ALBERT

Description: We used Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) filtergraph (FG) Stokes-V magnetogram observations, to study the early onset of a solar eruption that includes an erupting filament that we observe in TRACE EUV images. The filament undergoes a slow rise for at least 20min prior to its fast eruption and strong soft X-ray (SXR) flaring; such slow rises have been previously reported, and the new Hinode data elucidate the physical processes occurring during this period. XRT images show that during the slow-rise phase, an SXR sigmoid forms from apparent reconnection low in the sheared core field traced by the filament, and there is a low-level intensity peak in both EUV and SXRs during the slow rise. MDI and SOT FG Stokes-V magnetograms show that the pre-emption filament is along a neutral line between opposing-polarity enhanced network cells, and the SOT magnetograms show that these opposing fields are flowing together and canceling for at least six hours prior to eruption. From the MDI data we measured the canceling network fields to be approx. 40 G, and we estimated that approx. 10(exp 19)Mx of flux canceled during the five hours prior to eruption; this is only approx.5% of the total flux spanned by the eruption and flare, but apparently its tether-cutting cancellation was enough to destabilize the sigmoid field holding the filament and resulted in that field's eruption.

Description: Images and the radial profiles of the temperature, abundance, and brightness for 70 clusters of galaxies observed by XMM-Newton are presented along with a detailed discussion of the data reduction and analysis methods, including background modeling, which were used in the processing. Proper consideration of the various background components is vital to extend the reliable determination of cluster parameters to the largest possible cluster radii. The various components of the background including the quiescent particle background, cosmic diffuse emission, soft proton contamination, and solar wind charge exchange emission are discussed along with suggested means of their identification, filtering, and/or their modeling and subtraction. Every component is spectrally variable, sometimes significantly so, and all components except the cosmic background are temporally variable as well. The distributions of the events over the FOV vary between the components, and some distributions vary with energy. The scientific results from observations of low surface brightness objects and the diffuse background itself can be strongly affected by these background components and therefore great care should be taken in their consideration.

Description: The Hinode satellite (formerly Solar-B) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS/JAXA) was successfully launched in September 2006. As the successor to the Yohkoh mission, it aims to understand how magnetic energy is transferred from the photosphere to the upper atmospheres and resulting in explosive energy releases. Hinode is an observatory style mission, with all the instruments being designed and built to work together to address the science aims. There are three instruments onboard: the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), and the X-ray Telescope (XRT). This paper overviews the mission, including the satellite, the scientific payload and operations. It will conclude with discussions on how the international science community can participate in the analysis of the mission data.

Description: The Parametric Inlet is an innovative concept for the inlet of a gas-turbine propulsion system for supersonic aircraft. The concept approaches the performance of past inlet concepts, but with less mechanical complexity, lower weight, and greater aerodynamic stability and safety. Potential applications include supersonic cruise aircraft and missiles. The Parametric Inlet uses tailored surfaces to turn the incoming supersonic flow inward toward an axis of symmetry. The terminal shock spans the opening of the subsonic diffuser leading to the engine. The external cowl area is smaller, which reduces cowl drag. The use of only external supersonic compression avoids inlet unstart--an unsafe shock instability present in previous inlet designs that use internal supersonic compression. This eliminates the need for complex mechanical systems to control unstart, which reduces weight. The conceptual design was conceived by TechLand Research, Inc. (North Olmsted, OH), which received funding through NASA s Small-Business Innovation Research program. The Boeing Company (Seattle, WA) also participated in the conceptual design. The NASA Glenn Research Center became involved starting with the preliminary design of a model for testing in Glenn s 10- by 10-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel (10 10 SWT). The inlet was sized for a speed of Mach 2.35 while matching requirements of an existing cold pipe used in previous inlet tests. The parametric aspects of the model included interchangeable components for different cowl lip, throat slot, and sidewall leading-edge shapes and different vortex generator configurations. Glenn researchers used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools for three-dimensional, turbulent flow analysis to further refine the aerodynamic design.

Description: We use Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) filtergraph (FG) Stokes-V magnetogram observations, to study the early onset of a solar eruption that includes an erupting filament that we observe in TRACE EUV images. The filament undergoes a slow rise for at least 20 min prior to its fast eruption and strong soft X-ray flaring; such slow rises have been previously reported, and the new Hinode data elucidate the physical processes occurring during this period. XRT images show that during the slow-rise phase, a soft X-ray (SXR) sigmoid forms from apparent reconnection low in the sheared core field traced by the filament, and there is a low-level intensity peak in both EUV and SXRs during the slow rise. MDI and SOT FG/V magnetograms show that the pre-eruption filament is along a neutral line between opposing-polarity enhanced network cells, and the SOT magnetograms show that these opposing fields are flowing together and canceling for at least six hours prior to eruption. From the MDI data we measure the canceling network fields to be approx. 40 G, and we estimate that approx. 10(exp 19) Mx of flux canceled during the five hours prior to eruption; this is only approx. 5% of the total flux spanned by the eruption and flare, but apparently its tether-cutting cancellation was enough to destabilize the sigmoid field holding the filament and resulted in that field's eruption.

