Improvements in and actual performance of the Plant Experiment Unit onboard Kibo,the Japanese experiment module on the international space station

In 2004, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency developed the engineered model of the Plant Experiment Unit and the Cell Biology Experiment Facility. The Plant Experiment Unit was designed to be installed in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility and to support the seed-to-seed life cycle experiment of Arabidopsis plants in space in the project named Space Seed. Ground-based experiments to test the Plant Experiment Unit showed that the unit needed further improvement of a system to control the water content of a seedbed using an infrared moisture analyzer and that it was difficult to keep the relative humidity inside the Plant Experiment Unit between 70 and 80% because the Cell Biology Experiment Facility had neither a ventilation system nor a dehumidifying system. Therefore, excess moisture inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility was removed with desiccant bags containing calcium chloride. Eight flight models of the Plant Experiment Unit in which dry Arabidopsis seeds were fixed to the seedbed with gum arabic were launched to the International Space Station in the space shuttle STS-128 (17A) on August 28, 2009. Plant Experiment Unit were installed in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility with desiccant boxes, and then the Space Seed experiment was started in the Japanese Experiment Module, named Kibo, which was part of the International Space Station, on September 10, 2009 by watering the seedbed and terminated 2 months later on November 11, 2009. On April 19, 2010, the Arabidopsis plants harvested in Kibo were retrieved and brought back to Earth by the space shuttle mission STS-131 (19A). The present paper describes the Space Seed experiment with particular reference to the development of the Plant Experiment Unit and its actual performance in Kibo onboard the International Space Station. Downlinked images from Kibo showed that the seeds had started germinating 3 days after the initial watering. The plants continued growing, producing rosette leaves, inflorescence stems, flowers, and fruits in the Plant Experiment Unit. In addition, the senescence of rosette leaves was found to be delayed in microgravity.     

The water cycle in closed ecological systems: Perspectives from the Biosphere 2 and Laboratory Biosphere systems

To achieve sustainable, healthy closed ecological systems requires solutions to challenges of closing the water cycle – recycling wastewater/irrigation water/soil medium leachate and evaporated water and supplying water of required quality as needed for different needs within the facility. Engineering Biosphere 2, the first multi-biome closed ecological system within a total airtight footprint of 12,700 m² with a combined volume of 200,000 m³ with a total water capacity of some 6 × 10⁶ L of water was especially challenging because it included human inhabitants, their agricultural and technical systems, as well as five analogue ecosystems ranging from rainforest to desert, freshwater ecologies to saltwater systems like mangrove and mini-ocean coral reef ecosystems. By contrast, the Laboratory Biosphere – a small (40 m³ volume) soil-based plant growth facility with a footprint of 15 m² – is a very simplified system, but with similar challenges re salinity management and provision of water quality suitable for plant growth. In Biosphere 2, water needs included supplying potable water for people and domestic animals, irrigation water for a wide variety of food crops, and recycling and recovering soil nutrients from wastewater. In the wilderness biomes, providing adequately low salinity freshwater terrestrial ecosystems and maintaining appropriate salinity and pH in aquatic/marine ecosystems were challenges. The largest reservoirs in Biosphere 2 were the ocean/marsh with some 4 × 10⁶ L, soil with 1 to 2 × 10⁶ l, primary storage tank with 0 to 8 × 10⁵ L and storage tanks for condensate and soil leachate collection and mixing tanks with a capacity of 1.6 × 10⁵ L to supply irrigation for farm and wilderness ecosystems. Other reservoirs were far smaller – humidity in the atmosphere (2 × 10³ L), streams in the rainforest and savannah, and seasonal pools in the desert were orders of magnitude smaller (8 × 10⁴ L). Key technologies included condensation from humidity in the air handlers and from the glass space frame to produce high quality freshwater, wastewater treatment with constructed wetlands and desalination through reverse osmosis and flash evaporation were key to recycling water with appropriate quality throughout the Biosphere 2 facility. Wastewater from all human uses and the domestic animals in Biosphere 2 was treated and recycled through a series of constructed wetlands, which had hydraulic loading of 0.9–1.1 m³ day⁻¹ (240–290 gal d⁻¹). Plant production in the wetland treatment system produced 1210 kg dry weight of emergent and floating aquatic plant wetland which was used as fodder for the domestic animals while remaining nutrients/water was reused as part of the agricultural irrigation supply. There were pools of water with recycling times of days to weeks and others with far longer cycling times within Biosphere 2. By contrast, the Laboratory Biosphere with a total water reservoir of less than 500 L has far quicker cycling rapidity: for example, atmospheric residence time for water vapor was 5–20 min in the Laboratory Biosphere vs. 1–4 h in Biosphere 2, as compared with 9 days in the Earth’s biosphere. Just as in Biosphere 2, humidity in the Laboratory Biosphere amounts to a very small reservoir of water. The amount of water passing through the air in the course of a 12-h operational day is two orders of magnitude greater than the amount stored in the air. Thus, evaporation and condensation collection are vital parts of the recycle system just as in Biosphere 2. The water cycle and sustainable water recycling in closed ecological systems presents problems requiring further research – such as how to control buildup of salinity in materially closed ecosystems and effective ways to retain nutrients in optimal quantity and useable form for plant growth. These issues are common to all closed ecological systems of whatever size, including planet Earth’s biosphere and are relevant to a global environment facing increasing water shortages while maintaining water quality for human and ecosystem health. Modular biospheres offer a test bed where technical methods of resolving these problems can be tested for feasibility.     

