The Juno Magnetic Field Investigation

The Juno Magnetic Field investigation (MAG) characterizes Jupiter’s planetary magnetic field and magnetosphere, providing the first globally distributed and proximate measurements of the magnetic field of Jupiter. The magnetic field instrumentation consists of two independent magnetometer sensor suites, each consisting of a tri-axial Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM) sensor and a pair of co-located imaging sensors mounted on an ultra-stable optical bench. The imaging system sensors are part of a subsystem that provides accurate attitude information (to ～20 arcsec on a spinning spacecraft) near the point of measurement of the magnetic field. The two sensor suites are accommodated at 10 and 12 m from the body of the spacecraft on a 4 m long magnetometer boom affixed to the outer end of one of ’s three solar array assemblies. The magnetometer sensors are controlled by independent and functionally identical electronics boards within the magnetometer electronics package mounted inside Juno’s massive radiation shielded vault. The imaging sensors are controlled by a fully hardware redundant electronics package also mounted within the radiation vault. Each magnetometer sensor measures the vector magnetic field with 100 ppm absolute vector accuracy over a wide dynamic range (to 16 Gauss = \(1.6 \times 10^{6}\mbox{ nT}\) per axis) with a resolution of ～0.05 nT in the most sensitive dynamic range (±1600 nT per axis). Both magnetometers sample the magnetic field simultaneously at an intrinsic sample rate of 64 vector samples per second. The magnetic field instrumentation may be reconfigured in flight to meet unanticipated needs and is fully hardware redundant. The attitude determination system compares images with an on-board star catalog to provide attitude solutions (quaternions) at a rate of up to 4 solutions per second, and may be configured to acquire images of selected targets for science and engineering analysis. The system tracks and catalogs objects that pass through the imager field of view and also provides a continuous record of radiation exposure. A spacecraft magnetic control program was implemented to provide a magnetically clean environment for the magnetic sensors, and residual spacecraft fields and/or sensor offsets are monitored in flight taking advantage of Juno’s spin (nominally 2 rpm) to separate environmental fields from those that rotate with the spacecraft.     

The New Horizons Spacecraft

The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on 19 January 2006. The spacecraft was designed to provide a platform for seven instruments designated by the science team to collect and return data from Pluto in 2015. The design meets the requirements established by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Announcement of Opportunity AO-OSS-01. The design drew on heritage from previous missions developed at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and other missions such as Ulysses. The trajectory design imposed constraints on mass and structural strength to meet the high launch acceleration consistent with meeting the AO requirement of returning data prior to the year 2020. The spacecraft subsystems were designed to meet tight resource allocations (mass and power) yet provide the necessary control and data handling finesse to support data collection and return when the one-way light time during the Pluto fly-by is 4.5 hours. Missions to the outer regions of the solar system (where the solar irradiance is 1/1000 of the level near the Earth) require a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) to supply electrical power. One RTG was available for use by New Horizons. To accommodate this constraint, the spacecraft electronics were designed to operate on approximately 200 W. The travel time to Pluto put additional demands on system reliability. Only after a flight time of approximately 10 years would the desired data be collected and returned to Earth. This represents the longest flight duration prior to the return of primary science data for any mission by NASA. The spacecraft system architecture provides sufficient redundancy to meet this requirement with a probability of mission success of greater than 0.85. The spacecraft is now on its way to Pluto, with an arrival date of 14 July 2015. Initial in-flight tests have verified that the spacecraft will meet the design requirements.     

The Low-Energy Telescope (LET) and SEP Central Electronics for the STEREO Mission

