Dynamic qualification of the HIRENASD elastic wing model

The High Reynolds Number Aero-Structural Dynamics (HIRENASD) project is conducted by the Collaborative Research Center “Flow Modulation and Fluid-Structure Interaction at Airplane Wings (SFB 401)” at RWTH Aachen University. It is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) since 2004. Steady and unsteady state experiments with an elastic semispan wing model were performed under transonic and high Reynolds number conditions in the European Transonic Windtunnel (ETW) in Cologne, Germany. The main components of the complete windtunnel assembly were the wing model itself, a piezoelectric 6-components balance and a mechanical excitation mechanism able to excite the wing model at selected resonance frequencies. These components were designed, sized and assembled at the Department of Aerospace and Lightweight Structures at RWTH Aachen University. The dynamic qualification of the windtunnel assembly under wind-off condition was carried out in the department's test laboratory. Modal survey testing based on the hammer impact method was performed, as well as response decomposition analysis using enforced excitation by means of the mechanical excitation mechanism itself. Within the qualification, a test procedure enabling investigations of modal parameter changes under wind-off and wind-on conditions in a cryogenic windtunnel was also verified.     

Solar sail trajectories with piecewise-constant steering laws

Solar sails have much attracted the interest of the scientific community as an advanced low-thrust propulsion means capable of promoting the reduction of mission costs and the feasibility of missions that are not practically accessible via conventional propulsion because of their large ΔV requirements. To reduce the overall flight time, a given mission is usually analyzed in the framework of a minimum time control problem, with the employment of a continuous steering law. The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance achievable with a piecewise-constant steering law whose aim is to substantially reduce the complex task of reorienting the sail over the whole mission. Unlike previous studies based on direct approaches, here we use an indirect method to optimally select the sail angle within a set of prescribed values. The corresponding steering law translates the results available for continuous controls to the discrete case, and is able of producing trajectories that are competitive in performance with the optimum variable direction program.     

Active aeroelastic control over a four control surface wing model

This paper describes the procedure implemented to design, develop and test an aeroelastic control system installed on a forward swept wing of the aeroelastic demonstrator X-DIA. A control method directly based on Nissim aerodynamic energy concept has been chosen. Two different modeling techniques have been adopted for the calculation of generalized aerodynamic forces, such as doublet lattice method and computational fluid dynamics and the obtained results are finally compared. The latter approach, applied to better estimate the control surfaces effectiveness, requires the capability to correctly model the control surface rotation and the grid deformation, usually addressed as non-trivial problems in CFD based aeroelastic analysis. A genetic algorithm optimization technique has been adopted to state and refine all the control gains.     

Experimental studies of the impulsive ultrasonic machining by a tool with an intermediate striker

Some experimental data on the process of impulsive ultrasonic machining are presented. Also given are the data on variations in the impulsive vibration frequency of a workpiece and a tool.     

Systems integration, user interface design, and tower air trafficcontrol

Tower air traffic control is currently performed using several unintegrated systems. While each of these systems supports performing an isolated task, the compilation of tools presents a number of challenges. This paper reports ways in which the Tower Control Computer Complex (TCCC) will support and enhance user management of numerous systems. Areas that will be notably improved include the consistency in the user interface of the air traffic control toolset, the task of manually integrating tools and information, toolset alert management, and toolset organization and administration     

Trapped antiprotons produced by cosmic rays in the Earth's magnetosphere.

The existence of significant fluxes of antiparticles in the Earth magnetosphere has been predicted on theoretical considerations in this article. These antiparticles (positrons or antiprotons) at several hundred kilometers of altitudes, we believe are not of direct extraterrestrial origin, but are the natural products of nuclear reactions of the high energy primary cosmic rays (CR) and trapped protons (TP) confined in the terrestrial radiation belt, with the constituents of terrestrial atmosphere. Extraterrestrial positrons and antiprotons born in nuclear reactions of the same CR particles passing through only 5-7 g/cm2 of interstellar matter, exhibit lower fluxes compared to the antiprotons born at hundreds of g/cm2 in the atmosphere, which when confined in the magnetic field of the Earth (in any other planet), get accumulated. We present the results of the computations of the antiproton fluxes at 10 MeV to several GeV energies due to CR particle interactions with the matter in the interstellar space, and also with the residual atmosphere at altitudes of approximately 1000 km over the Earth's surface. The estimates show that the magnetospheric antiproton fluxes are greater by two orders of magnitude compared to the extraterrestrial fluxes measured at energies <1-2 GeV.     

Technique of integral diagnostics for a radio-frequency inductively coupled plasma discharge unit of an RF ion thruster

A technique of integral diagnostics for an RF inductively coupled plasma gas discharge unit of an ion thruster is proposed. This technique includes a priori measurements of antenna coil electrical parameters in free space and in assembled state as well as experimental determination of the antenna coil currents with and without discharge.     

Detection of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos by radio method using artificial lunar satellites

An estimate of the feasibility of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray and neutrino detection using a lunar satellite-borne radio receiver is presented. The data obtained in the proposed experiment will make resolving the current contradictions in the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray spectra measured with the major ground-based instruments possible. Moreover, they will enable us to considerably extend the accessible energy range and to check predictions of various models of the origin of the highest-energy particles in the Universe. At the same time the lunar radio detector provides a means of searching for ultrahigh-energy neutrinos with a high sensitivity combined with a very large target effective mass.     

Energetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Atoms Observed on the Nightside of Mars

We present measurements of energetic hydrogen and oxygen atoms (ENAs) on the nightside of Mars detected by the neutral particle detector (NPD) of ASPERA-3 on Mars Express. We focus on the observations for which the field-of-view of NPD was directed at the nightside of Mars or at the region around the limb, thus monitoring the flow of ENAs towards the nightside of the planet. We derive energy spectra and total fluxes, and have compiled maps of hydrogen ENA outflow. The hydrogen ENA intensities reach 10⁵ cm⁻² sr⁻¹ s⁻¹, but no oxygen ENA signals above the detection threshold of 10⁴ cm⁻² sr⁻¹ s⁻¹ are observed. These intensities are considerably lower than most theoretical predictions. We explain the discrepancy as due to an overestimation of the charge-exchange processes in the models for which too high an exospheric density was assumed. Recent UV limb emission measurements (Galli et al., this issue) point to a hydrogen exobase density of 10¹⁰ m⁻³ and a very hot hydrogen component, whereas the models were based on a hydrogen exobase density of 10¹² m⁻³ and a temperature of 200 K predicted by Krasnopolsky and Gladstone (1996). Finally, we estimate the global atmospheric loss rate of hydrogen and oxygen due to the production of ENAs.