Science Missions Using CubeSats

As the role of missions and experiments carried out in outer space becomes more and more essential in our understanding of many earthly problems, such as resource management, environmental problems, and disaster management, as well as space science questions, thanks to their lower cost and faster development process CubeSats can benefit humanity and therefore, young scientists and engineers have been motivated to research and develop new CubeSat missions. Not very long after their inception, CubeSats have evolved to become accepted platforms for scientific and commercial applications. The last couple of years showed that they are a feasible tool for conducting scientific experiments, not only in the Earth orbit but also in the interplanetary space. For many countries, a CubeSat mission could prompt the community and young teams around the world to build the national capacity to launch and operate national space missions. This paper presents an overview of the key scientific and engineering gateways opened up to the younger scientific community by the advent and adaptation of new technology into CubeSat missions. The role of cooperation and the opportunities for capacity-building and education are also explored. Thus, the present article also aims to provide useful recommendations to scientists, early-career researchers, engineers, students, and anyone who intends to explore the potential and opportunities offered by CubeSats and CubeSats-based missions.      

Magnetospheric physics in China: 2008—2010

In the past two years, most of the works on magnetospheric physics were made by using the data of Double Star Program and Cluster missions. However some works were still conducted by computer simulation or using the data from other space missions and ground geomagnetic observations. This paper briefly review these previous works based on papers selected from the 28 publications from April 2008 to April 2010. The subjects covered various sub-branches of magnetospheric physics, including geomagnetic storm, magnetospheric substorm and etc.      

Multi-Scale Physical Process in the Magnetosphere

The brief report presents a part of the research results of the magnetospheric physics researches in China during the period of 2006--2008.During the past two years,China-ESA cooperation DSP(Double Star Program)satellites were basically operating normally in its extended lifetime.The DSP and Cluster missions provide Chinese space physicists high quality data to study multi-scale physical process in the magnetosphere.The work made based on the data of DSP is presented in the paper of"Progress of Double Star Program"of this issue.      

Recent Progresses of Magnetospheric Physics in China: 2010-2011

In the past two years, many progresses are made in magnetospheric physics by using either the data of Double Star Program, Cluster and THEMIS missions, or by computer simulations. This paper briefly reviews these works based on papers selected from the 80 publications from April 2010 to April 2011. The subjects covered various sub-branches of magnetospheric physics, including geomagnetic storm, magnetospheric substorm, etc.      

Progress and Prospects of the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science

In May 2018, the second phase of the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science (SPP II) was officially approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in view of the significant scientific achievements of the first phase of the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science (SPP I) which includes 4 space science missions:the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), ShiJian-10 (SJ-10), Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) and Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT). Aiming to address fundamental scientific questions, SPP II focuses on two major themes:How the universe and life originate and evolve and What is the relationship between the solar system and human beings. In areas that Chinese scientists have advantages, new space science missions including Graviational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM), the Advanced space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), the Einstein Probe (EP), and Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) have been approved in the framework of SPP II. This paper presents the research highlights of the SPP I, introduces the recent progress of SPP II, and puts forward the prospects for future development.      

Dark Matter Particle Explorer:The First Chinese Cosmic Ray and Hard γ-ray Detector in Space

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) mission is one of the five scientific space science missions within the framework of the Strategic Pioneer Program on Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) approved in 2011. The main scientific objective of DAMPE is to detect electrons and photons in the range of 5GeV-10TeV with unprecedented energy resolution (1.5% at 100GeV) in order to identify possible Dark Matter (DM) signatures. It will also measure the flux of nuclei up to above 500TeV with excellent energy resolution (40% at 800GeV), which will bring new insights to the origin and propagation high energy cosmic rays. With its excellent photon detection capability, the DAMPE mission is well placed for new discoveries in high energy-ray astronomy as well.      

Progress of Double Star Program 2006-2008

This paper presents the status of two satellites of Double Star Program, and a part of scientific results based on the data of Double Star Program obtained during the period of 2006-2008.Other scientific results in the magnetospheric physics research can be found in "Multi scale physical process in the magnetosphere" of this issue.      

A Novel Magnetic Configuration for Space Radiation Active Shielding

Space radiation has been identified as the main health hazard to crews involved in manned Mars missions. Active shielding is more effective than passive shielding to the very energetic particles from cosmic rays. Particle motion in a magnetic field is studied based on the single-particle theory and Monte Carlo method. By comparing the shielding efficiency of different magnetic field configurations, a novel active magnetic shielding configuration with lower mass cost and power consumption is proposed for manned Mars missions. The new magnetic configuration can shield 92.8% of protons and 84.4% of alpha particles with E < 4 GeV·n-1, when considering the passive shielding contribution of 10.0 g·cm-2 Al Shielding, the required magnetic stiffness can be reduced from 27 Tm to 16 Tm. The detailed analysis of mass cost and power consumption shows that active shielding will be a promising means to protect crews from space radiation exposure in manned Mars missions.      

