION. IMAGING FROM THE IRTF BY ITSELF CAN RESOLVE CLOUD MOTIONS AT THE 3-5 M/S LEVEL BETTER THAN RESOLUTIONS REPORTED IN VENUS EXPRESS CLOUD TRACKING INVESTIGATIONS. LONGITUDINALLY SEPARATED SITES (LIKE THE IRTF AND NOT) CAN PROVIDE 10-H BASELINES BETWEEN CLOUD IMAGING SEQUENCES AND REDUCE CLOUD MOTION UNCERTAINTIES TO THE 1 M/S LEVEL. WE WILL ALSO APPLY FOR TIME AT THE IRTF AND OTHER TELESCOPES DURING THE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 INFERIOR CONJUNCTION. THE IRTF WITH SPEX IS WELL-SUITED TO OBSERVING VENUS AT INFERIOR CONJUNCTION: WE REGULARLY OBTAIN 4-H SPANS OF NIGHTSIDE CLOUD IMAGE SEQUENCES WITH SPATIAL RESOLUTIONS OF 0.5" FROM SELECTED SHARP IMAGES. DURING IMAGING SEQUENCES WE DRIFT THE SPEX SPECTROMETER SLIT ACROSS VENUS'S DISK TO GET CONCURRENT SPECTRA FROM 0.8 TO 2.45 M COVERING CO2 WINDOWS AT 1.74 AND 2.2-2.45 M THAT ARE DIAGNOSTIC OF CO OCS H2O CLOUD PARTICLE SIZES AND CLOUD ACIDITIES. WE WILL ANALYZE THESE SPECTRA WITH SMART A RADIATIVE TRANSFER CODE THAT HAS BEEN USED WITH APO/TRIPLESPEC OBSERVATIONS OF VENUS. TO HELP US AND OTHERS BETTER EXTRACT CLOUD MOTIONS FROM IMAGING SEQUENCES WE ARE PUBLISHING VENIM (VENUS IMAGING PACKAGE) A PYTHON PACKAGE BASED ON ALGORITHMS WE DEVELOPED IN THE SUMMER OF 2018 WITH CALTECH SURF STUDENTS. THIS PROPOSAL IS COMPLIANT WITH THE C.25 ROSES CALL IN THAT IT PROVIDES GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS THAT COMPLEMENT AND ADD CAPABILITIES TO THE AKATSUKI DATA SETS. A SPECIFIC GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN AKATSUKI INVESTIGATORS AND OURSELVES.

