Individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness among six Skylab astronauts

One of the Skylab experiments dealt with motion sickness, comparing susceptibility in the workshop aloft with susceptibility preflight and postflight. Tests were conducted on and after mission-day 8 (MD 8) by which time the astronauts were adapted to working conditions. Stressful accelerations were generated by requiring the astronauts, with eyes covered, to execute standardized head movements (front, back, left, and right) while in a chair that could be rotated at angular velocities up to 30 rpm. The selected endpoint was either 150 discrete head movements or a very mild level of motion sickness. In all rotation experiments aloft, the five astronauts tested (astronaut 1 did not participate) were virtually symptom free, thus demonstrating lower susceptibility aloft than in preflight and postflight tests on the ground when symptoms were always elicited. Inasmuch as the eyes were covered and the canalicular stimuli were the same aloft as on the ground, it would appear that lifting the stimulus to the otolith organs due to gravity was an important factor in reducing susceptibility to motion sickness even though the transient stimuli generated under the test conditions were substantial and abnormal in pattern. Some of the astronauts experienced motion sickness under operational conditions aloft or after splashdown, but attention is centered chiefly on symptoms manifested in zero gravity. None of the Skylab-II crew (astronauts 1 to 3) was motion sick aloft. Astronaut 6 of the Skylab-III crew (astronauts 4 to 6) experienced motion sickness within an hour after transition into orbit; this constitutes the earliest such diagnosis on record under orbital flight conditions. The eliciting stimuli were associated with head and body movements, and astronaut 6 obtained relief by avoiding such movements and by one dose of the drug combination 1-scopolamine 0.35 mg + d-amphetamine 5.0 mg. All three astronauts of Skylab-III experienced motion sickness in the workshop where astronaut 6 was most susceptible and astronaut 4, least susceptible. The higher susceptibility of SL-III crewmen in the workshop, as compared with SL-II crewmen, may be attributable to the fact that they were based in the command module less than one-third as long as SL-II crewmen. The unnatural movements, often resembling acrobatics, permitted in the open spaces of the workshop revealed the great potentialities in weightlessness for generating complex interactions of abnormal or unusual vestibular and visual stimuli. Symptoms were controlled by body restraint and by drugs, but high susceptibility to motion sickness persisted for 3 days and probably much longer; restoration was complete on MD 7. From the foregoing statements it is clear that on and after MD 8 the susceptibility of SL-II and SL-III crewmen to motion sickness under experimental conditions was indistinguishable. The role played by the acquisition of adaptation effects prior to MD 8 is less clear and is a subject to be discussed.     

MX导弹喷管用先进材料评论 Ⅱ 第一级喷管的先进材料

本文是评论MX导弹喷管先进材料的三篇文章中的第二篇。第一篇文章于1977年4月在SAMPE季刊中发表(译文见“固体火箭技术”1978年第二期第99—105页),综述了MX导弹喷管对材料的要求,叙述了石墨材料的结构、性质和性能之间的关系。本文继续对MX的第一级和第二级发动机喷管所用先进材料进一步进行评价。     

欧洲同步科学卫星用的远地点发动机

意大利斯尼亚粘胶公司和法国“欧洲推进公司”于1973年5月开始联合研制“GEOS”欧洲同步科学卫星的远地点发动机,前者负责计划管理,发动机设计,推进剂和绝热层研制,发动机的装配和试验;后者负责壳体、喷管和点火器的设计、制造和试验。计划于1976年1月完成,将成为欧洲首创的远地点发动机。发动机长1130毫米,直径684毫米,装端羧聚丁二烯推进剂267公斤,壳体材料用 Ti—6A1—4V 钛合金,绝热层用石棉乙丙橡胶,采用半潜入喷管,喉径67毫米,膨胀比37,高密度石墨喉衬,碳布缠绕扩散段。发动机总重303公斤,燃烧室平均压力23公斤/厘米~2,真空最大推力2360公斤,真空比冲286秒,使用温度范围-10~℃～+40℃,相应的燃烧时间为51和47秒。研制工作分初步设计、金属件设计,组件鉴定,研制试验,鉴定试验和验收试验六个阶段。研制、鉴定试验中全尺寸发动机试车4发,验收批4发,其中试车2发,交货2发,提出这个报告时,正进行鉴定试验工作,已经取得的试验结果都很好,但研制试验有一台发动机经 X 射线检查,发现装药有缺陷而未进行试车。     

Motion sickness susceptibility during rotation at 30 rpm in free-fall parabolic flight

