Passive cooling of superconducting magnetic systems in space

The equilibrium temperature of a system in space can be lowered by a suitable choice of its geometry and its attitude. This remark is important for devices based on medium temperature and high temperature superconducting materials, and offers the possibility of their fully passive cooling without or with a marginal recourse to active systems. General parameterizations are given and simple schemes discussed. The adopted geometrical configuration and the attitude can enhance the role of passive cooling of the large superconducting magnetic systems required for protecting from ionizing radiation manned habitats in deep space. A specific example based on MgB₂ cable for protecting large volume habitats (500 and 1000 m³) is treated. The systems can be run in deep space at equilibrium temperatures around 20 K mainly by passive cooling, provided that their geometry and attitude would be suitably chosen.     

Sesame – An Experiment of the Rosetta Lander Philae: Objectives and General Design

SESAME is an instrument complex built in international co-operation and carried by the Rosetta lander Philae intended to land on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The main goals of this instrument suite are to measure mechanical and electrical properties of the cometary surface and the shallow subsurface as well as of the particles emitted from the cometary surface. Most of the sensors are mounted within the six soles of the landing gear feet in order to provide good contact with or proximity to the cometary surface. The measuring principles, instrument designs, technical layout, operational concepts and the results from the first in-flight measurements are described. We conclude with comments on the consequences of the last minute change of the target comet and how to improve and to preserve the knowledge during the long-duration Rosetta mission.     

Hypothetical flora and fauna of Venus

Hypothetical habitability of some of extrasolar planets is a fundamental question of science. Some of exoplanets possess physical conditions close to those of Venus. Therefore, the planet Venus, with its dense and hot (735 K) oxygen-free atmosphere of CO₂, having a high pressure of 9.2 MPa at the surface, can be a natural laboratory for this kind of studies. The only existing data on the planet׳s surface are still the results obtained by the Soviet VENERA landers in the 1970s and 1980s. The TV experiments of Venera-9 and 10 (October, 1975) and Venera-13 and 14 (March, 1982) delivered 41 panoramas of Venus surface (or their fragments). There have not been any similar missions to Venus in the subsequent 39 and 32 years. In the absence of new landing missions to Venus, the VENERA panoramas have been re-processed. The results of these missions are studied anew. A dozen of relatively large objects, from a decimeter to half a meter in size, with an unusual morphology have been found which moved very slowly or changed slightly their shape. Their emergence by chance could hardly be explained by noise. Certain unusual findings that have similar structure were found in different areas of the planet. This paper presents the last results obtained of a search for hypothetical flora and fauna of Venus.     

An exploration of the effectiveness of artificial mini-magnetospheres as a potential solar storm shelter for long term human space missions

If mankind is to explore the solar system beyond the confines of our Earth and Moon the problem of radiation protection must be addressed. Galactic cosmic rays and highly variable energetic solar particles are an ever-present hazard in interplanetary space.     

Role of sample return and sample science in low cost missions

Sample return is an essential component of solar system exploration. Samples provide a unique data set that is critical for understanding formation and evolution of our solar system. This uniqueness is based on the scale of observations, precision of measurements, the ability to modify experiments as logic and technology dictate, and the ability to use instruments free of the constraints on mass, power, reliability, and data rate of flight instruments. Advances in analytical capabilities in recent years enable fundamental measurements to be made on extremely small samples, greatly reducing mass constraints on robotic sample return spacecraft. Sample studies provide irreplaceable ground truth for remotely-sensed data on planetary surfaces and fit within a variety of architectures for human exploration of the solar system.     

Multipoint optimization on fuel efficiency in conceptual design of wide-body aircraft

Aircraft conceptual design optimizations that maximize the performance at a design condition (single-point) may result in designs with unsatisfying off-design performance. To further improve aircraft efficiency under actual flight operations, there is a need to consider multiple flight conditions (multipoint) in aircraft conceptual design and optimization. A new strategy for multipoint optimizations in aircraft conceptual design is proposed in this paper. A wide-body aircraft is taken as an example for both single-point and multipoint optimizations with the objective of maximizing the specific hourly productivity. Boeing 787-8 flight data was used in the multipoint optimization to reflect the true objective function. The results show that the optimal design from the multipoint optimization has a 7.72% total specific hourly productivity increase of entire flight missions compared with that of the baseline aircraft, while the increase in the total specific hourly productivity from the single-point optimal design is only 5.73%. The differences between the results of single-point and multipoint optimizations indicate that there is a good option to further improve aircraft efficiency by considering actual flight conditions in aircraft conceptual design and optimization.     