The Low-Energy Telescope (LET) is one of four sensors that make up the Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) instrument of the IMPACT investigation for NASA’s STEREO mission. The LET is designed to measure the elemental composition, energy spectra, angular distributions, and arrival times of H to Ni ions over the energy range from ～3 to ～30 MeV/nucleon. It will also identify the rare isotope ³He and trans-iron nuclei with 30≤Z≤83. The SEP measurements from the two STEREO spacecraft will be combined with data from ACE and other 1-AU spacecraft to provide multipoint investigations of the energetic particles that result from interplanetary shocks driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and from solar flare events. The multipoint in situ observations of SEPs and solar-wind plasma will complement STEREO images of CMEs in order to investigate their role in space weather. Each LET instrument includes a sensor system made up of an array of 14 solid-state detectors composed of 54 segments that are individually analyzed by custom Pulse Height Analysis System Integrated Circuits (PHASICs). The signals from four PHASIC chips in each LET are used by a Minimal Instruction Set Computer (MISC) to provide onboard particle identification of a dozen species in ～12 energy intervals at event rates of ～1,000 events/sec. An additional control unit, called SEP Central, gathers data from the four SEP sensors, controls the SEP bias supply, and manages the interfaces to the sensors and the SEP interface to the Instrument Data Processing Unit (IDPU). This article outlines the scientific objectives that LET will address, describes the design and operation of LET and the SEP Central electronics, and discusses the data products that will result.     

The STEREO/IMPACT Magnetic Field Experiment

The magnetometer on the STEREO mission is one of the sensors in the IMPACT instrument suite. A single, triaxial, wide-range, low-power and noise fluxgate magnetometer of traditional design—and reduced volume configuration—has been implemented in each spacecraft. The sensors are mounted on the IMPACT telescoping booms at a distance of ～3 m from the spacecraft body to reduce magnetic contamination. The electronics have been designed as an integral part of the IMPACT Data Processing Unit, sharing a common power converter and data/command interfaces. The instruments cover the range ±65,536 nT in two intervals controlled by the IDPU (±512 nT; ±65,536 nT). This very wide range allows operation of the instruments during all phases of the mission, including Earth flybys as well as during spacecraft test and integration in the geomagnetic field. The primary STEREO/IMPACT science objectives addressed by the magnetometer are the study of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), its response to solar activity, and its relationship to solar wind structure. The instruments were powered on and the booms deployed on November 1, 2006, seven days after the spacecraft were launched, and are operating nominally. A magnetic cleanliness program was implemented to minimize variable spacecraft fields and to ensure that the static spacecraft-generated magnetic field does not interfere with the measurements.     

Recent advances in precision measurement & pointing control of spacecraft

There exists an increasing need for precision measurement & pointing control and extreme motion stability for current and future space systems, e.g., Ultra-Performance Spacecraft (UPS). Some notable technologies of realizing Ultra-Pointing (UP) ability have been developed particularly for Ultra-accuracy Ultra-stability Ultra-agility (3U) spacecraft over recent decades. Usually, Multilevel Compound Pointing Control Techniques (MCPCTs) are deployed in aerospace engineering, especially in astronomical observation satellites and Earth observation satellites. Modern controllers and/or algorithms, which are a key factor of MCPCTs for 3U spacecraft, especially the jitter phenomena that commonly exist in a UPS Pointing Control System (PCS), have also been effectively used in some UP spacecraft for a number of years. Micro-vibration suppression approaches, however, are often proposed to deal with low-level mechanical vibration or disturbance in the microgravity environment that is common for UPS. This latter approach potentially is one of the most practical UP techniques for 3U tasks. Some emerging advanced Disturbance-Free Payload (DFP) satellites that exploit the benefits of non-contact actuators have also been reported in the literature. This represents an interesting and highly promising approach for solving some challenging problems in the area. This paper serves as a state-of-the-art review of UP technologies and/or methods which have been developed, mainly over the last decade, specifically for or potentially could be used for 3U spacecraft pointing control. The problems discussed in this paper are of reference significance to UPS and millisecond optical sensors, which are involved in Gaofeng Project, deep space exploration, manned space flight, and gravitational wave detection.     

Confluence of navigation, communication, and control in distributedspacecraft systems

This research details the development of technologies and methodologies that enable distributed spacecraft systems by supporting integrated navigation, communication, and control. Operating at the confluence of these critical functions produces capabilities needed to realize the promise of distributed spacecraft systems, including improved performance and robustness relative to monolithic space systems. Navigation supports science data association and data alignment for distributed aperture sensing, multipoint observation, and co-observation of target regions. Communication enables autonomous distributed science data processing and information exchange among space assets. Both navigation and communication provide essential input to control methods for coordinating distributed autonomous assets at the interspacecraft system level and the intraspacecraft affector subsystem level. A technology solution to implement these capabilities, the Crosslink Transceiver, is also described. The Crosslink Transceiver provides navigation and communication capability that can be integrated into a developing autonomous command and control methodology for distributed spacecraft systems. A small satellite implementation of the Crosslink Transceiver design is detailed and its ability to support broad distributed spacecraft mission classes is described     

