ISTP science data systems and products

The International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) program will provide simultaneous coordinated scientific measurements from most of the major areas of geospace including specific locations on the Earth's surface. This paper describes the comprehensive ISTP ground science data handling system which has been developed to promote optimal mission planning and efficient data processing, analysis and distribution. The essential components of this ground system are the ISTP Central Data Handling Facility (CDHF), the Information Processing Division's Data Distribution Facility (DDF), the ISTP/Global Geospace Science (GGS) Science Planning and Operations Facility (SPOF) and the NASA Data Archive and Distribution Service (NDADS).The ISTP CDHF is the one place in the program where measurements from this wide variety of geospace and ground-based instrumentation and theoretical studies are brought together. Subsequently, these data will be distributed, along with ancillary data, in a unified fashion to the ISTP Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator (CoI) teams for analysis on their local systems. The CDHF ingests the telemetry streams, orbit, attitude, and command history from the GEOTAIL, WIND, POLAR, SOHO, and IMP-8 Spacecraft; computes summary data sets, called Key Parameters (KPs), for each scientific instrument; ingests pre-computed KPs from other spacecraft and ground basel investigations; provides a computational platform for parameterized modeling; and provides a number of data services for the ISTP community of investigators. The DDF organizes the KPs, decommutated telemetry, and associated ancillary data into products for duistribution to the ISTP community on CD-ROMs. The SPOF is the component of the GGS program responsible for the development and coordination of ISTP science planning operations. The SPOF operates under the direction of the ISTP Project Scientist and is responsible for the development and coordination of the science plan for ISTP spacecraft. Instrument command requests for the WIND and POLAR investigations are submitted by the PIs to the SPOF where they are checked for science conflicts, forwarded to the GSFC Command Management Syntem/Payload Operations Control Center (CMS/POCC) for engineering conflict validation, and finally incorporated into the conflict-free science operations plan. Conflict resolution is accomplished through iteration between the PIs, SPOF and CMS and in consultation with the Project Scientist when necessary. The long term archival of ISTP KP and level-zero data will be undertaken by NASA's National Space Science Data Center using the NASA Data Archive and Distribution Service (NDADS). This on-line archive facility will provide rapid access to archived KPs and event data and includes security features to restrict access to the data during the time they are proprietary.     

Caenorhabditis elegans survives atmospheric breakup of STS-107, space shuttle Columbia

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a popular organism for biological studies, is being developed as a model system for space biology. The chemically defined liquid medium, C. elegans Maintenance Medium (CeMM), allows axenic cultivation and automation of experiments that are critical for spaceflight research. To validate CeMM for use during spaceflight, we grew animals using CeMM and standard laboratory conditions onboard STS-107, space shuttle Columbia. Tragically, the Columbia was destroyed while reentering the Earth's atmosphere. During the massive recovery effort, hardware that contained our experiment was found. Live animals were observed in four of the five recovered canisters, which had survived on both types of media. These data demonstrate that CeMM is capable of supporting C. elegans during spaceflight. They also demonstrate that animals can survive a relatively unprotected reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, which has implications with regard to the packaging of living material during space flight, planetary protection, and the interplanetary transfer of life.     

Many chemistries could be used to build living systems

It has been widely suggested that life based around carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen is the only plausible biochemistry, and specifically that terrestrial biochemistry of nucleic acids, proteins, and sugars is likely to be "universal." This is not an inevitable conclusion from our knowledge of chemistry. I argue that it is the nature of the liquid in which life evolves that defines the most appropriate chemistry. Fluids other than water could be abundant on a cosmic scale and could therefore be an environment in which non-terrestrial biochemistry could evolve. The chemical nature of these liquids could lead to quite different biochemistries, a hypothesis discussed in the context of the proposed "ammonochemistry" of the internal oceans of the Galilean satellites and a more speculative "silicon biochemistry" in liquid nitrogen. These different chemistries satisfy the thermodynamic drive for life through different mechanisms, and so will have different chemical signatures than terrestrial biochemistry.     

Introduction and ISS assembly description

This introductory address provides a brief overview and a timeline for construction of the International Space Station, beginning with the July 2000 launch of the Russian Service Module, Zvezda, and ending with the Mission STS-112.     

