Word: sensor
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...firing of the computer-controlled rocket that was programmed to decelerate the spacecraft from its orbital speed for the descent into the atmosphere. Accounts of what happened next differ, but indications are that as the ship passed through a twilight region of space between day and night, an infrared sensor, which fixes the spacecraft's position in relation to earth, was confused by rays of sunlight. The unexpected signal caused the computer to abort the normal firing...
...caused last week's problem. Said Joseph Lombardo, who oversees the shuttle's main-engine project at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama: "We don't know whether it was a faulty indication or really a malfunction in the valve." At week's end NASA officials suspected that a sensor had been affected by excessive engine cooling during the countdown. They planned to replace the valve and the sensor monitoring it. This week the agency was to schedule another test firing...
Harris said the computer "did not see that the engine bleed valve had fully closed." He said engineers were trying to determine if there was a faulty valve or if the sensor had given an incorrect reading...
Opponents of changing the treaty interpretation argue that even the broad reading would not permit the testing of smart rocks in space, because they do not represent new or exotic physical principles. With the exception of a long- wavelength infrared sensor, the SBKKVs involve no technical breakthroughs, says John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists, and the land-based interceptors are merely upgraded, nonnuclear versions of the ABM systems developed during the 1960s. Says Democratic Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana: "The Delta 180 test demonstrated obsolete technology that is ineffective and vastly expensive...
...last week's mission, the F-111s used 2,000-lb. bombs of the Paveway II ! class. The bomb's nose contains a laser-sensing device, a computer and small movable fins for stabilization and control. The sensor homes in on the reflection of the laser off the target; the computer moves the fins to make minute midcourse corrections. Each F-111 emits a laser at a different frequency, which only its bombs are programmed to detect...