ATS-6 Interferometer

The Applications Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6) RF interferometer is utilized primarily as a precision 3-axis attitude sensor having an unambiguous field of view of 350°. This function requires two separated ground transmitters, each using one of the two available frequency channels or sharing a single channel by time multiplexing. For 3-axis control, one uplink transmitter can provide 2-axis attitude (pitch and roll) with other sensors (e.g., a Polaris tracker) providing yaw attitude. By utilizing two uplink transmitters and the Earth sensor or three time multiplexed uplink transmitters, the interferometer can also provide measurements of ATS-6 spacecraft orbit position. Uplink frequencies are 6.150 and 6.155 GHz. The receiving antennas are spaced at 19.95 wavelengths (?) for the vernier baseline and 1.66 ? for the coarse baseline. Spacecraft system weight is 8.39 kg (18.5 lb) and power requirement is 15.5 W. Flight evaluation results are given for the interferometer including R F link budgets, modulation of uplink carrier, signal-to-noise ratio, and dropout behavior. A hardware calibration model is described, containing major biases in the phase measurements. Techniques for flight calibration as both an attitude and spacecraft position sensor are outlined . Flight testing has shown that on-line calibration of receiver/converter biases must be performed on a short term routine basis. Interferometer resolution was found to be 0.00140 space angle with negligible noise (jitter) at transmitted power levels above 72 dBW. As an attitude sensor, the interferometer has demonstrated the ability to provide stabilization to better than 0.     

Magnetosphere Imaging Instrument (MIMI) on the Cassini Mission to Saturn/Titan

The magnetospheric imaging instrument (MIMI) is a neutral and charged particle detection system on the Cassini orbiter spacecraft designed to perform both global imaging and in-situ measurements to study the overall configuration and dynamics of Saturn’s magnetosphere and its interactions with the solar wind, Saturn’s atmosphere, Titan, and the icy satellites. The processes responsible for Saturn’s aurora will be investigated; a search will be performed for substorms at Saturn; and the origins of magnetospheric hot plasmas will be determined. Further, the Jovian magnetosphere and Io torus will be imaged during Jupiter flyby. The investigative approach is twofold. (1) Perform remote sensing of the magnetospheric energetic (E > 7 keV) ion plasmas by detecting and imaging charge-exchange neutrals, created when magnetospheric ions capture electrons from ambient neutral gas. Such escaping neutrals were detected by the Voyager l spacecraft outside Saturn’s magnetosphere and can be used like photons to form images of the emitting regions, as has been demonstrated at Earth. (2) Determine through in-situ measurements the 3-D particle distribution functions including ion composition and charge states (E > 3 keV/e). The combination of in-situ measurements with global images, together with analysis and interpretation techniques that include direct “forward modeling’’ and deconvolution by tomography, is expected to yield a global assessment of magnetospheric structure and dynamics, including (a) magnetospheric ring currents and hot plasma populations, (b) magnetic field distortions, (c) electric field configuration, (d) particle injection boundaries associated with magnetic storms and substorms, and (e) the connection of the magnetosphere to ionospheric altitudes. Titan and its torus will stand out in energetic neutral images throughout the Cassini orbit, and thus serve as a continuous remote probe of ion flux variations near 20R _S (e.g., magnetopause crossings and substorm plasma injections). The Titan exosphere and its cometary interaction with magnetospheric plasmas will be imaged in detail on each flyby. The three principal sensors of MIMI consists of an ion and neutral camera (INCA), a charge–energy–mass-spectrometer (CHEMS) essentially identical to our instrument flown on the ISTP/Geotail spacecraft, and the low energy magnetospheric measurements system (LEMMS), an advanced design of one of our sensors flown on the Galileo spacecraft. The INCA head is a large geometry factor (G ∼ 2.4 cm² sr) foil time-of-flight (TOF) camera that separately registers the incident direction of either energetic neutral atoms (ENA) or ion species (≥5^∘ full width half maximum) over the range 7 keV/nuc < E < 3 MeV/nuc. CHEMS uses electrostatic deflection, TOF, and energy measurement to determine ion energy, charge state, mass, and 3-D anisotropy in the range 3 ≤ E ≤ 220 keV/e with good (∼0.05 cm² sr) sensitivity. LEMMS is a two-ended telescope that measures ions in the range 0.03 ≤ E ≤ 18 MeV and electrons 0.015 ≤ E≤ 0.884 MeV in the forward direction (G ∼ 0.02 cm² sr), while high energy electrons (0.1–5 MeV) and ions (1.6–160 MeV) are measured from the back direction (G ∼ 0.4 cm² sr). The latter are relevant to inner magnetosphere studies of diffusion processes and satellite microsignatures as well as cosmic ray albedo neutron decay (CRAND). Our analyses of Voyager energetic neutral particle and Lyman-α measurements show that INCA will provide statistically significant global magnetospheric images from a distance of ∼60 R _S every 2–3 h (every ∼10 min from ∼20 R _S). Moreover, during Titan flybys, INCA will provide images of the interaction of the Titan exosphere with the Saturn magnetosphere every 1.5 min. Time resolution for charged particle measurements can be < 0.1 s, which is more than adequate for microsignature studies. Data obtained during Venus-2 flyby and Earth swingby in June and August 1999, respectively, and Jupiter flyby in December 2000 to January 2001 show that the instrument is performing well, has made important and heretofore unobtainable measurements in interplanetary space at Jupiter, and will likely obtain high-quality data throughout each orbit of the Cassini mission at Saturn. Sample data from each of the three sensors during the August 18 Earth swingby are shown, including the first ENA image of part of the ring current obtained by an instrument specifically designed for this purpose. Similarily, measurements in cis-Jovian space include the first detailed charge state determination of Iogenic ions and several ENA images of that planet’s magnetosphere.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

