Scientific Planning and Commanding of the Rosetta Payload

ESA’s Rosetta mission was launched in March 2004 and is on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it is scheduled to arrive in summer 2014. It comprises a payload of 12 scientific instruments and a Lander. All instruments are provided by Principal Investigators, which are responsible for their operations. As for most ESA science missions, the ground segment of the mission consists of a Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and a Science Operations Centre (SOC). While the MOC is responsible for all spacecraft-related aspects and the final uplink of all command timelines to the spacecraft, the scientific operations of the instruments and the collection of the data and ingestion into the Planetary Science Archive are coordinated by the SOC. This paper focuses on the tasks of the SOC and in particular on the methodology and constraints to convert the scientific goals of the Rosetta mission to operational timelines.     

The Genesis Solar Wind Concentrator Target: Mass Fractionation Characterised by Neon Isotopes

The concentrator on Genesis provided samples of increased fluences of solar wind ions for precise determination of the oxygen isotopic composition. The concentration process caused mass fractionation as a function of the radial target position. This fractionation was measured using Ne released by UV laser ablation and compared with modelled Ne data, obtained from ion-trajectory simulations. Measured data show that the concentrator performed as expected and indicate a radially symmetric concentration process. Measured concentration factors are up to ∼30 at the target centre. The total range of isotopic fractionation along the target radius is 3.8%/amu, with monotonically decreasing ²⁰Ne/²²Ne towards the centre, which differs from model predictions. We discuss potential reasons and propose future attempts to overcome these disagreements.     

Human exposure to large solar particle events in space.

Whenever energetic solar protons produced by solar particle events traverse bulk matter, they undergo various nuclear and atomic collision processes which significantly alter the physical characteristics and biologically important properties of their transported radiation fields. These physical interactions and their effect on the resulting radiation field within matter are described within the context of a recently developed deterministic, coupled neutron-proton space radiation transport computer code (BRYNTRN). Using this computer code, estimates of human exposure in interplanetary space, behind nominal (2 g/cm2) and storm shelter (20 g/cm2) thicknesses of aluminum shielding, are made for the large solar proton event of August 1972. Included in these calculations are estimates of cumulative exposures to the skin, ocular lens, and bone marrow as a function of time during the event. Risk assessment in terms of absorbed dose and dose equivalent is discussed for these organs. Also presented are estimates of organ exposures for hypothetical, worst-case flare scenarios. The rate of dose equivalent accumulation places this situation in an interesting region of dose rate between the very low values of usual concern in terrestrial radiation environments and the high dose rate values prevalent in radiation therapy.     

对“ZY-1”FM1整星热平衡、热真空试验中有效载荷被污染情况的分析

介绍了卫星在热平衡试验后所发现的有效载荷的污染情况,通过对污染提取物的分析和试验设备的再次污染监测,找出了污染源,并对以后的防污染工作提供了借鉴.     

陶瓷量块的研制

介绍了氧化锆精细陶瓷材料性能及二氧化锆陶瓷量块的优点 ,重点介绍了陶瓷量块的主要技术参数的检测结果 ,陶瓷量块的高硬度、耐磨损、不锈蚀和氧化、线膨胀系数接近于钢、尺寸稳定、研合性好、易维护的特性使之有着良好的市场发展前景。     

VO2薄膜制备工艺及电阻开关特性研究

用溶胶－凝胶法在非晶玻璃上制备VO2薄膜，经过熔融、涂膜、烘干和热处理等工艺最后得到电阻相变2－3个量级的VO2薄膜。对烘干温度、熔融温度、膜厚和热处理温度对薄膜电阻开关特性的影响进行了研究。通过XRD（X－ray diffraction)和XPS（X－ray photoelectron spectroscopy）对薄膜的结构和价态进行分析，表明用溶胶－凝胶法制图VO2膜工艺简单，重复性好。     

Operational testing of valve regulated lead acid batteries incommercial aircraft

Valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries provide electrical performance that is virtually identical to sintered plate nickel-cadmium battery systems. In addition, the VRLA batteries offer the user a no-maintenance battery and other enhanced features that make this a very desirable battery for aircraft applications. In field trials, where VRLA batteries were substituted for nickel-cadmium batteries, the VRLA provided the user with a high reliability turbine engine starting battery under a wide variety of climatic conditions     

Generating requirements for complex embedded systems using State Analysis

It has become clear that spacecraft system complexity is reaching a threshold where customary methods of control are no longer affordable or sufficiently reliable. At the heart of this problem are the conventional approaches to systems and software engineering based on subsystem-level functional decomposition, which fail to scale in the tangled web of interactions typically encountered in complex spacecraft designs. Furthermore, there is a fundamental gap between the requirements on software specified by systems engineers and the implementation of these requirements by software engineers. Software engineers must perform the translation of requirements into software code, hoping to accurately capture the systems engineer's understanding of the system behavior, which is not always explicitly specified. This gap opens up the possibility for misinterpretation of the systems engineer's intent, potentially leading to software errors. This problem is addressed by a systems engineering methodology called State Analysis, which provides a process for capturing system and software requirements in the form of explicit models. This paper describes how requirements for complex aerospace systems can be developed using State Analysis, using representative spacecraft examples.     

滑阀稳态液动力的计算和分析

以液氧/煤油补燃循环火箭发动机中流量调节器中滑阀为例,介绍了滑阀稳态液动力的一种计算方法,分析了不同结构参数下稳态液动力的变化规律,得出了滑阀的稳态液动力与滑阀位移、液流出口处的流道形状以及刃边厚度关系的一些初步结论。     

Synthesis of biomass and utilization of plants wastes in a physical model of biological life-support system

The paper considers problems of biosynthesis of higher plants' biomass and "biological incineration" of plant wastes in a working physical model of biological LSS. The plant wastes are "biologically incinerated" in a special heterotrophic block involving Californian worms, mushrooms and straw. The block processes plant wastes (straw, haulms) to produce soil-like substrate (SLS) on which plants (wheat, radish) are grown. Gas exchange in such a system consists of respiratory gas exchange of SLS and photosynthesis and respiration of plants. Specifics of gas exchange dynamics of high plants--SLS complex has been considered. Relationship between such a gas exchange and PAR irradiance and age of plants has been established. Nitrogen and iron were found to the first to limit plants' growth on SLS when process conditions are deranged. The SLS microflora has been found to have different kinds of ammonifying and denitrifying bacteria which is indicative of intensive transformation of nitrogen-containing compounds. The number of physiological groups of microorganisms in SLS was, on the whole, steady. As a result, organic substances--products of exchange of plants and microorganisms were not accumulated in the medium, but mineralized and assimilated by the biocenosis. Experiments showed that the developed model of a man-made ecosystem realized complete utilization of plant wastes and involved them into the intrasystem turnover.