Professor of Aerospace Science and Dean Emeritus
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
Princeton University
Engineering Quadrangle D-334
Phone: (609) 258-4550 Fax: (609) 258-1993
e-mail: rgjahn@princeton.edu or pearlab@princeton.edu
Professor Jahn is Dean Emeritus of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and has been chairman of the AIAA Electric Propulsion Technical Committee, associate editor of the AIAA Journal, and a member of the NASA Space Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He is vice President of the Society for Scientific Exploration and President of the International Consciousness Research Laboratories consortium. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Hercules, Inc. and chairman of its Technology Committee, and has been a member and past chairman of the Board of Trustees of Associated Universities, Inc. He has received the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award of the American Society of Engineering Education and holds an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Andrha University.
Research Projects
Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics
Investigators: R.G. Jahn and E.Y. Choueiri
Support: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U. S. Air Force
High-power electrical discharges are used to accelerate a variety of working fluids to very high velocities. These intense discharges and the plasma streams they produce are configured into magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters and ablative pulsed plasma thrusters which offer a desirable combination of high specific impulse and high thrust density for advanced space propulsion. The research emphasis is on the physical processes by which electrical input is converted to useful thrust, and on those which limit the operational lifetime of such thrusters. The research is performed at the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory, where a variety of specialized diagnostic devices and appropriate analytical and numerical tools are employed to assess these processes.
Engineering Anomalies Research
Investigators: R.G. Jahn and B.J. Dunne
Support: Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, Lifebridge Foundation, Richard Adams, George Ohrstrom, Laurance S. Rockefeller, and other private donors.
The interaction of human operators with low-level information processing devices and systems is studied by combining appropriate engineering facilities and techniques with a selection of protocols and insights drawn from modern cognitive science. In this work, premium is placed on extraordinarily precise yet robust instrumentation, tight environmental and quality control, multiply redundant on-line data collection and processing, rapid accumulation of large data bases, and sensitive analytical measures to facilitate extraction of small systematic trends from high levels of background noise, while rejecting spurious artifacts. Under these rigorous conditions, certain aspects of these human/machine interactions are found to yield anomalous effects currently inexplicable on the basis of established physical concepts and statistical theory.
Over its 22-year history, the program has produced immense databases generated under highly controlled laboratory conditions, indicating the existence of small but replicable and statistically significant correlations between operator intention and the output of a variety of contemporary engineering devices and systems. A number of relevant secondary technical, psychological, and environmental parameters have also been identified. Current experiments involve several microelectronic, mechanical, fluid dynamical, acoustical, and optical devices, and exploration of the effectiveness of various free-response data processing algorithms. Complementary analytical studies and theoretical models have been developed to facilitate the extraction of the most salient correlations from the empirical data, and to help explicate the basic phenomena in fundamental terms.
Publications
Plasma Propulsion
Physics of Electric Propulsion. McGraw-Hill Series in Missile and Space Technology, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, (1968).
(with E.Y. Choueiri)
"Electric Propulsion." In Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology. San Diego: Academic Press, in press, (2000).
(with E.Y. Choueiri and K.D. Diamant)
"The Role of Spot Mode Transition in the Anode Fall of Pulsed MPD Thrusters." Journal of Propulsion and Power, 14(6): 1036-1042, (1998).
(with E.A. Cubbin, J. Zeimer, and E.Y. Choueiri)
"Laser Interferometric Measurements of Impulsive Thrust." Review of Scientific Instruments, 68(6): 2339-2346, (1997).
(with E.Y. Choueiri)
"Optimization of Ablative Pulsed Plasma Thrusters for Stationkeeping Missions." Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 33(1): 96-100, (1996).
(with D.L. Tilley, E.Y. Choueiri and A.J. Kelly)
"An Investigation of Microinstabilities in a 10-kW Level Self-Field MPD Thruster." Journal of Propulsion and Power, 12(2): 381-389, (1996).
(with E.A. Cubbin, J.K. Ziemer, and E.Y. Choueiri)
"Laser Interferometry for Pulsed Plasma Thruster Performance Measurement." In the Proceedings of the 24th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Moscow, Russia (1995). IPEC-95-195.
(with E.Y. Choueiri, V.P. Chiravalle, and G.E. Miller)
"Six-Color Video Pyrometry with Application to MPD Thrusters." In the Proceedings of the 24th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Moscow, Russia (1995). IPEC-95-111.
(with K.D. Diamant and E.Y. Choueiri)
"The Role of Spot Mode Transition in the Anode Fall of Pulsed MPD Thrusters." In the Proceedings of the 24th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Moscow, Russia (1995). IPEC-95-234.
(with J.K. Ziemer and E.Y. Choueiri)
"Scaling Laws for Pulsed Electric Propulsion with Application to the Pluto Mission." In the Proceedings of the 24th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Moscow, Russia (1995). IPEC-95-147.
(with A.D. Gallimore and A.J. Kelly)
"Power Deposition in a Hall Parameter Suppression Anode." Journal of Propulsion and Power, 10(4): 554-561, (1994).
(with E.Y. Choueiri and A.J. Kelly)
"Mass Savings Domain in Plasma Propulsion for LEO to GEO Transfer." Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 30(6): 749-754, (1993).
(with A.D. Gallimore and A.J. Kelly)
"Anode Power Deposition in Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters." Journal of Propulsion, 9(3): 361-368, (1993).
(with A.J. Kelly and R.M. Myers)
"Energy Deposition in Low-Power Coaxial Plasma Thrusters." Journal of Propulsion, 7(5): 732-739, (1991).
Engineering Anomalies Research
(with B.J. Dunne)
Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World. New York-San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich , (1987).
(with B.J. Dunne,Y.H. Dobyns, R.D. Nelson, G.J. Bradish, A.L. Lettieri, J. Mischo, E. Boller, H. Boesch, D. Vaitl, J. Houtkooper, and B. Walter)
"Mind/Machine Interaction Consortium: PortREG Replication Experiments." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 14, in press, (2000).
(with B.J. Dunne,Y.H. Dobyns, R.D. Nelson, and G.J. Bradish)
"ArtREG: A Random Event Experiment Utilizing Picture Preference Feedback." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 14, in press, (2000).
(with B.J. Dunne, R.D. Nelson, Y.H. Dobyns, and G.J. Bradish)
"Correlations of Random Binary Sequences with Pre-Stated Operator Intention: A Review of a 12-Year Program." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11(3): 345-367, (1997).
(with B.J. Dunne)
"Science of the Subjective." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11(2): 201-224, (1997).
(with P. Devereux and M. Ibison)
"Acoustical Resonances of Assorted Ancient Structures." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 99(2): 649-658, (1996).
(with R.D. Nelson, G.J. Bradish, Y.H. Dobyns, and B.J. Dunne)
"FieldREG Anomalies in Group Situations." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10(1): 111-141, (1996).
"Information, Consciousness, and Health." Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 2(3): 32-38, (1996).
(with B.J. Dunne, Y.H. Dobyns, R.D. Nelson, and A.M. Thompson)
"Series Position Effects in Random Event Generator Experiments." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 8(2): 197-215, (1994).
(with B.J. Dunne)
"Experiments in Remote Human/Machine Interaction." Journal of Scientific Exploration, 6(4): 311-332, (1992).
(with B.J. Dunne)
"On the Quantum Mechanics of Consciousness, with Application to Anomalous Phenomena." Foundations of Physics, 16(8): 721-772, (1986).