A preliminary assessment of an orbiter in the Haumean system: How quickly can a planetary orbiter reach such a distant target?

With the recent discoveries of planetary objects beyond Neptune and Pluto, the vast majority of all sizeable Solar System planetary objects lie now beyond Uranus, where insertion into orbit after a reasonably short travel is still not within the current capabilities of our spacecraft. Being able to go and stop at a transneptunian dwarf planet would represent a step stone for ambitious long-term goals. The pressure to send spacecraft to these bodies will grow, as, among the tens or hundreds of large objects, some will emerge as high priorities for science and exploration missions. It is subsequently necessary to prepare the technologies required for such spacecraft. In addition, being able to achieve a fast journey to a distant object will benefit also missions to closer targets.Thales Alenia Space has carried out a preliminary parameter exploration of such a mission with a challenging target: an orbiter in the Haumean system. The main parameters are the characteristics of the propulsion and power system, as well as the masses of the spacecraft. The exploration has inferred the technological improvement needed for reaching these objects within a reasonable time.     

Effect of variable solid phase thermal properties on propellant combustion

Mathematical models derived for describing the combustion of solid rocket propellants have in the past assumed that the thermal properties, specific heat, and thermal conductivity are constant throughout the solid phase portion of the combustion zone. The values for specific heat and thermal conductivity can vary as much as 50–100 percent for the temperatures in the solid phase combustion wave, values from about 250 to 1100 K. Thus, the variation in solid phase properties due to the temperature variation in the solid phase have significant effects on the burning rate, the temperature sensitivity and the pressure coupled response. The paper is concerned with predicting the effect of the variable solid phase properties on the combustion properties. Parametric calculations were made to illustrate the effect of the magnitude of the variation of solid phase properties with temperature. The results indicate that significant differences exist between the values for the combustion parameters calculated using variable thermal properties as compared to those calculated using constant thermal properties.     

Lithopanspermia in star-forming clusters

This paper considers the lithopanspermia hypothesis in star-forming groups and clusters, where the chances of biological material spreading from one solar system to another is greatly enhanced (relative to action in the field) because of the close proximity of the systems and lower relative velocities. These effects more than compensate for the reduced time spent in such crowded environments. This paper uses approximately 300,000 Monte Carlo scattering calculations to determine the cross sections for rocks to be captured by binaries and provides fitting formulae for other applications. We assess the odds of transfer as a function of the ejection speed v (eject) and number N(.) of members in the birth aggregate. The odds of any given ejected meteoroid being recaptured by another solar system are relatively low, about 1:10(3)-10(6) over the expected range of ejection speeds and cluster sizes. Because the number of ejected rocks (with mass m > 10 kg) per system can be large, N (R) approximately 10(16), virtually all solar systems are likely to share rocky ejecta with all of the other solar systems in their birth cluster. The number of ejected rocks that carry living microorganisms is much smaller and less certain, but we estimate that N (B) approximately 10(7) rocks can be ejected from a biologically active solar system. For typical birth environments, the capture of life-bearing rocks is expected to occur N (bio) asymptotically equal to 10-16,000 times (per cluster), depending on the ejection speeds. Only a small fraction (f (imp) approximately 10(4)) of the captured rocks impact the surfaces of terrestrial planets, so that N (lps) asymptotically equal to 10(3)-1.6 lithopanspermia events are expected per cluster (under favorable conditions). Finally, we discuss the question of internal versus external seeding of clusters and the possibility of Earth seeding young clusters over its biologically active lifetime.     

O5+ in High Speed Solar Wind Streams: SWICS/Ulysses Results

Recent observations with UVCS on SOHO of high outflow velocities of O⁵⁺ at low coronal heights have spurred much discussion about the dynamics of solar wind acceleration. On the other hand, O⁶⁺ is the most abundant oxygen charge state in the solar wind, but is not observed by UVCS or by SUMER because this helium-like ion has no emission lines falling in the wave lengths observable by these instruments. Therefore, there is considerable interest in observing O⁵⁺ in situ in order to understand the relative importance of O⁵⁺ with respect to the much more abundant O⁶⁺. High speed streams are the prime candidates for the search for O⁵⁺ because all elements exhibit lower freezing-in temperatures in high speed streams than in the slow solar wind. The Ulysses spacecraft was exposed to long time periods of high speed streams during its passage over the polar regions of the Sun. The Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) on Ulysses is capable of resolving this rare oxygen charge state. We present the first measurement of O⁵⁺ in the solar wind and compare these data with those of the more abundant oxygen species O⁶⁺ and O⁷⁺. We find that our observations of the oxygen charge states can be fitted with a single coronal electron temperature in the range of 1.0 to 1.2 MK assuming collisional ionization/recombination equilibrium with an ambient Maxwellian electron gas. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.