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PIGA Accelerometer
A PIGA (''Pendulous Integrating Gyroscopic Accelerometer'') is a type of accelerometer that can measure acceleration and simultaneously integrates this acceleration against time to produce a speed measure as well. The PIGA's main use is in Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for guidance of aircraft and most particularly for ballistic missile guidance. It is valued for its extremely high sensitivity and accuracy in conjunction with operation over a wide acceleration range. The PIGA is still considered the premier instrument for strategic grade missile guidance, though systems based on MEMS technology are attractive for lower performance requirements. Principle of operation The sensing element of a PIGA is a pendulous mass, free to pivot by being mounted on a bearing. A spinning gyroscope is attached such that it would restrain the pendulum against "falling" in the direction of acceleration. The pendulous mass and its attached gyroscope are themselves mounted on a pedestal that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accelerometer
An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change (mathematics), rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (that is, relative to an inertial frame of reference). Proper acceleration is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acceleration with respect to a given coordinate system, which may or may not be accelerating. For example, an accelerometer at rest on the surface of the Earth will measure an Gravitational acceleration, acceleration due to Earth's gravity straight upwards of about Standard gravity, ''g'' ≈ 9.81 m/s2. By contrast, an accelerometer that is in free fall will measure zero acceleration. Accelerometers have many uses in industry, consumer products, and science. Highly sensitive accelerometers are used in inertial navigation systems for aircraft and missiles. In unmanned aerial vehicles, accelerometers help to stabili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UGM-27 Polaris
The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missile project with the U.S. Army, and had influenced the design by making it squat so it would fit in submarines. However, they had concerns about the use of liquid fuel rockets on board ships, and some consideration was given to a solid fuel version, Jupiter S. In 1956, during an anti-submarine study known as Project Nobska, Edward Teller suggested that very small hydrogen bomb warheads were possible. A crash program to develop a missile suitable for carrying such warheads began as Polaris, launching its first shot less than four years later, in February 1960. As the Polaris missile was fired underwater from a moving platform, it was essentially invulnerable to counterattack. This led the Navy to suggest, starting around 1959, that they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fluorocarbons
Fluorocarbons are chemical compounds with carbon-fluorine bonds. Compounds that contain many C-F bonds often have distinctive properties, e.g., enhanced stability, volatility, and hydrophobicity. Several fluorocarbons and their derivatives are commercial polymers, refrigerants, drugs, and anesthetics. Nomenclature Perfluorocarbons or PFCs, are organofluorine compounds with the formula CxFy, meaning they contain only carbon and fluorine. The terminology is not strictly followed and many fluorine-containing organic compounds are also called fluorocarbons. Compounds with the prefix perfluoro- are hydrocarbons, including those with heteroatoms, wherein all C-H bonds have been replaced by C-F bonds. Fluorocarbons includes perfluoroalkanes, fluoroalkenes, fluoroalkynes, and perfluoroaromatic compounds. Perfluoroalkanes Chemical properties Perfluoroalkanes are very stable because of the strength of the carbon–fluorine bond, one of the strongest in organic chemistry. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Paperclip
The Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959; several were confirmed to be former members of the Nazi Party, including the SS or the Sturmabteilung, SA. The effort began in earnest in 1945, as the Allies advanced into Germany and discovered a wealth of scientific talent and advanced research that had contributed to Germany's wartime technological advancements. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff officially established Operation Overcast (operations "Overcast" and "Paperclip" were related, and the terms are often used interchangeably) on July 20, 1945, with the dual aims of leveraging German expertise for the ongoing war effort against Japan and to bolster US postwar military research. The operation, conducted by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere
The Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere (AIRS) is a highly accurate inertial navigation system designed for use in the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM, which was intended for precision nuclear strikes against Soviet missile silos. Details AIRS is a fluid-suspended gyrostabilized platform system, as opposed to one using a gimballed gyrostabilized platform. It consists of a beryllium sphere floating in fluid. Jet nozzles are used to stabilize the inertial platform as commanded from the sensors to increase accuracy. This design not only eliminates the problem of gimbal lock, but also makes it extremely accurate (drift less than 1.5×10−5 °/h), to the point that any further improvement would give a negligible benefit to the missile's CEP. The sensors used in AIRS are floated gas bearing gyroscopes and SFIR accelerometers, which are derivatives of PIGA accelerometers. Although this type of accelerometer An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draper Laboratory
