Cosac, The Cometary Sampling and Composition Experiment on Philae

Comets are thought to preserve the most pristine material currently present in the solar system, as they are formed by agglomeration of dust particles in the solar nebula, far from the Sun, and their interiors have remained cold. By approaching the Sun, volatile components and dust particles are released forming the cometary coma. During the phase of Heavy Bombardment, 3.8--4 billion years ago, cometary matter was delivered to the Early Earth. Precise knowledge on the physico-chemical composition of comets is crucial to understand the formation of the Solar System, the evolution of Earth and particularly the starting conditions for the origin of life on Earth. Here, we report on the COSAC instrument, part of the ESA cometary mission Rosetta, which is designed to characterize, identify, and quantify volatile cometary compounds, including larger organic molecules, by in situ measurements of surface and subsurface cometary samples. The technical concept of a multi-column enantio-selective gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to a linear reflectron time-of-flight mass-spectrometer instrument is presented together with its realisation under the scientific guidance of the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany. The instrument's technical data are given; first measurements making use of standard samples are presented. The cometary science community is looking forward to receive fascinating data from COSAC cometary in situ measurements in 2014.     

Aeronomy of Extra-Solar Giant Planets

The intense stellar UV radiation field incident upon extra-solar giant planets causes profound changes to their upper atmospheres. Upper atmospheric temperatures can be tens of thousands of kelvins, causing thermal dissociation of H₂ to H. The stellar ionizing flux converts H to H⁺. The high temperatures also drive large escape rates of H, but for all but the planets with the smallest orbits, this flux is not large enough to affect planet evolution. The escape rate is large enough to drag off heavier atoms such as C and O. For very small orbits, when the hill sphere is inside the atmosphere, escape is unfettered and can affect planet evolution.     

Aerodynamic scaling to free flight conditions: Past and present

This report summarizes some of the problems when wind tunnel data should be scaled to free flight conditions. The main challenges in performing this extrapolation is how model support, wall interference, aeroelastic effects and a potentially lower Reynolds number in the wind tunnel should be corrected. A historical review of scale effects is presented showing wind tunnel to flight discrepancies of different types of aircraft configurations. An overview of scaling methodologies and Reynolds number effects are presented and discussed. Some modern approaches where computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are used, together with wind tunnel testing, in order to identify scaling phenomena are presented as well.     

Simulation study for the determination of the lunar gravity field from PRARE-L tracking onboard the German LEO mission

A simulation study has been performed at GFZ Potsdam, which shows the anticipated improvement of the lunar gravity field model with respect to current (LP150Q model) or near-future (SELENE) knowledge in the framework of the planned German Lunar Explorations Orbiter (LEO) mission, based on PRARE-L (Precise Range And Range-rate Equipment – Lunar version) Satellite-to-Satellite (SST) and Satellite-Earth-Satellite (SEST) tracking observations. It is shown that the global mean error of the lunar gravity field can be reduced to less than 0.1 mGal at a spatial resolution of 50 km. In the spectral domain, this means a factor of 10 (long wavelengths) and some 100 (mid to short wavelengths) improvement as compared to predictions for SELENE or a factor of 1000 with respect to LP150Q. Furthermore, a higher spatial resolution of up to 28 km seems feasible and would correspond to a factor of 2–3 improvement of SELENE results. Moreover, PRARE-L is expected to derive the low-degree coefficients of the lunar gravity field with unprecedented accuracy. Considering long mission duration (at least 1 year is planned) this would allow for the first time a precise direct determination of the low-degree tidal Love numbers of the Moon and, in combination with high precision SEST, would provide an experimental basis to study relativistic effects such as the periselenium advance in the Earth–Moon system.     

