A Canadian high-energy neutron spectrometry system for measurements in space

Bubble Technology Industries Inc. (BTI), with the support of the Canadian Space Agency, has finished the construction of the Canadian High-Energy Neutron Spectrometry System (CHENSS). This spectrometer is intended to measure the high energy neutron spectrum (approximately 1-100 MeV) encountered in spacecraft in low earth orbit. CHENSS is designed to fly aboard a US space shuttle and its scientific results should facilitate the prediction of neutron dose to astronauts in space from readings of different types of radiation dosimeters that are being used in various missions.     

Unloading law for a LEO spacecraft with two-gimbals solar array

The purpose of this paper is to present a modified cross-product unloading law that can be used to provide an open-loop compensation control design to counteract the predominant effects of the gravity gradient torque. The modified cross-product unloading law, is successfully applied to a three-axis stabilized, nadir-pointed LEO spacecraft with two-gimbals solar array. The variation of the two solar array orientations can significantly change the spacecraft's moment of inertia during the nominal operation mode, which can produce significant momentum accumulation in the roll–yaw body plane and cause large yaw pointing error. A rigorous study of momentum management performance capability has been conducted by using a high-fidelity performance simulation software that contains models of four environmental disturbance torque (gravity gradient, aerodynamic, solar, and magnetic). The simulation results show that the proposed momentum unloading control law has enabled a substantial reduction in the maximum accumulated roll momentum, which results in improving the pointing accuracy of the LEO spacecraft enormously.     

A new type of magnetic gimballed momentum wheel and its application to attitude control in space

A new type of magnetically suspended gimbal momentum wheel utilizing permanent magnets is described. The bearing was composed of four independent thrust actuators which control the rotor thrust position and gimbal angles cooperatively, so that the bearing comes to have a simple mechanism with high reliability and light weight. The high speed instability problem due to the internal damping was easily overcome by introducing anisotropic radial stiffness. A momentum flywheel with the 3-axis controlled magnetic bearing displays good performance for attitude control of satellite with biased momentum.     

Maximum likelihood track-before-detect with fluctuating targetamplitude

An important problem in target tracking is the detection and tracking of targets in very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) environments. In the past, several approaches have been used, including maximum likelihood. The major novelty of this work is the incorporation of a model for fluctuating target amplitude into the maximum likelihood approach for tracking of constant velocity targets. Coupled with a realistic sensor model, this allows the exploitation of signal correlation between resolution cells in the same frame, and also from one frame to the next. The fluctuating amplitude model is a first order model to reflect the inter-frame correlation. The amplitude estimates are obtained using a Kalman filter, from which the likelihood function is derived. A numerical maximization technique avoids problems previously encountered in “velocity filtering” approaches due to mismatch between assumed and actual target velocity, at the cost of additional computation. The Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) is derived for a constant, known amplitude case. Estimation errors are close to this CRLB even when the amplitude is unknown. Results show track detection performance for unknown signal amplitude is nearly the same as that obtained when the correct signal model is used     

Optical methods for non-contact measurements of membranes

Structures for space applications very often suffer stringent mass constraints. Lightweight structures are developed for this purpose, through the use of deployable and/or inflatable beams, and thin-film membranes. Their inherent properties (low mass and small thickness) preclude the use of conventional measurement methods (accelerometers and displacement transducers for example) during on-ground testing. In this context, innovative non-contact measurement methods need to be investigated for these stretched membranes.The object of the present project is to review existing measurement systems capable of measuring characteristics of membrane space-structures such as: dot-projection videogrammetry (static measurements), stereo-correlation (dynamic and static measurements), fringe projection (wrinkles) and 3D laser scanning vibrometry (dynamic measurements).Therefore, minimum requirements were given for the study in order to have representative test articles covering a wide range of applications. We present test results obtained with the different methods on our test articles.     

Morphological and molecular changes of maize plants after seeds been flown on recoverablf satellite

Dry seeds of Zea mays, heterozygous for Lw₁/lw₁ alleles, sandwiched between nuclear track detectors aboard Chinese satellite for 15 days, were recovered and mutations in morphological characters on plants developed from these seeds, as well as their selected progenies, were investigated. The dosimetric results indicated that 85% of the seeds received at least 1 hit with Z≥20. About 10% of plants developed from flown seeds and 40% of observed selfed lines from the first generation plants showed some morphological changes, such as yellow stripes displayed on leaves, dwarf, anomogensis of floral organs and yellow-green seedlings, when compared with those from ground control. Using yellow stripes on leaves as the main endpoint for evaluating mutation induced in space environment, the frequency of stripe occurrence was 4.6% in the first generation plants, comparable with the results obtained from Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) mission (Mei et al., 1994), but much lower than those from ground based ⁶⁰ Co-gamma treatment at a dose of 100 Gy, which reached 35.5% in the selfed lines of the second generation. One hundred and ten random primers were screened in RAPD analysis to detect the variation on genomic DNA of plants with stripes on leaves. Of these primers, 10.9% were able to generate polymorphic bands between mutated plants and control, also, common band patterns in several progenies with the same mutation phenotype were observed. These results demonstrated that space radiation environment could induce inheritable mutagenic effects on plant seeds, and verified the change in genetic material in the mutants. Further study will be needed for a better understand of the nature and mechanism of this induction of mutation.     

Detection and diagnosis of sensor and actuator failures using IMMestimator

An approach to detection and diagnosis of multiple failures in a dynamic system is proposed. It is based on the interacting multiple-model (IMM) estimation algorithm, which is one of the most cost-effective adaptive estimation techniques for systems involving structural as well as parametric changes. The proposed approach provides an integrated framework for fault detection, diagnosis, and state estimation. It is able to detect and isolate multiple faults substantially more quickly and more reliably than many existing approaches. Its superiority is illustrated in two aircraft examples for single and double faults of both sensors and actuators, in the forms of “total”, “partial”, and simultaneous failures. Both deterministic and random fault scenarios are designed and used for testing and comparing the performance fairly. Some new performance indices are presented. The robustness of the proposed approach to the design of model transition probabilities, fault modeling errors, and the uncertainties of noise statistics are also evaluated     

3 mm pulse radar for short-range navigation and collision avoidance

This article is about the development of a 3 mm wave range pulse radar designed for short-range navigation and collision avoidance. The basic technical specifications of the radar are given, and the functional scheme and construction features are described     

Origin, Injection, and Acceleration of CIR Particles: Observations Report of Working Group 6

This report emphasizes new observational aspects of CIR ions revealed by advanced instruments launched on the Ulysses, WIND, SOHO, and ACE spacecraft, and by the unique vantage point of Ulysses which carried out the first survey of Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) properties over a very wide range of heliolatitudes. With this more complete observational picture established, this review is the basis to consider the status of theoretical models on origin, injection, and acceleration of CIR particles reported by Scholer, Mann et al. (1999) in this volume. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.