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Full-Text Articles in Physics
A Rotating Aperture Mask For Small Telescopes, Edward L. Foley
A Rotating Aperture Mask For Small Telescopes, Edward L. Foley
Master's Theses
Observing the dynamic interaction between stars and their close stellar neighbors is key to establishing the stars’ orbits, masses, and other properties. Our ability to visually discriminate nearby stars is limited by the power of our telescopes, posing a challenge to astronomers at small observatories that contribute to binary star surveys. Masks placed at the telescope aperture promise to augment the resolving power of telescopes of all sizes, but many of these masks must be manually and repetitively reoriented about the optical axis to achieve their full benefits. This paper introduces a design concept for a mask rotation mechanism that …
Development Of A Cubesat Instrument For Microgravity Particle Damper Performance Analysis, John Trevor Abel
Development Of A Cubesat Instrument For Microgravity Particle Damper Performance Analysis, John Trevor Abel
Master's Theses
Spacecraft pointing accuracy and structural longevity requirements often necessitate auxiliary vibration dissipation mechanisms. However, temperature sensitivity and material degradation limit the effectiveness of traditional damping techniques in space. Robust particle damping technology offers a potential solution, driving the need for microgravity characterization. A 1U cubesat satellite presents a low cost, low risk platform for the acquisition of data needed for this evaluation, but severely restricts available mass, volume, power and bandwidth resources. This paper details the development of an instrument subject to these constraints that is capable of capturing high resolution frequency response measurements of highly nonlinear particle damper dynamics.