"UNDERSTANDING PLUTO'S ATMOSPHERE WITH MULTIPLE OCCULTATIONS"THIS PROPOSAL IS A REQUEST FOR CONTINUE

PLUTO HAS 5 SATELLITES: MASSIVE CHARON PLUS 4 SMALL EXTERIOR MOONS STYX NIX KERBEROS AND HYDRA. THE SMALL MOON MASSES AND DENSITIES WERE EXTREMELY UNCERTAIN PRIOR TO NEW HORIZONS AND REMAIN POORLY CONSTRAINED EVEN AFTER THE ANALYSIS OF DATA BY THE NEW HORIZONS TEAM DETAILED IN WEAVER ET AL. (2016). THAT WORK REPORTED APPROXIMATE SIZES FOR THE MOONS BUT NOT THEIR MASSES OR DENSITIES DUE TO MASS UNCERTAINTIES AS HIGH AS 100%. BETTER DETERMINATION OF THE OUTER MOON PROPERTIES IS CRUCIAL TO INTERPRETING THE HISTORY OF THESE OBJECTS AND THE ENTIRE PLUTO SYSTEM. CHARON LIKELY FORMED BY A GIANT IMPACT WITH PLUTO. THE SMALL MOON ORBITS ARE NEARLY CO-PLANAR AND CIRCULAR SUGGESTING THEY FORMED FROM A DISK PRODUCED BY THE SAME IMPACT THAT FORMED CHARON. HOWEVER SUCCESSFUL DESCRIPTIONS OF THIS PROCESS HAVE PROVED ELUSIVE AND PRIOR MODELS HAVE BEEN UNDERMINED BY UNCERTAINTY IN THE SMALL MOON MASSES AND THE DISK PROPERTIES. ACCURATE MASS ESTIMATES ARE NEEDED TO DETERMINE HOW THE RADIAL SURFACE DENSITY PROFILE OF A DISK PRODUCED BY AN IMPACT RELATES TO THE INITIAL POSITIONS OF THE OUTER MOONS AND THEREFORE TO THE DEGREE OF RADIAL MIGRATION REQUIRED FOR THE MOONS TO REACH THEIR CURRENT LOCATIONS. WE WILL DETERMINE THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF PLUTO S SMALL MOONS THROUGH RE-ANALYSIS OF NEW HORIZONS DATA COMBINED WITH HST OBSERVATIONS (TASK 1) AND BASED ON THESE RESULTS WE WILL DEVELOP MUCH MORE ACCURATE MODELS OF A PLUTO-SYSTEM FORMING IMPACT (TASK 2). THE TWO TASKS ARE INTERCONNECTED: TASK 1 WILL PROVIDE THE SMALL MOON MASSES WHICH ARE CRITICAL INPUTS TO TASK 2 AND SUCCESSFUL TASK 2 RESULTS WILL CONSTRAIN THE ICE-ROCK CONTENT OF THE EXTENDED DISK WHICH WILL BE INCORPORATED INTO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE SMALL MOON DENSITIES IN TASK 1 THAT MAY BE INSUFFICIENTLY CONSTRAINED BY SHAPE MODELS ALONE FOR SOME OF THE MOONS. OUR COMBINED STUDY WILL PROVIDE NEEDED INITIAL CONDITIONS FOR MODELS OF THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF PLUTO S SMALL MOONS. MORE BROADLY IT WILL PROVIDE MUCH HIGHER FIDELITY AND BETTER CONSTRAINED MODELS OF THE PLUTO-SYSTEM FORMING IMPACT CENTRAL TO UNDERSTANDING PLUTO AND CHARON S THERMAL AND DYNAMICAL EVOLUTIONS. IN TASK 1 WE WILL ANALYZE NEW HORIZONS (NH) APPROACH DATA FROM THE LONG RANGE RECONNAISSANCE IMAGER (LORRI) FRAMING CAMERA (CONTAINED IN THE FIRST PDS DATA RELEASE) IN COMBINATION WITH ARCHIVAL HST OBSERVATIONS OF THE SMALL MOONS TIED TO THE GAIA CATALOG TO PROVIDE GREATLY IMPROVED ASTROMETRY RELATIVE TO THAT REPORTED PREVIOUSLY. THIS IN COMBINATION WITH MARKOV CHAIN MONTE CARLO DYNAMICAL SIMULATIONS WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE MASS ESTIMATES FOR THE SMALL MOONS. THE MASS ESTIMATES WILL BE COMBINED WITH SATELLITE SHAPE MODELS DEVELOPED FROM PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE NH IMAGES TO YIELD INITIAL DENSITY ESTIMATES. IN TASK 2 WE WILL PERFORM SMOOTHED PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS (SPH) SIMULATIONS OF GIANT IMPACTS WITH PLUTO WITH UP TO A FACTOR OF 100 TIMES FINER MASS RESOLUTION THAN NEARLY ALL PRIOR MODELS. THESE WILL ALLOW US TO DETERMINE 1) THE OUTER EDGE OF THE DISK AT THE MASS LEVEL OF OUTERMOST HYDRA AND 2) THE DISK ICE VS. ROCK COMPOSITION. WE WILL DETERMINE (1) AND (2) AS A FUNCTION OF IMPACT PARAMETERS AND THE BULK PROPERTIES OF PROTO-PLUTO AND THE IMPACTOR PRIOR TO THE IMPACT. WE WILL IDENTIFY THE SUBSET OF IMPACTS WHOSE OUTCOMES ARE CONSISTENT WITH CHARON S MASS AND DENSITY AND THE SMALL MOON MASSES DETERMINED IN TASK 1 FAVORING THOSE CASES THAT PRODUCE THE MOST EXTENDED DISKS THAT MINIMIZE THE NEEDED SMALL MOON ORBITAL MIGRATION. THE ICE-ROCK CONTENT OF THE EXTENDED DISKS PRODUCED IN THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CASES WILL BE INCORPORATED INTO TASK S 1 INTERPRETATION OF THE SMALL MOON DENSITIES.

IN THE CURRENT MARTIAN CLIMATE, THERE IS CONSIDERABLE INTEREST IN HOW TRANSIENT OR PARTIAL MELTING OF SHALLOW GROUND ICE AND FLOW OF LIQUID WATER M

21-NFDAP21_2-0030 FORMATION OF VARIED TYPES OF AEROSOLS ON PLUTO

THIS CONTRACT WILL FUND CONTINUE ANALYSIS OF EXISTING CIRS DATA, AND PLANNING FOR FUTURE OBSERVATIONS, FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS, PRIMARILY BY JOHN SP

