Armed with Science | Tag Archive | naval research laboratory

NRL’s MIGHTI Is A Go For Launch

Filed under Space, Technology by jtozer on May 20, 2013 at 7:37 am {no comments}

Space is about to get a little more…MIGHTI.

Conceptual design of NRL’s Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI), that is part of NASA’s ICON mission.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

A Naval Research Laboratory instrument designed to study the Earth’s thermosphere is part of a satellite mission that NASA has selected to move forward into development (Phase B), with launch expected in 2017.

The NRL Space Science Division (SSD) developed Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) satellite instrument is part of NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission.

The ICON mission, led by Dr. Thomas Immel at the University of California, Berkeley, will fly a suite of instruments designed to determine the conditions in space modified by weather on the planet, and to understand the way space weather events grow to envelop regions of our planet with dense ionospheric plasma.

Ionospheres act as a boundary between planetary atmospheres and space.

They contain weakly ionized plasmas that are strongly coupled to their neutral atmospheres, but also influenced by the conditions in the space environment. They experience a constant tug-of-war between these external and internal influences, and exhibit a remarkable set of non-linear behaviors, explains NRL’s Dr. Christoph Englert.

The unpredictable variability of the Earth’s ionosphere interferes with communications and geo-positioning signals and is a national concern. ICON makes a complete set of measurements of the state of the ionosphere and all of the critical drivers that affect it to understand this variability.

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First GPS NAVSTAR Satellite Goes on Display

Filed under Education & Culture, Scientific Military History, Technology by jtozer on May 6, 2013 at 7:13 am {no comments}

As of April 2013, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum began to examine the cultural and technological history of precise timekeeping and navigation at sea, in the air, and in space, and the impact of satellite navigation on our everyday lives. The exhibit, TIME and NAVIGATION, will explore ‘how revolutions in timekeeping over three centuries have influenced how we find our way.’

Originally designated TIMATION-IV, Navigation Technology Satellite-2 (NTS-2) was NRL’s final navigation satellite. The NRL navigation satellite successfully prepared the way for the GPS constellation with NTS-2 being the first satellite of the initial demonstration constellation of GPS satellites known as NAVSTAR.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

On display, NTS-2 is the first satellite completely designed and built by NRL under GPS Joint Program funding—a working model was launched June 23, 1977, aboard an Atlas E/F rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The first of a four-satellite constellation, NTS-2 was configured to demonstrate instantaneous navigation positioning.

The effect of relativity on the onboard cesium atomic clocks were measured and corrected so that a GPS receiver on Earth could observe that the rate of GPS time was the same as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The clock frequency stability specification of two parts per 10¹³was met.

NTS-2 was the first demonstration satellite in the NAVSTAR GPS constellation managed by the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

Exploiting space-based systems of geodesy, navigation, and timing, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) research physicist, Roger Easton, laid the foundation for modern day global positioning systems — GPS.

Proving that a system using a passive ranging technique, combined with highly accurate [atomic] clocks, Easton developed the basis for a new and revolutionary navigation system with three-dimensional coverage (longitude, latitude, and altitude) around the globe.

Sponsored in 1964 by the Naval Air Systems Command, Easton tested his concepts of time-navigation, dubbed TIMATION, executing the development and launch of the TIMATION satellite in 1967.

With the deployment of three additional experimental satellites, TIMATION II in 1969; the first satellite to fly two rubidium standards, Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS-I) in 1974; and the first satellite to fly two cesium atomic frequency standards in a 12-hour GPS orbit, NTS-2, in 1977, Easton had unequivocally proven the practicality and unprecedented accuracy of satellite-based atomic clocks.

Using time measurements from NTS-2, Einstein’s theory of relativity was demonstrated, resulting in the need for a relativistic offset correction that remains in use by every satellite in the GPS constellation.

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When Minutes Matter Most

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on May 3, 2013 at 7:36 am {no comments}

The Naval Research Laboratory supported both the 2009 and 2013 Presidential Inaugurations with a technology called CT-Analyst, developed by researchers in the Laboratory for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics.

In the event of a chemical, biological, or radiological incident, CT-Analyst is designed to provide first-responders with a tool that can provides accurate, instantaneous, three-dimensional predictions of chemical, biological, & radiological agent transport in urban settings.

Video provided by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory YouTube Channel

CT-Analyst can provide answers to first responders in approximately 0.05 seconds versus computational fluid dynamics models, which can take one to two hours to run per scenario. CT-Analyst also provides more detailed information, quicker, and with better results than industry accepted “Puff/Plume” models that take several minutes to run.

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Navy Unveils Its First Laser Gun

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on April 25, 2013 at 11:05 am {no comments}

We all know the old saying about the unfortunate soul who brought a knife to the gunfight. In the not-too-distant future, we should be able to say we bested our adversaries because we had lasers, and they showed up with only a gun.

In fiscal year 2014, the Navy will put a solid-state laser gun aboard USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. The tests we run with this weapon will help us develop a prototype system that can be tailored to many surface combatant classes.