Free fall per se whether in parabolic or orbital flight may be regarded as a "partial" motion environment with respect to eliciting motion sickness, requiring an additional component to render this environment "complete" or stressful. Parabolic flight in toto falls in the category of a "complete" motion environment in that some persons became motion sick with head fixed and eyes closed. In the present experiment we selected subjects who were symptom free or nearly symptom free in the KC-135 with head fixed. All tests were conducted with the subject rotating at 30 rpm in a rotating litter chair, and comparisons were made between head-fixed and head-moving conditions (right-left) in the free-fall phase of parabolic flight and under simulated free-fall phases in the laboratory. With head fixed most subjects were insusceptible; with head moving left-right susceptibility was slightly higher in the laboratory than aloft. An additional comparison was made correlating susceptibility in the free-fall phases of parabolic flight with susceptibility to experimental motion sickness in Skylab. In both situations cross-coupled angular accelerations were generated by executing head and body movements out of the plane of rotation. In parabolic flight 9 of 15 subjects reached an endpoint just short of frank motion sickness. In the Skylab workshop all eight of the astronauts tested were symptom free at the end of the test. The explanation for the difference in susceptibility rests in two factors: (1) Basic susceptibility in free fall is lower than on the ground, and (2) in Skylab the astronauts who needed to adapt had achieved this goal prior to the first test on Mission-Day 8.     

导引头实物仿真技术

讨论了美国陆军导弹司令部在研制面空导弹时采用的导引头实物仿真技术.目前在导弹系统的研制过程中,人们受到很多限制,例如经费有限,需要进行可靠的系统试验,要求在逼真的环境,包括电磁干扰和抗干扰环境中评价系统等.导引头实物仿真试验能为解决上述问题发挥重要作用.介绍和讨论了射频、非红外成像和电-光波段的现有仿真设备及其性能;举例介绍了最近完成的仿真试验结果及其对降低导弹系统研制成本所起的作用.最后介绍了主要的仿真技术和美国陆军提高仿真器能力的未来计划.     

固体推进剂发动机的比冲予示

实际比冲的理论予示方法大家是比较熟悉的.这些方法包括计算由于两相流、扩散、边界层、动能、喷管潜入和不完全燃烧造成的损失。在典型的加铝推进剂中最大的计算损失是两相流损失;由于粒子的大小和分布是不能精确知道的,因此这种计算也就具有最大的不精确性.本文中把由试验数据获得的平均粒子直径与喉径的关系用在固体火箭性能予示程序(SPP)方面,以便予示一系列发动机的推进剂比冲。这些予示与试验结果进行比较。结果指出比冲效率可认为与推进剂的本质有关.此外,试验比冲和比冲效率对发动机和推进剂变量是统计地相关的。这些相关性与较复杂的、较昂贵的理论分析一样准确.除比冲予示外,相关方程在发动机设计最佳化中是有用的。     

通过聚集探测SAR图像中的动目标

本文介绍的是一种在合成孔径雷达（SAR）图像中探测动目标的方法。这种方法是将SAR复图像分成若干分区，分别对各个分区进行聚焦，然后测量聚焦区域中锐度的增长情况，这种方法能敏锐地检测到目标的方位速度，对目标径向加速度的检测尤为敏锐，还能对任意方向的运动进行检测，对于只能检测快速运动目标径向速度的传统多普勒传感动目标指示器而言，这种方法是一种有效的补充。     

Production of neutrons from interactions of GCR-like particles

In order to help assess the risk to astronauts due to the long-term exposure to the natural radiation environment in space, an understanding of how the primary radiation field is changed when passing through shielding and tissue materials must be obtained. One important aspect of the change in the primary radiation field after passing through shielding materials is the production of secondary particles from the breakup of the primary. Neutrons are an important component of the secondary particle field due to their relatively high biological weighting factors, and due to their relative abundance, especially behind thick shielding scenarios. Because of the complexity of the problem, the estimation of the risk from exposure to the secondary neutron field must be handled using calculational techniques. However, those calculations will need an extensive set of neutron cross section and thicktarget neutron yield data in order to make an accurate assessment of the risk. In this paper we briefly survey the existing neutron-production data sets that are applicable to the space radiation transport problem, and we point out how neutron production from protons is different than neutron production from heavy ions. We also make comparisons of one the heavy-ion data sets with Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) calculations.     

Effect of weightlessness on posture and movement control during a whole body reaching task

Here are reported preliminary results of the “Synergy” experiment performed aboard the Russian orbital station “MIR” in July 1993 (Altaïr Mission). The experiment was carried out before, during, and after the space flight of two astronauts (S1 and S2). The duration of the flight was 21 days for S1 and 6 month for S2. The subjects were tested during preflight, inflight and postflight. The astronaut subjects were fixed on the ground by the feet. They were asked to pick up a box in front of them on the ground. Two velocities of movement and two distances of the target to be reached were tested. The movement of several small markers placed on the body was recorded on video tape.

Results show that the shape of head and hand trajectories in the sagittal plane remains roughly the same during the flight in spite of the modification of mechanical constraints. Trajectory invariance does not result in joint angular displacement invariance. These data indicate that the planning of the movement takes place in terms of head and hand trajectories rather than joint rotations as it was previously suggested for simple arm reaching movement.     

海洋宽视场成像遥感器

1 概述 海洋宽视场成像遥感器(seaWiFS)项目的目的是为地球科学领域提供有关全球海洋生物光学特性的定量数据。这个项目将研制并运用一个研究数据系统,此系统可对从地球轨道海色遥感器接收的数据进行处理、定标、校准、归档和分发。