航空铝合金材料低温裂纹扩展研究现状与展望

铝合金材料由于具有强度高和易加工等优势,已广泛应用于航空工程领域,低温是航空铝合金材料使 用中不可避免的环境因素,低温下航空铝合金材料的裂纹扩展行为得到国内外学者和工程界的广泛关注和大 量研究。本文综述航空铝合金材料的低温裂纹扩展进展,梳理航空铝合金材料的低温裂纹扩展试验研究状况, 归纳低温断裂失效机理,总结低温裂纹扩展模型表征和寿命评估方法,并展望进一步研究方向,为航空铝合金 材料工程设计和应用提供帮助。     

A new fatigue life prediction model considering the creep-fatigue interaction effect based on the Walker total strain equation

The performance of high-temperature components of aero-engines under the Creep-Fatigue Interaction (CFI) behavior gets more attention recently. In this research, the creep-fatigue tests of two superalloys of Powder Metallurgy (PM) FGH96 and direct aging GH4169 were performed at 650 °C with different types of dwell, and the fracture morphology of FGH96 specimens was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to analyze the creep-fatigue fracture feature and crack initiation. Additionally, according to phenomenology, the effect of dwell was introduced to develop a new uniaxial fatigue life prediction model based on the total strain equation, which has capability to take dwell time and load ratio into account together. The equations were utilized to model the test data of PM FGH96 and GH4169, together with data of another superalloy PM FGH95 conducted previously. A prominent prediction ability of the model in creep-fatigue life prediction of different superalloys has been manifested. Most data points of test data and estimated data are located within two times scatter band, which is ideal in engineering.     

光电倍增管寿命试验研究与系统设计

光电倍增管(PMT)是空间光学探测应用的重要探测器件之一,由于制造工艺的限制,光电倍增管具有很强的个体差异性。设计了一套应用于星载激光大气探测雷达的光电倍增管寿命评估自动测试系统,并建立科学的测试方法与流程,通过对光电倍增管光电响应与暗电流等关键参数的试验、监测与分析,研究评估了其寿命特性。     

Initial design of laboratories for sustainable habitation

An effective and self-sustainable artificial habitat design is essential for human spaceflight and expansion of mankind into orbit or towards other celestial bodies. There are two approaches that need to be implemented in future sustainable habitats: the use of re-cycling technologies in order to gain experience in closed-loop processes and the primary production of resource materials using In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) principles. Various products will be provided and, where applicable, recycled in such a system taking into account basic human factors requirements such as crew work load capacity, safety and well-being, namely:     

陀螺寿命试验计算机监测设备

介绍了陀螺寿命试验计算机监测设备的设计方案。此监测设备的研制目的是为了用于在长期、连续工作条件下，自动监控多个单自由度陀螺的运转情况，完成寿命试验。在进行设备可靠性分析的基础上，给出了其硬件实现。     

飞船环控生保系统主要故障模型分析及飞控对策

研究了载人飞船环控生保系统主要故障模型及飞控对策，根据系统工作原理建立了影响飞行安全的主要故障模型，如舱体泄漏、气源消耗过量和CO2净化失效等，应用该类模型对飞行数据进行实时处理，判断或预测故障，同时给出飞控对策。该方法已成功应用于首次载人飞行。     

长寿命通信卫星的可靠性研究

通信（广播）卫星是典型的有长寿命要求的卫星。在广泛调查国内外通信卫星工程资料的基础上，考察了它们的轨道性能与寿命情况，并分析了影响卫星寿命和可靠性的因素，空间环境是影响卫星性能和寿命的一个重要因素。对为了避免和减少环境效应影响的工程方法进行了探究。结合工程实际问题研究了长寿命卫星的设计策略，并对需进一步研究的课题作了探索。     

电火箭空心阴极发射体寿命研究

分析了影响电火箭空心阴极发射体寿命的各种因素。论述了空心阴极放电时，其内部化学反应生成物的迁移、扩散、蒸发和溅射。讨论了发射体发射材料的损耗速率与温度的关系，指出知度降低发射体的工作温度是延长空心阴极寿命的有效措施，还讨论了工质气体纯度和真空环境对发射体寿命的影响。