Coronal mass ejection (CME) activity of low mass M stars as an important factor for the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets. I. CME impact on expected magnetospheres of Earth-like exoplanets in close-in habitable zones

Low mass M- and K-type stars are much more numerous in the solar neighborhood than solar-like G-type stars. Therefore, some of them may appear as interesting candidates for the target star lists of terrestrial exoplanet (i.e., planets with mass, radius, and internal parameters identical to Earth) search programs like Darwin (ESA) or the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph/Inferometer (NASA). The higher level of stellar activity of low mass M stars, as compared to solar-like G stars, as well as the closer orbital distances of their habitable zones (HZs), means that terrestrial-type exoplanets within HZs of these stars are more influenced by stellar activity than one would expect for a planet in an HZ of a solar-like star. Here we examine the influences of stellar coronal mass ejection (CME) activity on planetary environments and the role CMEs may play in the definition of habitability criterion for the terrestrial type exoplanets near M stars. We pay attention to the fact that exoplanets within HZs that are in close proximity to low mass M stars may become tidally locked, which, in turn, can result in relatively weak intrinsic planetary magnetic moments. Taking into account existing observational data and models that involve the Sun and related hypothetical parameters of extrasolar CMEs (density, velocity, size, and occurrence rate), we show that Earth-like exoplanets within close-in HZs should experience a continuous CME exposure over long periods of time. This fact, together with small magnetic moments of tidally locked exoplanets, may result in little or no magnetospheric protection of planetary atmospheres from a dense flow of CME plasma. Magnetospheric standoff distances of weakly magnetized Earth-like exoplanets at orbital distances 相似文献   

Canada's role on space station

The paper addresses the evolution of the Canadian Space Station Program between 1981 and 2003. Discussions with potential international partners, aimed at jointly developing the current International Space Station program, were initiated by NASA in 1982. Canada chose, through the further development of the technologies of Canadarm on the space shuttle, to provide and operate an advanced and comprehensive external robotics system for space station, and to use the space station for scientific and commercial purposes. The program was to become a corner-stone of the new Canadian Space Agency. The development phase of the Canadian Space Station Program has been completed and two of the three major elements are currently operational in space.     

Theoretical study about the Marangoni convection in a liquid column in zero-gravity

The thermal Marangoni effect on the surface of a liquid bridge induces a convection inside the liquid. For an imposed arbitrary periodic axial circumferential temperature distribution on the liquid surface the velocity distributions in radial-, angular- and axial direction are determined theoretically by solving the linearized Navier-Stokes equations. Of particular interest is the effect of the viscosity parameter $\text{v}\text{a}{}^2$ and axial wave length to diameter ratio $\text{l}\text{a}$. It was found that the increase of viscosity decreases the magnitude of the velocity distributions and that for small axial wave length to diameter ratios the radial- and axial velocities exhibit peak values close to the free surface of the liquid. This is in a less pronounced way also true for the angular velocity, which shows for increasing moderate values $\text{l}\text{a}\text{(0 ≤}\text{l}\text{a}\text{≤ 2}$) a strong increase in magnitude and for larger axial wavelength a decrease again. For increasing axial wavelength the peak value of the radial- and axial velocity shifts towards the center of the liquid bridge, of which for a further increase a decrease of the magnitude appears.     

Design of an innovative multi-stage forming process for a complex aeronautical thin-walled part with very small radii

In this paper, an aeronautical thin-walled part with a complex geometry which has several sharp bends and curvatures in different directions was investigated. This kind of part is difficult to be manufactured only in one stage. Therefore, an innovative multi-stage active hydroforming process assisted by the rigid forming method was designed. In addition, an optimized blank geometry is obtained. In fact, the main focused point of this paper is to propose a new small radius rounded corner forming technique and analyze the mechanism. Two kinds of forming modes of changing a big rounded corner into a small one, which are related to different tangential positions of the die in the process of calibration, are analyzed theoretically. Meanwhile, the stress and strain states of the deformation region are compared. The relationships between the minimum relative radii of rounded corners I and II in the first stage and the hydraulic pressure are calculated by the bending theory. Finally, the influences of the tensile-bulging effect and the interface condition of the double-layer sheet on the forming quality of the specimen are investigated. The achieved results can make a foundation for utilizing the proposed method in forming of thin-walled parts with very small radii.     

Free oscillations and response of a viscous liquid in a rigid circular cylindrical tank

The natural damped frequencies and the response to translational excitation of a viscous liquid in a circular cylindrical container are obtained. The response of the liquid surface elevation above its equilibrium position, as well as the viscous liquid force in x-direction due to translational excitation in this direction have been numerically evaluated. In this analysis the side wall adhesive boundary conditions have been satisfied, while only the normal bottom condition has been observed. This makes the results of the analysis applicable to liquid height ratio h/a>1.