Cancer risk above 1 Gy and the impact for space radiation protection

Analyses of the epidemiological data on the Japanese A-bomb survivors, who were exposed to γ-rays and neutrons, provide most current information on the dose–response of radiation-induced cancer. Since the dose span of main interest is usually between 0 and 1 Gy, for radiation protection purposes, the analysis of the A-bomb survivors is often focused on this range. However, estimates of cancer risk for doses larger than 1 Gy are becoming more important for long-term manned space missions. Therefore in this work, emphasis is placed on doses larger than 1 Gy with respect to radiation-induced solid cancer and leukemia mortality. The present analysis of the A-bomb survivors data was extended by including two extra high-dose categories and applying organ-averaged dose instead of the colon-weighted dose. In addition, since there are some recent indications for a high neutron dose contribution, the data were fitted separately for three different values for the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the neutrons (10, 35 and 100) and a variable RBE as a function of dose. The data were fitted using a linear and a linear-exponential dose–response relationship using a dose and dose-rate effectiveness factor (DDREF) of both one and two. The work presented here implies that the use of organ-averaged dose, a dose-dependent neutron RBE and the bending-over of the dose–response relationship for radiation-induced cancer could result in a reduction of radiation risk by around 50% above 1 Gy. This could impact radiation risk estimates for space crews on long-term mission above 500 days who might be exposed to doses above 1 Gy. The consequence of using a DDREF of one instead of two increases cancer risk by about 40% and would therefore balance the risk decrease described above.     

Development of a thin section device for space exploration: Overview and system performance estimates

In this paper we present a conceptual design of a spaceborne instrument for the in situ production of rock thin sections on planetary surfaces. The in situ Automated Rock Thin Section Instrument (IS-ARTS) conceptual design demonstrates that the in situ production of thin sections on a planetary body is a plausible new instrument capability for future planetary exploration. Thin section analysis would reduce much ambiguity in the geological history of a sampled site that is present with instruments currently flown. The technical challenge of producing a thin section device compatible with the spacecraft environment is formidable and has been thought too technically difficult to be practical. Terrestrial thin section preparation requires a skilled petrographist, several preparation instruments that individually exceed typical spacecraft mass and power limits, and consumable materials that are not easily compatible with spaceflight. In two companion papers we present research and development work used to constrain the capabilities of IS-ARTS in the technical space compatible with the spacecraft environment. For the design configuration shown we conclude that a device can be constructed that is capable of 50 sample preparations over a 2 year lifespan with mass, power, and volume constraints compatible with current landed Mars mission configurations. The technical requirements of IS-ARTS (mass, power and number of samples produced) depend strongly on the sample mechanical properties, sample processing rate, the sample size and number of samples to be produced.     

Development of a thin section device for space exploration: Rock cutting mechanism

We have developed a rock cutting mechanism for in situ planetary exploration based on abrasive diamond impregnated wire. Performance characteristics of the rock cutter, including cutting rate on several rock types, cutting surface lifetime, and cut rock surface finish are presented. The rock cutter was developed as part of a broader effort to develop an in situ automated rock thin section (IS-ARTS) instrument. The objective of IS-ARTS was to develop an instrument capable of producing petrographic rock thin sections on a planetary science spacecraft. The rock cutting mechanism may also be useful to other planetary science missions with in situ instruments in which sub-sampling and rock surface preparation are necessary.     

面向卫星多目标重复观测任务的分层聚类规划

针对敏捷卫星多目标重复观测任务规划面临的可行任务执行序列集合规模庞大困难,提出了一种任务执行序列时间解耦的分层聚类任务规划方法。该方法以规划过程中的可观测窗口和任务执行窗口为聚类对象,通过单次可观测窗口聚类和多次任务执行窗口聚类将任务集合按任务窗口属性分解为一系列时间解耦的小规模集合,在两次任务执行窗口聚类间使用基于贪婪优化的搜索算法对聚类生成的小规模任务集合分别进行集合内任务规划,最后将各集合的任务规划结果合并后得到所有任务的执行序列。仿真结果表明,该分层聚类方法可有效降低全局优化复杂度,消解不同优先级观测任务的冲突,提高任务规划质量,能够在不降低目标点观测完成率的前提下对有多个观测机会的目标点进行重复观测,且算法稳定性好,能在数秒内得出规划结果,适用于星上自主任务规划。