Chang'E-1 Lunar Mission:An Overview and Primary Science Results

Chang'E-1 is the first lunar mission in China, which was successfully launched on Oct. 24th, 2007. It was guided to crash on the Moon on March 1, 2009, at 52.36oE, 1.50oS, in the north of Mare Fecunditatis. The total mission lasted 495 days, exceeding the designed life-span about four months. 1.37 Terabytes raw data was received from Chang'E-1. It was then processed into 4 Terabytes science data at different levels. A series of science results have been achieved by analyzing and applicating these data, especially "global image of the Moon of China's first lunar exploration mission'. Four scientific goals of Chang'E-1 have been achieved. It provides abundant materials for the research of lunar sciences and cosmochemistry. Meanwhile these results will serve for China's future lunar missions.      

Progress of Double Star Program 2006—2008

This paper presents the status of two satellites of Double Star Program,and a part of scientific results based on the data of Double Star Program obtained during the period of 2006-2008.Other scientific results in the magnetospheric physics research can be found in "Multi scale physical process in the magnetosphere" of this issue.     

Magnetospheric Physics in China During the Period of 2004 - 2006

Their brief report presents the advances of the magnetospheric physics researches in China during the period of 2004-2006. During the past two years, China-ESA cooperation DSP (Double Star Program) satellites were successively launched. In addition, China also participated in the scientific research of ESA's Cluster mission. The DSP and Cluster missions provide Chinese space physicists high quality data to study multiscale physical process in the magnetosphere. The work made based on the data of DSP is presented in the paper of "Progress of Double Star Program" of this issue.     

Development and coupling test of active spacecraft potential control – Next generation (ASPOC-NG)

The active spacecraft potential control (ASPOC) system developed in the 1990s emits positive ions to neutralise the spacecraft potential, such as used in several missions like Geotail, Equator-S, Cluster, Doublestar and MMS. With the experience gained, the next generation of the active spacecraft potential control (ASPOC-NG) instrument has been developed over the last three years. Thereby, three emission technologies were tested including Liquid Metal Ion Source (LMIS), Liquid Metal Electron Source (LMES) and Solid Metal Electron Source (SMES). The development of the emitter module by FOTEC and the corresponding electronics control unit by IWF is presented. Optimisations were carried out with the focus on the reduction of mass and power consumption to comply with the requirements of future scientific missions. Coupling tests of the modules and the electronics control unit were performed including range, accuracy and lifetime tests. Both ASPOC-NG instruments for positive and negative charge compensation and their performance values show excellent results.     

Magnetospheric Physics in China: 2012–2014

In the past two years, many progresses have been made in magnetospheric physics by using the data of Double Star Program, Cluster, THEMIS and RBSP missions, or by computer simulations. This paper briefly reviews these works based on papers selected from the 126 publications from March 2012 to March 2014. The subjects cover various sub-branches of magnetospheric physics,including geomagnetic storm, magnetospheric substorm and magnetic reconnection.     

Magnetospheric Physics in China:2014—2015

In the past two years, much progress is made in magnetospheric physics by using the data of Double Star Program, Cluster, THEMIS, RBSP, Swarm missions etc., or by computer simulations. This paper briefly reviews these works based on papers selected from the 191 publications from January 2014 to December 2015. The subjects cover various sub-branches of magnetospheric physics, including geomagnetic storm, magnetospheric substorm, magnetic reconnection, solar windmagnetosphere-ionosphere interaction, radiation belt, outer magnetosphere, magnetotail, plasmasphere, geomagnetic field, auroras and currents.      

Magnetospheric Physics in China

In the past two years, much progress has been made in magnetospheric physics by using the data of Double Star Program, Cluster, THEMIS, RBSP, Swarm, MMS, ARTEMIS, MESSENGER missions etc., or by computer simulations. This paper briefly reviews these works based on papers selected from the 227 publications from January 2016 to December 2017. The subjects cover most sub-branches of magnetospheric physics, including geomagnetic storm, magnetospheric substorm, magnetic reconnection, solar wind-magnetosphereionosphere interaction, radiation belt, plasmasphere, outer magnetosphere, magnetotail, geomagnetic field, auroras, and currents.      

小行星附近制导与控制研究综述

由于小行星具有引力场不规则、物理参数不确定性大、表面逃逸速度小等因素,使得小行星附近制导和控制极具挑战性。回顾了小行星探测任务的历史、现状和意义;针对小行星附近制导与控制研究的基础即小行星附近动力学,分析了研究现状;针对悬停、绕飞、转移、着陆等任务形式,详细介绍了轨道制导和控制方法方面的热点问题和研究现状;基于研究现状,列举了部分未来可进一步研究的方向和问题。