Radiation protective structures on the base of a case study for a manned Mars mission

Plans for interplanetary manned space missions imply significant risks arising from human's exposure to the hostile space environment. Thus the design of reliable protection systems against the ionizing cosmic radiation becomes one of the most relevant issues. In this paper the composition and magnitude of the atmospheric radiation on the planetary surface and for typical interplanetary transfer configurations have been analyzed. The investigation based on prior NASA and ESA mission results, using a manned mission to planet Mars as a case study. According to this, the time-dependent character of the consistency of cosmic radiation has been taken into account, which is justified by the interdependence of the radiation magnitude to the solar cycle. With regard to this paper it implies even solar particle events. The results have been compared to the protective character of different materials potentially usable as a habitat's structural shell and for interplanetary spacecrafts. The investigation aimed on particle energy degradation rates and reduction of secondary particle production. In this regard the physical process of absorbing effectiveness against particle radiation has been examined by analytical calculation and given scientific results, depending on thickness and molecular composition of the materials. The most suitable materials have been used for shield design proposals using different configurations, evaluating the use of aluminium, water tanks and polyethylene bricks.     

Mesospheric doppler wind measurements from Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS)

This paper describes a microwave limb technique for measuring Doppler wind in the Earth’s mesosphere. The research algorithm has been applied to Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) 118.75 GHz measurements where the O₂ Zeeman lines are resolved by a digital autocorrelation spectrometer. A precision of ∼17 m/s for the line-of-sight (LOS) wind is achieved at 80–92 km, which corresponds to radiometric noise during 1/6 s integration time. The LOS winds from Aura MLS are mostly in the meridional direction at low- and mid-latitudes with vertical resolution of ∼8 km. This microwave Doppler technique has potential to obtain useful winds down to ∼40 km of the Earth’s atmosphere if measurements from other MLS frequencies (near H₂O, O₃, and CO lines) are used. Initial analyses show that the MLS winds from the 118.75 GHz measurements agree well with the TIDI (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Doppler Interferometer) winds for the perturbations induced by a strong quasi 2-day wave (QTDW) in January 2005. Time series of MLS winds reveal many interesting climatological and planetary wave features, including the diurnal, semidiurnal tides, and the QTDW. Interactions between the tides and the QTDW are clearly evident, indicating possible large tidal structural changes after the QTDW events dissipate.     

System design and performance of the two-gyro science mode for the Hubble Space Telescope

For 15 years, the science mission of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) required using three of the six on-board rate gyros for attitude control. Failed gyros were eventually replaced through Space Shuttle Servicing Missions. To ensure the maximum science mission life, a two-gyro science (TGS) mode has been designed and implemented with performance comparable to three-gyro operations. The excellent performance has enabled a transition to operations with 2 gyros (by intentionally turning off a running gyro to save it for later use), and allows for an even greater science mission extension. Predictions show the gain in mission life approaching two years. In TGS mode, the rate information formerly provided by the third gyro is provided by another sensor. There are three submodes, each defined by the sensor used to provide the missing rate information (magnetometers, star trackers, and fine guidance sensors). Although each sensor has limitations, when used sequentially they provide the means to transition from relatively large, post-maneuver attitude errors of up to 10, to the arcsecond errors needed to transition to fine pointing required for science observing. Only small reductions in science productivity exist in TGS mode primarily due to more difficult target scheduling necessary to satisfy constraints imposed by the use of the star trackers. Scientists see no degradation in image quality due to the very low jitters levels that are nearly equivalent to three-gyro mode.     

Ground and satellite-based observations of ionospheric plasma bubbles and blobs at 5.65° latitude in the Brazilian sector

This investigation uses simultaneous observations from all-sky imager system and an ionosonde collocated at Araguatins (5.65° S, 48.07° W and dip-latitude of 4.17° S), a near-equatorial region in Brazil. These simultaneous observations were used to investigate the occurrence of plasma bubbles and blobs in the field of the imaging system and their association with atypical range Spread-F signature in ionograms. Also, in-situ observation of plasma density from Swarm satellites were used to support the ground-based observations. Using a few cases, a methodology will be established to identify in the plasma blobs (atypical ESF) in the ionograms when there is the simultaneous observation of plasma bubbles and blobs in the field of view of the ionosonde. For this purpose, simultaneous sequence of OI 630.0 nm nightglow images and ionograms are presented for different case studies; 1. when there is the absence of a plasma bubble or blob, 2. when there is only the occurrence of plasma bubbles and 3. when there is the occurrence of plasma bubbles and blobs, in order to compare traces in the ionogram in all these case studies. With these we can cover all kinds of signatures in the ionograms corresponding to no irregularities, plasma bubbles only and plasma bubbles-blobs. These OI 630.0 nm nightglow and ionograms recorded simultaneously make it possible to establish a novel methodology to recognize in ionograms cases when there is the occurrence of Spread-F signature associated with bubble-blob in the FOV of the ionosonde.     

BAS—The project of an earth-atmosphere spectrophotometer for basic research

The earth-atmosphere spectrophotometer BAS is intended to be used for basic research in the field of remote sensing. The main advantages of BAS are the possibility of a high-accuracy calibration in absolute units utilizing the extraterrestrial spectral solar energy distribution and its simultaneous use for radiance and for irradiance measurements, e.g. the same spectrophotometer BAS to measure immediately one after the other the high irradiances of the sun (transmission measurement) and very low radiances of water surfaces.Data evaluation will be made immediately by the BAS-linked computer for field measurements.Further important technical parameters of BAS are the scanning of the spectral range 0.38 to 1.12 μm in 40 steps within 3 s, low mass of about 4 kg, power supply by rechargeable battery pack. BAS is also suited for measurements to be made from airborne and shipborne platforms.Different applications are shown by some examples.     

Vehicular Positioning System

There is a US Army vehicular positioning program under way called MAFIS (Mobile Automated Field Instrumentation System). Though its use is intended for full scale battlefield operational testing of mobile ground units and aircraft systems, the implications for extending this technology toward commercial aplications are the thrust of this paper.     

Meteors do not break exogenous organic molecules into high yields of diatomics

Meteoroids that dominate the Earth's extraterrestrial mass influx (50-300 microm size range) may have contributed a unique blend of exogenous organic molecules at the time of the origin of life. Such meteoroids are so large that most of their mass is ablated in the Earth's atmosphere. In the process, organic molecules are decomposed and chemically altered to molecules differently from those delivered to the Earth's surface by smaller (<50 microm) micrometeorites and larger (>10 cm) meteorites. The question addressed here is whether the organic matter in these meteoroids is fully decomposed into atoms or diatomic compounds during ablation. If not, then the ablation products made available for prebiotic organic chemistry, and perhaps early biology, might have retained some memory of their astrophysical nature. To test this hypothesis we searched for CN emission in meteor spectra in an airborne experiment during the 2001 Leonid meteor storm. We found that the meteor's light-emitting air plasma, which included products of meteor ablation, contained less than 1 CN molecule for every 30 meteoric iron atoms. This contrasts sharply with the nitrogen/iron ratio of 1:1.2 in the solid matter of comet 1P/Halley. Unless the nitrogen content or the abundance of complex organic matter in the Leonid parent body, comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, differs from that in comet 1P/Halley, it appears that very little of that organic nitrogen decomposes into CN molecules during meteor ablation in the rarefied flow conditions that characterize the atmospheric entry of meteoroids approximately 50 microm-10 cm in size. We propose that the organics of such meteoroids survive instead as larger compounds.