The Electric Field Instrument (EFI) for THEMIS

The design, performance, and on-orbit operation of the three-axis electric field instrument (EFI) for the NASA THEMIS mission is described. The 20 radial wire boom and 10 axial stacer boom antenna systems making up the EFI sensors on the five THEMIS spacecraft, along with their supporting electronics have been deployed and are operating successfully on-orbit without any mechanical or electrical failures since early 2007. The EFI provides for waveform and spectral three-axis measurements of the ambient electric field from DC up to 8 kHz, with a single, integral broadband channel extending up to 400 kHz. Individual sensor potentials are also measured, providing for on-board and ground-based estimation of spacecraft floating potential and high-resolution plasma density measurements. Individual antenna baselines are 50- and 40-m in the spin plane, and 6.9-m along the spin axis. The EFI has provided for critical observations supporting a clear and definitive understanding of the electrodynamics of both the boundaries of the terrestrial magnetosphere, as well as internal processes, such as relativistic particle acceleration and substorm dynamics. Such multi-point electric field observations are key for pushing forward the understanding of electrodynamics in space, in that without high-quality estimates of the electric field, the underlying electromagnetic processes involved in current sheets, reconnection, and wave-particle interactions may only be inferred, rather than measured, quantified, and used to discriminate between competing hypotheses regarding those processes.     

Surrogate teleoperated vehicle (STV)

The design of the STV is described. The STV system consists of two parts: the remote platform (RP) and the mobility/RSTA Module (MOB/RSTA). The RP consists of the carrier base and the remote control electronics that provide an interface to all systems on the STV and the communication system. It is based on an off-the-shelf Polaris six-wheel-drive, Ackerman-steered all-terrain vehicle that can exceed 58 km/h. The current automatic drive train will be modified using a dual motor hybrid concept that incorporates an electric motor to provide slow speed mobility when an ultraquiet mode is required. All electronics are packed in waterproof enclosures that allow for easy changeout of electronic components for simple and rapid maintenance operations. The modular MOB/RSTA module consists of an elevating mast and a pan and tilt turret with a variety of sensors. The electronics for the control of all turret functions, including sensor interfaces, are totally self-contained within the turret     

