Mar 20 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that a five-year project at Lewis Research Center (LeRC) resulted in development of the real-time multiprocessor simulator, a low-cost easily programmable computing system that simulated or monitored complex physical processes in real time. The simulator could offer considerable savings, for example, in the development and testing processes for producers of airplane engines.
Real-time simulations were particularly important in studying the internal aerodynamics of a jet engine, including such variables as the performance of turbine and convergent-divergent nozzles, bypass valves, injectors, and fan and compressor geometry and the coordination of these variables with fuel flows and flight controls. In a real-time simulation of a helicopter engine, the NASA system solved all 63 engine equations within 1/100th of a sec.
The system had hundreds of real-time applications where there was a critical need to simulate or monitor many processes at once or when the reaction of one process could be vital to the performance of another, such as monitoring the structural dynamics of a space station at several locations, with a processor dedicated to each location.
The essence of the NASA system was a network of computers tied together and operated simultaneously but with different programs, each one a portion of the overall task. The system could detect a change in one aspect of a dynamic process and report the effect of that change on other parts of the process. Using state-of-the-art, high-performance microcomputers, NASA scientists had designed hardware configurations that enabled a person at a single terminal to control up to 10 microcomputers operating simultaneously, each handling a portion of a total program. NASA scientists had also developed a companion form of computer language, taken from the PASCAL format, that enabled an engineer who was not a computer specialist to program his or her own multiprocessor for experimentation and monitoring. (NASA Release 85-39)
In response to numerous comments regarding the appropriateness of Sen. Jake Garn's (R-Utah) flight on the Space Shuttle, Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) wrote in a letter to the Washington Times that Garn had as good a background in aviation as any member of Congress and his was a long, deep, and sincere interest. "Of all the members of this body that I know, he is the least motivated by any desire for publicity.
"Why is it wrong for a member of Congress, the body that is responsible for authorizing and funding the whole space program, to engage in flight if for no other reason than to get a better idea of how the whole operation works?" Sen. Goldwater concluded that he would defend the desirability of Sen. Gam's flight, as he would be able "to give the rest of us in Congress who vote the money a better idea of how the whole operation is going." (W Times, Mar 20/85, 7A)
NASA had completed a series of tests to validate parachute systems to be used with advanced lightweight, solid-fuel rocket boosters that would replace the boosters then in use on the Space Shuttle, Ames Research Center (ARC) announced. The new boosters would be first used during a Space Shuttle launch from Vandenberg AFB no earlier than January 29, 1986.
For the tests, researchers used a vehicle a third the size of a solid-fuel booster with one main parachute and, to simulate a splashdown, drop tested it from the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility's (DFRC) B-52 over the China Lake Naval Weapons Center at Ridgecrest. Most drops were made at an altitude of about 40,000 feet with an airspeed of about 230 knots. ARC and DFRC conducted the drop tests in cooperation with Marshall Space Flight Center, which was responsible for the parachute system. (ARC Release 85-1)
Ames Research Center (ARC) announced that Dr. David Black would become chief scientist for the office of space station at NASA Headquarters, leaving a position he held as research scientist in the theoretical studies branch at ARC since 1972.
In his new job, Black would ensure that the space station would accommodate the needs of the scientists who would use it, advising Phillip Culbertson, associate administrator for space station, about steps to make the space station an accessible research facility for scientists from many disciplines. Black's appointment coincided with selection of contractors who would spend 21 months working out details of space station design [see Mar. 14].
Since other countries intended to cooperate with NASA in the space station project, Black would work with the agencies representing the interests of European and Japanese scientists to coordinate their plans with those of NASA.
Black had been studying scientists' needs for the space station since April 1984, when he had joined the task force on scientific uses of the space station. That committee brought together 30 scientists from various universities and represented the disciplines that were interested in using the space station. Also, Black was serving on a National Academy of Sciences study group called "space sciences, 1995-2015," which was attempting to identify the future directions for research in the space sciences, thus identifying which technologies would be needed to support future research. (ARC Release 85-14)
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