Watch a demonstration of the high-energy laser aboard a moving surface combatant ship

It’s impossible to overstate the significance of this milestone and our continued research into directed energy. I’ve been working with weapon systems for 30 years, and this capability is poised to change the face of modern warfare.

As Navy leaders have said, we never want to see a sailor or Marine in a fair fight. We always want them to have the advantage.

This new kind of weapon will give our warfighters options like no other system before. I like to use the “five Ds” when describing its myriad of capabilities: deter, disable, damage, defeat and destroy. The solid-state laser can vary the power and accomplish each of these, independently or sequentially. (more…)

New Monolayer Materials for Chemical Vapor Sensors

Filed under Featured by jtozer on April 22, 2013 at 7:41 am {no comments}

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have developed a vapor sensor based on new monolayer materials that show great potential for future nanoscale electronic devices.

This is a schematic of a vapor sensor fabricated from a single monolayer of MoS2. The conductivity of the MoS2 channel changes as specific types of vapor molecules briefly interact with the surface. Molecules of triethylamine are shown a chemical assoicated with V-series nerve gas agents.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

NRL scientists have fabricated this sensor using a single monolayer of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) on a silicon dioxide wafer.

They show that it functions effectively as a chemical vapor sensor, exhibiting highly selective reactivity to a range of analytes, and providing sensitive transduction of transient surface physisorption events to the conductance of the monolayer channel.

This means that the sensor works on multiple levels. Essentially, the sensor acts as an effective and precise detector of many types of substances.

The high surface-to-volume ratio of such new multi-dimensional materials is a significant asset for vapor sensor applications—these materials must exhibit a rapid and selective response to a range of analytes (determined by the character of surface atomic sites), sensitive transduction of the perturbation to the electrical resistance of the channel, and rapid recovery upon removal of the vapor.

The sensor is highly reactive, and able to swiftly note changes in what it is detecting.

Much work has previously been done in developing carbon nanotubes as sensors. The carbon nanotubes are very responsive, but not as selective as they need to be unless they are chemically functionalized, which adds complexity and expense to the manufacturing process.

Researchers have also looked at graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb lattice, as a vapor sensor.

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Shooting Down Drones With Lasers

Filed under Videos by jtozer on April 18, 2013 at 7:13 am {no comments}

When you need to shoot down a drone, what better way to do it than with a laser?

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Video provided by the USNavy YouTube Channel

LaWS can be directed onto targets from the radar track obtained from a MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon system or other targeting source. The Office of Naval Research’s Solid State Laser (SSL) portfolio includes LaWS development and upgrades providing a quick reaction capability for the fleet with an affordable SSL weapon prototype.

This capability provides Navy ships a method for sailors to easily defeat small boat threats and aerial targets without using bullets.

U.S. Navy video by Office of Naval Research/ Released

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Top Tech: Mighty, Mighty Cable

Filed under Top Technology by jtozer on April 17, 2013 at 7:16 am {no comments}

Top Technology is an Armed with Science series that highlights the latest and greatest federal laboratory inventions which are available for transfer to business partners. Want to suggest an invention? Email us at science@dma.mil

Technology: High Temperature, High Strength, High Voltage Communications Cable

Agency: Naval Research Laboratory

Hey cables! Mighty, mighty cables. Can you take the heat? Because if not, NRL has made a cable that can. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed a cable for high voltage electrical and/or optical transmission capable of operating at temperatures up to 1000 °C, hundreds of degrees higher than existing cables.

What is it?

This is a turbo-cable. Industrial strength. This is no phone charger cord or hair dryer coil. We’re talking the real deal, folks. For people who work with a lot of technical equipment – like people who run power stations, for example – having a cable that can do the job and withstand the heat that comes with it is more than beneficial. The fact that it can do both fiber optic and high voltage is interesting. The NRL cable also has superior tensile strength at high temperatures compared to existing cables.

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NRL Scientists “See” Flux Rope Formation for the First Time

Filed under Space, Videos by jtozer on April 12, 2013 at 7:20 am {no comments}

Naval Research Laboratory scientists have observed, for the very first time, the formation of solar flux ropes, which are a type of solar magnetic field.

Models of flux ropes have been drawn by theorists in the past, but scientists had never before observed them at the time they formed.

The NRL team made their discovery using high-resolution images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and from the NRL-developed Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) telescopes aboard NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO).

These flux ropes have been seen with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, before, but scientists had argued for years about whether the flux ropes formed before the CME or were formed on-the-fly as the eruption occurred.

The answer will determine whether the dominant mechanism for CMEs is plasma instability or changes in the magnetic field connectivity via magnetic reconnection, respectively.

The observations made by visiting scientist Dr. Spiro Patsourakos, and NRL researchers Drs. Angelos Vourlidas and Guillermo Stenborg clearly reveal that the flux rope forms before the CME occurs.

In observations from July 18, 2012, the NRL team observed a small burst of light off the West limb of the sun. These flares of light are usually the evidence of an eruption of solar material, in a CME. But the July 18th burst of light was not a CME.

As the scientists continued their observations, they saw magnetic field lines that twisted and kinked to form slinky shapes.

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