ALBERT

Description: To investigate the effects of hydrothermal alteration on the chemistry of volcanic rocks, we analyzed the whole rock chemical composition (major and trace elements, including rare-earth elements – REE) of two distinct portions of a drill well core sample from the Los Azufres geothermal field, Mexico. This highly hydrothermally-altered sample allowed us to study, for the first time, the mineralogical and chemical effects imposed by hydrothermal alteration on the mm scale in this important geothermal system. Mineralogically, hydrothermal alteration in the sample is mainly represented by chloritization of primary olivine and pyroxene, argillitization of primary plagioclase, as well as banded chlorite and quartz, with significant amounts of epidote and hematite. The “altered” part of the sample contains intensely altered remnants of the fresh rock, which show intense silicification, hematization, and dissolution boundaries. Most major and trace elements were mobilized from the original rock. Major element composition reflects the silicification, chloritization, and epidotization processes taking place in the geothermal system. The rare-earth elements La and Ce, as well as Yb and Lu were probably partially re-deposited during alteration. The positive anomaly of Eu may suggest that Eu is being concentrated in hydrothermal epidote after its release from plagioclase to the geothermal fluid. The high-field strength elements such as Zr, Ti, and P, show as well significant hydrothermal alteration-related decrease in the highly-altered rock. The geothermal fluid responsible for this hydrothermal alteration was probably oxidizing, of high temperature (〉250º C), and enriched in REE and other trace elements.

Description: To begin to address the need for new displays, required by a future airspace concept to support new roles that will be assigned to flight crews, a study of potentially informative display cues was undertaken. Two cues were tested on a simple plan display - aircraft trajectory and flight corridor. Of particular interest was the speed and accuracy with which participants could detect an aircraft deviating outside its flight corridor. Presence of the trajectory cue significantly reduced participant reaction time to a deviation while the flight corridor cue did not. Although non-significant, the flight corridor cue seemed to have a relationship with the accuracy of participants judgments rather than their speed. As this is the second of a series of studies, these issues will be addressed further in future studies.

Description: It has been 30 years since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) last developed a crewed spacecraft capable of launch, on-orbit operations, and landing. During that time, aerospace avionics technologies have greatly advanced in capability, and these technologies have enabled integrated avionics architectures for aerospace applications. The inception of NASA s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) spacecraft offers the opportunity to leverage the latest integrated avionics technologies into crewed space vehicle architecture. The outstanding question is to what extent to implement these advances in avionics while still meeting the unique crewed spaceflight requirements for safety, reliability and maintainability. Historically, aircraft and spacecraft have very similar avionics requirements. Both aircraft and spacecraft must have high reliability. They also must have as much computing power as possible and provide low latency between user control and effecter response while minimizing weight, volume, and power. However, there are several key differences between aircraft and spacecraft avionics. Typically, the overall spacecraft operational time is much shorter than aircraft operation time, but the typical mission time (and hence, the time between preventive maintenance) is longer for a spacecraft than an aircraft. Also, the radiation environment is typically more severe for spacecraft than aircraft. A "loss of mission" scenario (i.e. - the mission is not a success, but there are no casualties) arguably has a greater impact on a multi-million dollar spaceflight mission than a typical commercial flight. Such differences need to be weighted when determining if an aircraft-like integrated modular avionics (IMA) system is suitable for a crewed spacecraft. This paper will explore the preliminary design process of the Orion vehicle avionics system by first identifying the Orion driving requirements and the difference between Orion requirements and those of other previous crewed spacecraft avionics systems. Common systems engineering methods will be used to evaluate the value propositions, or the factors that weight most heavily in design consideration, of Orion and other aerospace systems. Then, the current Orion avionics architecture will be presented and evaluated.