Description: The International X-ray Observatory requires mirror assemblies with unprecedented characteristics that cannot be provided by existing optical technologies. In the past several years, the project has supported a vigorous mirror technology development program. This program includes the fabrication of lightweight mirror segments by slumping commercially available thin glass sheets, the support and mounting of these thin mirror segments for accurate metrology, the mounting and attachment of these mirror segments for the purpose of X-ray tests, and development of methods for aligning and integrating these mirror segments into mirror assemblies. This paper describes our efforts and developments in these areas.

Description: The presentations will be given during the X-Prize symposium, exploring the multi-faceted dimensions of spaceflight ranging from the technical developments necessary to achieve safe routine flight to and from and through space to the new personal business opportunities and economic benefits that will open in space and here on Earth. The symposium will delve into the technical, regulatory, market and financial needs and challenges that must be met in charting and executing the incremental developments leading to Personal Spaceflight and the opening of a Place Called Space. The presentation covers facets of human space flight including descriptions of life in space, the challenges of delivering medical care in space, and the preparations needed for safe and productive human travel to the moon and Mars.

Description: The Solar-B mission is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) of the United Kingdom and the European Space Agency. The principal scientific goals of the mission are to understand the processes of magnetic field generation, transport and ultimate dissipation of solar magnetic fields and how the release of magnetic energy is responsible for the heating and structuring of the chromosphere and corona. The scientific payload consists of three instruments: the Solar Optical Telescope that consists of the Optical Telescope Assembly and the Focal Plane Package (FPP), the X-ray Telescope and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer Each instrument is a result of the combined talents of all the members of the international team and their design and performance is described in separate papers in this session. The instruments are designed to work together as an 'observatory' simultaneously studying the target, at which the spacecraft is pointed, at different levels in the atmosphere. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in September 2006 from the Uchinoura Space Center into a 600 km circular, sun-synchronous, polar orbit with a nominal elevation of 97.9 degrees. The orbit provides at least two morning and two evening contacts in Japan. Morning contacts are used for recovering quick look science data and the evening contacts for uploading commands. In addition ESA will provide 15 contacts per day from the Norwegian high latitude (78deg 14' N) ground station at Svalbard. The data downloads are transmitted to the ISAS Sirius database. They will be reformatted into FITS files and archived as Level 0 data on the ISAS DARTS system and made available to the scientific community. Scientific operations will be conducted from the IS AS facility located in Sagamihara, Japan. They are separated into planning, implementation and archiving. The planning process involves monthly, weekly and daily planning meetings. All scientific data will be made available after the first six month approximately one week after its collection.

Description: Testing of the HSCT Generation 2.0 nozzle model hardware was conducted at the Boeing Low Speed Aeroacoustic Facility, LSAF. Concurrent measurements of noise and thrust were made at critical takeoff design conditions for a variety of mixer/ejector model hardware. Design variables such as suppressor area ratio, mixer area ratio, liner type and thickness, ejector length, lobe penetration, and mixer chute shape were tested. Parallel testing was conducted at G.E.'s Cell 41 acoustic free jet facility to augment the LSAF test. The results from the Gen 2.0 testing are being used to help shape the current nozzle baseline configuration and guide the efforts in the upcoming Generation 2.5 and 3.0 nozzle tests. The Gen 2.0 results have been included in the total airplane system studies conducted at MDC and Boeing to provide updated noise and thrust performance estimates.

Description: The Magnetic Transition Region Probe is a space telescope designed to measure the magnetic field at several heights and temperatures in the solar atmosphere, providing observations spanning the chromospheric region where the field is expected to become force free. The primary goal is to provide an early warning system (hours to days) for solar energetic particle events that pose a serious hazard to astronauts in deep space and to understand the source regions of these particles. The required magnetic field data consist of simultaneous circular and linear polarization measurements in several spectral lines over the wavelength range from 150 to 855 nm. Because the observations are photon limited an optical telescope with a large (〉18sq m) collecting area is required. To keep the heat dissipation problem manageable we have chosen to implement MTRAP with six separate Gregorian telescopes, each with approx. 3 sq m collecting area, that are brought to a common focus. The large field of view (5 x 5 arcmin(sup 2)) and angular resolution (0.025 arcsec pixels) require large detector arrays and, because of the requirements on signal to noise (10(exp 3)), pixels with large full well depths to reduce the readout time and improve the temporal resolution. The optical and engineering considerations that have gone into the development of a concept that meets MTRAP's requirements are described.