The plasma instrumentation for the Galileo Mission

The plasma instrumentation (PLS) for the Galileo Mission comprises a nested set of four spherical-plate electrostatic analyzers and three miniature, magnetic mass spectrometers. The three-dimensional velocity distributions of positive ions and electrons, separately, are determined for the energy-per-unit charge (E/Q) range of 0.9 V to 52 kV. A large fraction of the 4-steradian solid angle for charged particle velocity vectors is sampled by means of the fan-shaped field-of-view of 160°, multiple sensors, and the rotation of the spacecraft spinning section. The fields-of-view of the three mass spectrometers are respectively directed perpendicular and nearly parallel and anti-parallel to the spin axis of the spacecraft. These mass spectrometers are used to identify the composition of the positive ion plasmas, e.g., H⁺, O⁺, Na⁺, and S⁺, in the Jovian magnetosphere. The energy range of these three mass spectrometers is dependent upon the species. The maximum temporal resolutions of the instrument for determining the energy (E/Q) spectra of charged particles and mass (M/Q) composition of positive ion plasmas are 0.5 s. Three-dimensional velocity distributions of electrons and positive ions require a minimum sampling time of 20 s, which is slightly longer than the spacecraft rotation period. The two instrument microprocessors provide the capability of inflight implementation of operational modes by ground-command that are tailored for specific plasma regimes, e.g., magnetosheath, plasma sheet, cold and hot tori, and satellite wakes, and that can be improved upon as acquired knowledge increases during the tour of the Jovian magnetosphere. Because the instrument is specifically designed for measurements in the environs of Jupiter with the advantages of previous surveys with the Voyager spacecraft, first determinations of many plasma phenomena can be expected. These observational objectives include field-aligned currents, three-dimensional ion bulk flows, pickup ions from the Galilean satellites, the spatial distribution of plasmas throughout most of the magnetosphere and including the magnetotail, and ion and electron flows to and from the Jovian ionosphere.     

CCSDS命令与数据获取业务应用分析

针对传统星载数据管理系统应用层与数据访问层耦合度高,应用软件进行设备访问时须了解底层硬件细节、软件复用率低等问题,研究了CCSDS(Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems,空间数据系统咨询委员会)制定的CDAS(Command and Data Acquisition Service,命令与数据获取业务)的功能、特点及其工作原理,结合新一代综合电子系统的硬件模块功能特点,深入分析了如何在综合电子系统中实现CDAS.CDAS已在某预研课题综合电子样机中应用,测试试验表明,CDAS应用于综合电子系统可以为上层应用提供便捷的设备访问服务,为综合电子系统实现任务规划等复杂功能提供有力的技术保障.     

Strip mode processing of spotlight aperture radar data

The author shows how to process deramped (e.g., typical spotlight mode) synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) data using mode processors, with no restrictions on antenna pointing. The basis of the approach is that although the deramped data does not contain a spatially invariant two-dimensional response to a point target, the range-compressed deramped data does. Range compression of the deramped data is performed simply by Fourier transforming each range line. The method greatly increases the flexibility of current strip mode processors by extending their domain to a previously unsuitable class of data     

Space Interferometry Mission spacecraft pointing error budgets

Preliminary error budgets for the pointing knowledge, control, and stability of the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) spacecraft are constructed using the specifications of commercial off-the-shelf attitude determination sensors, attitude control actuators, and other spacecraft capabilities that have been demonstrated in past missions. Results obtained indicate that we can meet all the presently known spacecraft pointing requirements. A large number of derived requirements are generated from this study. Examples are specifications on attitude determination sensors, attitude control actuators, minimum settling time after a rest-to-rest spacecraft slew. Preliminary error budgets constructed in this study must be updated to reflect the changing spacecraft design and requirements     

基于时钟驱动的循环调度

实时系统,诸如航空电子系统、空中交通控制系统(Air Traffic Control: ATC)等,从本质上说都是一种分布式实时系统,从理论上说,它们由三种类型的处理器组成,包括数据控制处理器、数据传输处理器和数据处理器.无论是数据控制处理器和数据处理器的数据计算任务,还是数据传输处理器的数据传输任务,它们的执行都必须满足任务的时间约束要求,从而正确完成系统设计的各项应用任务.本文将描述基于时钟驱动的循环调度策略,它不仅适用于对数据计算任务的实时调度,也适用于对数据传输任务的实时调度,最后,分析了此调度策略应用中存在的优势与劣势.     

