2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

NASA’s
DC-8
The NASA DC-8 completed its second year
of operations flying from its new home at the
Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility (DAOF)
located in Palmdale, California. The University
of North Dakota, National Suborbital Education
and Research Center (NSERC) under cooperative
agreement with NASA, continues to promote
and support science operations using the DC-8
Airborne Science Laboratory.
The NASA DC-8 aircraft flew 47 flight hours
during FY09 in its support of the following major
missions: TM (Telemetry) Relay, SARP (Student
Airborne Research Program), and Operation ICE
Bridge instrument integration missions. Operation
Ice Bridge flights continued into FY10. The
aircraft remained reliable throughout the year
accomplishing all planned missions.
Technology improvements to the DC-8 aircraft
also continued throughout FY09. Aircraft facilities
and hardware upgrades on the DC-8 included:
• Installation of new high reliability data
system servers and UPS systems.
• Upgraded Iridium communications system
that was increased from 4 channels to 8
channels increasing the bandwidth to19.2
KB/second.
• New high speed dual channel Broadband
Global Area Network (BGAN) Inmarsat
communications systems providing 864
KB/second possible bandwidth.
• Yoke-mounted tablet computers linked to
the aircraft data network that enable flight
situational awareness and communications
for the pilots.
• New distribution system for pulse-persecond
(PPS) timing data and National
Maritime Electronics Association (NMEA)
GPS data.
New facility instruments are:
- Three stage EdgeTech Hygrometers for
relative humidity measurements
- Heitronics Infrared Radiation Pyrometers
for IR surface temperature measurements
- Rosemount temperature probes for Total
and Static Air temperature
- High resolution cabin pressure transducers
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