Heat transfer of thermocapillary convection in a two-layered fluid system under the influence of magnetic field

Heat transfer of a two-layer fluid system has been of great importance in a variety of industrial applications. For example, the phenomena of immiscible fluids can be found in materials processing and heat exchangers. Typically in solidification from a melt, the convective motion is the dominant factor that affects the uniformity of material properties. In the layered flow, thermocapillary forces can come into an important play, which was first emphasized by a previous investigator in 1958. Under extraterrestrial environments without gravity, thermocapillary effects can be a more dominant factor, which alters material properties in processing. Control and optimization of heat transfer in an immiscible fluid system need complete understanding of the flow phenomena that can be induced by surface tension at a fluid interface. The present work is focused on understanding of the magnetic field effects on thermocapillary convection, in order to optimize material processing. That is, it involves the study of the complicated phenomena to alter the flow motion in crystal growth. In this effort, the Marangoni convection in a cavity with differentially heated sidewalls is investigated with and without the influence of a magnetic field. As a first step, numerical analyzes are performed, by thoroughly investigating influences of all pertinent physical parameters. Experiments are then conducted, with preliminary results, for comparison with the numerical analyzes.     

A liquid propulsion panorama

Liquid-propellant rocket engines are widely used all over the world, thanks to their high performances, in particular high thrust-to-weight ratio. The present paper presents a general panorama of liquid propulsion as a contribution of the IAF Advanced Propulsion Prospective Group.After a brief history of its past development in the different parts of the world, the current status of liquid propulsion, the currently observed trends, the possible areas of future improvement and a summarized road map of future developments are presented. The road map includes a summary of the liquid propulsion status presented in the “Year in review 2007” of Aerospace America.Although liquid propulsion is often seen as a mature technology with few areas of potential improvement, the requirements of an active commercial market and a renewed interest for space exploration has led to the development of a family of new engines, with more design margins, simpler to use and to produce associated with a wide variety of thrust and life requirements.     

The Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) on the New Horizons Mission

The Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) comprises the hardware and accompanying science investigation on the New Horizons spacecraft to measure pick-up ions from Pluto’s outgassing atmosphere. To the extent that Pluto retains its characteristics similar to those of a “heavy comet” as detected in stellar occultations since the early 1980s, these measurements will characterize the neutral atmosphere of Pluto while providing a consistency check on the atmospheric escape rate at the encounter epoch with that deduced from the atmospheric structure at lower altitudes by the ALICE, REX, and SWAP experiments on New Horizons. In addition, PEPSSI will characterize any extended ionosphere and solar wind interaction while also characterizing the energetic particle environment of Pluto, Charon, and their associated system. First proposed for development for the Pluto Express mission in September 1993, what became the PEPSSI instrument went through a number of development stages to meet the requirements of such an instrument for a mission to Pluto while minimizing the required spacecraft resources. The PEPSSI instrument provides for measurements of ions (with compositional information) and electrons from 10 s of keV to ～1 MeV in a 160°×12° fan-shaped beam in six sectors for 1.5 kg and ～2.5 W.     

Detectability of planetary characteristics in disk-averaged spectra. I: The Earth model

Over the next 2 decades, NASA and ESA are planning a series of space-based observatories to detect and characterize extrasolar planets. This first generation of observatories will not be able to spatially resolve the terrestrial planets detected. Instead, these planets will be characterized by disk-averaged spectroscopy. To assess the detectability of planetary characteristics in disk-averaged spectra, we have developed a spatially and spectrally resolved model of the Earth. This model uses atmospheric and surface properties from existing observations and modeling studies as input, and generates spatially resolved high-resolution synthetic spectra using the Spectral Mapping Atmospheric Radiative Transfer model. Synthetic spectra were generated for a variety of conditions, including cloud coverage, illumination fraction, and viewing angle geometry, over a wavelength range extending from the ultraviolet to the farinfrared. Here we describe the model and validate it against disk-averaged visible to infrared observations of the Earth taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer, the ESA Mars Express Omega instrument, and ground-based observations of earthshine reflected from the unilluminated portion of the Moon. The comparison between the data and model indicates that several atmospheric species can be identified in disk-averaged Earth spectra, and potentially detected depending on the wavelength range and resolving power of the instrument. At visible wavelengths (0.4-0.9 microm) O3, H2O, O2, and oxygen dimer [(O2)2] are clearly apparent. In the mid-infrared (5-20 microm) CO2, O3, and H2O are present. CH4, N2O, CO2, O3, and H2O are visible in the near-infrared (1-5 microm). A comprehensive three-dimensional model of the Earth is needed to produce a good fit with the observations.     

Recent Advancements and Motivations of Simulated Pluto Experiments

This review of Pluto laboratory research presents some of the recent advancements and motivations in our understanding enabled by experimental simulations, the need for experiments to facilitate models, and predictions for future laboratory work. The spacecraft New Horizons at Pluto has given a large amount of scientific data already rising to preliminary results, spanning from the geology to the atmosphere. Different ice mixtures have now been detected, with the main components being nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. Varying geology and atmospheric hazes, however, gives us several questions that need to be addressed to further our understanding. Our review summarizes the complexity of Pluto, the motivations and importance of laboratory simulations critical to understanding the low temperature and pressure environments of icy bodies such as Pluto, and the variability of instrumentation, challenges for research, and how simulations and modeling are complimentary.