Ultra-reliable real-time control systems-future trends

Today's aircraft use ultra-reliable real-time controls for demanding functions such as Fly-By-Wire (FBW) flight control. Future aircraft, spacecraft and other vehicles will require greater use of these types of controls for functions that currently are allowed to fail, fail to degraded operation, or require human intervention in response to failure. Fully automated and autonomous functions will require ultra-reliable control. But ultra-reliable systems are very expensive to design and require large amounts of on-board equipment. This paper will discuss how the use of low-cost sensors with digital outputs, digitally commanded fault-tolerant actuation devices and interconnecting networks of low-cost data buses offer the promise of more affordable ultra-reliable systems. Specific technologies and concepts to be discussed include low-cost automotive and industrial data buses, “smart” actuation devices with integral fault masking capabilities, management of redundant sensors, and the fault detection and diagnosis of the data network. The advantages of integrating the control and distribution of electrical power with the control system will be illustrated. The design, installation, and upgrade flexibility benefits provided by an all-digital and shared network approach will be presented. The economic benefits of systems that can operate following failure and without immediate repair will be reviewed. The inherent ability of these redundant systems to provide effective built-in test and self-diagnostics capabilities will be described. The challenges associated with developing ultra-reliable software for these systems and the difficulties associated with exhaustive verification testing will be presented as will additional development hurdles that must be overcome     

分离模块航天器研究综述

对分离模块航天器产生的背景及概念进行了阐述和分析,介绍了包括F6系统、天基群组系统、SkyLAN（空间局域网）等在内的几种主要分离模块航天器系统,并在此基础上归纳总结出了分离模块航天器在同轨多模块系统设计、功能系统设计、信息交互技术、队形保持重组及功能适变技术、无线信息传输技术、分布式天线技术等方面的技术特点及难点,最后讨论了分离模块航天器进一步的研究方向和发展前景。     

RPC-MAG The Fluxgate Magnetometer in the ROSETTA Plasma Consortium

The fluxgate magnetometer experiment onboard the ROSETTA spacecraft aims to measure the magnetic field in the interaction region of the solar wind plasma with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It consists of a system of two ultra light (about 28 g each ) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, mounted on the 1.5 m long spacecraft boom. The measurement range of each sensor is ±16384 nT with quantization steps of 31 pT. The magnetometer sensors are operated with a time resolution of up to 0.05 s, corresponding to a bandwidth of 0–10 Hz. This performance of the RPC-MAG sensors allows detailed analyses of magnetic field variations in the cometary environment. RPC-MAG furthermore is designed to study possible remnant magnetic fields of the nucleus, measurements which will be done in close cooperation with the ROSETTA lander magnetometer experiment ROMAP.     

Rotational maneuver of nonlinear uncertain elastic spacecraft

The question of attitude control and elastic mode stabilization of a spacecraft (orbiter) with beam-tip-mass-type payloads is considered. A three-axis moment control law is derived to control the attitude of the spacecraft. The derivation of the control moments acting on the spacecraft does not require any information on the system dynamics. The control law includes a reference model and a dynamic compensator in the feedback path. For damping out the elastic motion excited by the slewing maneuver, an elastic mode stabilizer is designed. The stabilization is achieved by modal velocity feedback using force and torque actuators located at the payload end of the elastic beam. Collocated actuators and sensors provide robust stabilization. Simulation results are presented to show that rotational maneuvers and vibration stabilization can be accomplished in the closed-loop systems despite the presence of model uncertainty and disturbance torque in the system     

Autonomous GPS/INS navigation experiment for space transfer vehicle

An experiment is described to validate the concept of developing an autonomous integrated spacecraft navigation system using onboard Global Positioning System (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) measurements. Previous work by the authors (1988, 1990) has demonstrated the feasibility of integrating GPS measurements with INS measurements to provide a total improvement in spacecraft navigation performance, i.e., improvement in position, velocity and attitude information. An important aspect of this research is the automatic real-time reconfiguration capability of the system, which is designed to respond to changes in a spacecraft mission under the control of an expert system