THE STRUCTURE DYNAMICS AND N2 VOLATILE CYCLE OF PLUTO IS POORLY UNDERSTOOD. A COMBINATION OF OBSERVATIONS (OCCULTATION LIGHT CURVES AND SPECTRAL SURFACE IMAGING) AND GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELING WILL BE USED TO ACHIEVE THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES AND RELATED QUESTIONS:1. QUANTIFY THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATIONS NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN QUASI-VAPOR PRESSURE EQUILIBRIUM. HOW ARE MASS AND ENERGY TRANSPORTED TO AND FROM SUBLIMATION AND DEPOSITION REGIONS? WHAT IS THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF GLOBAL THERMAL CIRCULATIONS AND CONDENSATION FLOWS TO THE TOTAL CIRCULATION? WHAT IS THE DEPTH AND STRUCTURE OF THE LOWER ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION?2. QUANTIFY THE ENERGY PARTITION WITHIN THE ATMOSPHERE-SURFACE SYSTEM. WHAT FRACTION OF THE INSOLATION GOES INTO SUBLIMATION SURFACE STORAGE ATMOSPHERIC HEATING AND KINETIC ENERGY? HOW DOES THE HETEROGENEITY OF SURFACE PROPERTIES MODULATE THE ENERGY PARTITION AND THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION?3. TEST HYPOTHESES OF VOLATILE TRANSPORT AND ADDRESS OBSERVATIONAL INCONSISTENCIES. HOW CLOSE TO VAPOR PRESSURE EQUILIBRIUM IS THE ATMOSPHERE-SURFACE SYSTEM? IS ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT EFFECTIVELY INSTANTANEOUS WITH RESPECT TO EQUILIBRIUM VAPOR PRESSURE TIMESCALES? WHAT GLOBAL SURFACE PRESSURE DISTRIBUTIONS AND TRENDS ARE MOST CONSISTENT WITH OCCULTATION LIGHT CURVES? HOW LONGITUDINALLY SYMMETRIC IS THE GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION AND STRUCTURE?4. PROVIDE QUANTITATIVE GUIDANCE AND PREDICTIONS TO INFORM THE NEW HORIZON ENCOUNTER WITH PLUTO AND OTHER KBOS. HOW DO EXISTING ENCOUNTER PLANS MESH WITH PREDICTIONS? WHAT ANTICIPATED SPACECRAFT OBSERVATIONS CAN BE USED TO TEST THE MODEL. HOW CAN A MODEL HELP TO INTERPRET ANTICIPATED OBSERVATIONS?WITH THE PLUTO-BOUND NEW HORIZONS SPACECRAFT ON IT'S WAY AND WITH THE EXTRAORDINARY OCCULTATION DATA OF PLUTO FROM OVER THE LAST TWODECADES (AND MORE FORTHCOMING) THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MODELING TOOL CAPABLE OF SYNTHESIZING THE DATA IS RELEVANT TO NASA'S EXPLORATIONAND SCIENCE GOALS.

MICROHABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS IN ICE

SCIENCE OBJECTIVE: WE PROPOSE A FUNDAMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE SUITABILITY FOR RADIOISOTOPIC DATING OF COMMON EVAPORITE MINERALS FOUND ON MARS.

SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO ACHIEVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE DUST AGGREGATION STAGE OF PLANET FORMATION IN PROTOPLANETARY NEBULAE. A CRUCIAL STEP IN THE EARLIEST STAGES OF PLANET FORMATION IS THE GROWTH OF SOLID BODIES IN THE MILLIMETER TO METER SIZE RANGE BY THE AGGREGATION OF MILLIMETER- TO SUB-MILLIMETER-SCALE DUST GRAINS. THE PROCESS BY WHICH DUST AGGREGATED INTO PLANETESIMALS IS NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD; EXPERIMENTS WITHOUT THE EFFECTS OF GRAVITY ARE NEEDED TO INVESTIGATE IT. THE PRIMARY SCIENCE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED WORK ARE AS FOLLOWS: TO DETERMINING THE EFFECTS OF: (1) PARTICLE SIZE; (2) NUMBER DENSITY; AND (3) COMPOSITION ON THE AGGREGATION (ACCRETION) OF DUST-SCALE GRAINS IN MICROGRAVITY CONDITIONS. METHODOLOGY THE INVESTIGATION WOULD BUILD ON OUR PREVIOUS RECORD OF SUCCESSFUL MICROGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS WITH GRANULAR MATERIALS (LOVE ET AL. 2014) TO EXTEND THESE RESULTS TO ADDITIONAL MATERIALS AND PARTICLE CONTAINERS USING MORE ADVANCED METHODS AND ANALYSES. THE PROPOSED WORK FOCUSES THE BULK OF ITS EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON GRANULAR MEDIA RELEVANT TO PROTOPLANETARY ENVIRONMENTS SUCH AS VARIOUS SILICATE MINERALS AND POWDERED ORDINARY AND CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITE MATERIALS. THE RESULTS OF THE PROPOSED WORK WOULD GREATLY CONSTRAIN PARTICLE AGGREGATION AND CLUSTER GROWTH IN THE EARLY PROTOPLANETARY DISK. RELEVANCE TO CALL THE SCOPE OF PROGRAM FOR EMERGING WORLDS INCLUDES "INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM". THIS PROPOSAL IS FOCUSED ON RESEARCH DIRECTED AT "PROTOPLANETARY DISK FORMATION AND EVOLUTION PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF DUST AND THE FORMATION AND ACCRETION OF SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES" BY CONDUCTING MICROGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS ON THE AGGREGATION OF MILLIMETER- TO SUB-MILLIMETER-SCALE GRAINS UNDER CONDITIONS RELEVANT TO THOSE IN THE EARLY PROTOPLANETARY NEBULA. THE PROPOSAL ALSO EXPLICITLY INVOLVES THE SUBSEQUENT ANALYSES AND PUBLICATION OF THESE EXPERIMENTAL DATA.

WE WILL MAP AND MEASURE SECONDARY CRATERS IN FIELDS AROUND PRIMARY CRATERS ON MARS USING MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER CONTEXT CAMERA (MRO CTX) IMAGES AS A BASEMAP.