Draper Laboratory is an American non-profit research and development organization, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts; its official name is The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. The laboratory specializes in the design, development, and deployment of advanced technology solutions to problems in national security, space exploration, health care and energy. The laboratory was founded in 1932 by Charles Stark Draper at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop aeronautical instrumentation, and came to be called the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. During this period the laboratory is best known for developing the Apollo Guidance Computer, the first silicon integrated circuit-based computer. It was renamed for its founder in 1970, and separated from MIT in 1973 to become an independent, non-profit organization. The expertise of the laboratory staff includes the areas of guidance, navigation, and control technologies and systems; fault-tolerant computing; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Stark Draper
Charles Stark "Doc" Draper (October 2, 1901 – July 25, 1987) was an American scientist and engineer, known as the "father of inertial navigation". He was the founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Instrumentation Laboratory, which was later spun out of MIT to become the non-profit Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. Beginning in the 1940s, Draper developed inertial guidance systems for aircraft. In World War II, Draper invented the first lead-computing gunsights for aircraft, and later applying similar technology to missile guidance systems. In 1954, Draper's application of inertial controls to computerized autopilot allowed the Instrumentation Lab to conduct the first coast-to-coast unmanned flight. The lab also made the Apollo Moon landings possible through the Apollo Guidance Computer it designed for NASA. In 1960, Draper was one of the scientists recognized as ''Time'' magazine's Men of the Year. Early life and education Draper was born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cam Switch
Cam switches are mainly used within the low voltage range. On a shaft, switching cams are made of abrasion-resistant conductive material. By rotating the shaft, the contacts are opened or closed by the cams. Often, a plurality of cams are seated on a shaft, which simultaneously switch or switch several pairs of contacts. History Friedrich Natalis (1864–1935), who had been working for the Schuckert-Werke (later Siemens-Schuckertwerke) since 1897, had already developed the cam-switching principle in Germany before 1900. In 1895, however, Johann Sigmund Schuckert founder of the electrical engineering company Schuckert & Co supplied cam switches with cam rollers and spring-loaded individual switches (DRP 88586). Thus the term cam switch has been used for such and similar devices over the years. Schuckert also supplied the "carbon control switch" designed by Natalis since 1901 with copper-carbon switching devices with spark-blowers (common spark blowers for direct current or si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
V-2 Rocket
The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "V-weapons, vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allies of World War II, Allied cities as retaliation for the Strategic bombing during World War II#The British later in the war, Allied bombings of German cities. The rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line (edge of space) with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944. Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun were noticed by the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A4, which went to war as the . Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Mueller
Dr. Fritz K. Mueller (1907 – 2001 Huntsville, Alabama, USA) was a German engineer. Mueller was hired by Kreiselgeräte Company in 1930. He developed the PIGA accelerometer. and worked on gyroscopes for Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. Later on, he worked on the guidance and control system for the A3 test rocket, the A5, and the A4 ( V2) ballistic missile. Under Project Paperclip, Mueller emigrated to the United States on 16 November 1945 with the Argentina group. There, he worked on developing guidance systems for the PGM-11 Redstone, PGM-19 Jupiter, MGM-31 Pershing, and the Saturn I missiles. In 1960 Mueller left NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ... for private industry. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Mueller, Fritz 1907 births 2001 deaths Early sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UGM-133 Trident II
The UGM-133A Trident II, or Trident D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), built by Lockheed Martin Space in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the United States Navy and Royal Navy. It was first deployed in March 1990, and remains in service. The Trident II Strategic Weapons System is an improved SLBM with greater accuracy, payload, and range than the earlier Trident C-4. It is a key element of the U.S. strategic nuclear triad and strengthens U.S. strategic deterrence. The Trident II is considered to be a durable sea-based system capable of engaging many targets. It has payload flexibility that can accommodate various treaty requirements, such as New START. The Trident II's increased payload allows nuclear deterrence to be accomplished with fewer submarines, and its high accuracy—approaching that of land-based missiles—enables it to be used as a first strike weapon. Trident II missiles are carried by 14 US and 4 British submarines, with 24 missi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Studies Of Science
''Social Studies of Science'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers relating to the history and philosophy of science. The journal's editors-in-chief are Nicole Nelson, Associate Professor in the Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Sergio Sismondo, Professor of Philosophy and Arts & Sciences at Queen's University. The journal was established in 1971 under the name ''Science Studies'' and assumed its present title in 1975. It is currently published by SAGE Publications. Founding In the 1971 inaugural issue, the founding editors, Roy MacLeod and David Edge, announced that the journal "will devote itself to original research, whether empirical or theoretical, which brings fresh light to bear on the concepts, processes and consequences of modern science. It will be interdisciplinary in the sense that it will encourage appropriate contributions from political science, sociology, economics, history, phi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
