A novel autonomous low-cost on-board data handling architecture for a pin-point planetary lander

There has been increased interest in the exploration of the Moon in recent years. Pin-point precision landing is highly desirable for future lunar missions. This paper is concerned with the design of the on-board data handling (OBDH) subsystem for the pin-point lunar lander of the Magnolia-1 project, funded by NASA. Four proposed on-board data handling architectures are outlined and compared in terms of power consumption, performance and reliability. Implementation results are presented, which are obtained from prototyping of the flight computer for the optimal OBDH architecture option on a Xilinx Virtex-5 Field Programmable Gate Array.     

Ad hoc wireless sensor networks for exploration of Solar-system bodies

In this work, we evaluate the exploration of the Solar system by ad hoc wireless sensor networks (WSN), i.e., networks where all nodes (either moving or stationary) can both provide and relay data. The two aspects of self-organization and localization are the major challenges to achieve a reliable network for a variety of missions. We point out the diversity of environmental and operational constrains that WSN used for space exploration would face.We evaluate two groups of scenarios consisting in static or moving sensing nodes that can be either located on the ground or in the atmosphere of a Solar-system object. These scenarios enable collecting data simultaneously over a large surface or volume.We consider physical and chemical sensing of the atmosphere, surface and soil using such networks. Emerging technologies such as nodes localization techniques are reviewed. Finally, we compare the specific requirements of WSN for space exploration with those of WSN designed for terrestrial applications.     

Cyclic folding of composite zigzag structures and calculating of equipment parameters

A novel processing scheme for cyclic production of composite folded structures from continuous sheet of prepreg is presented. A circular transformable mandrel is used as a shaping unit. A technique of calculating the shaping unit parameters is developed. It is based on the analysis of facility kinematics using a vector model of four-axis folded structures transformation process.