Study on Satellite-to-ground Laser Communications with Existence of Atmosphere

The laser beam used to establish a communication channel between satellite and ground segments has a small divergence angle and a tiny spot on the Earth’s surface, which may lead to the fail of the system. So it’s important to study the deflection of laser beam by the Earth’s atmosphere and find a way to calibrate this error. Both theoretical analysis and real data processing method are used to obtain the mathematical model for divergence angle of laser communication beam and its correction function. Then the model has been applied to the data, which was used to describe the atmosphere state by traditional ground segments to obtain the critical elevation angle. According to the results of calculation, our conclusion will be that the correction should be done when the critical elevation happens.      

Measurement of mass diffusion coefficients of O_2 in aviation fuel through digital holographic interferometry

The experimental apparatus to measure the mass diffusion coefficients of O2 in aviation fuel was constructed based on the digital holographic interferometry method. The theory of mass diffusion coefficient and interference image processing were introduced in detail. The accuracy of the experiment was verified by measuring the mass diffusion coefficient of 0.33 mol/L KCl in aqueous solution at 298.15 K. The mass diffusion coefficients of O_2 in RP3 and RP5 aviation fuels were measured at temperature from 278.15 K to 333.15 K, and the Arrhenius equation was employed to fit the experimental data. In terms of the Stokes-Einstein equation, the viscosities of these two aviation fuels were tested to estimate the correlation among mass diffusion coefficient, viscosity and temperature. A uniform polynomial calculation correlation was proposed to predict the mass diffusion coefficients of O_2 in both RP3 and RP5 aviation fuels, and its accuracy is considerably higher than that of the Stokes-Einstein equation.     

Ka波段机载双模式干涉SAR系统设计及测量精度分析

为解决传统干涉合成孔径雷达(SAR)系统只能顺轨干涉或交轨干涉,无法兼顾高精度高程测量和速度测量的问题,开展了Ka波段机载双模式干涉SAR系统设计与干涉测量精度分析。基于Ka波段电磁波波长短、干涉相位敏感度好的特点,利用较短的干涉基线在同一干涉SAR系统中实现高精度干涉测高与测速,并介绍了所设计的Ka波段机载双模式干涉SAR验证系统。仿真结果表明:该系统具备高效率、高精度干涉测量能力,可获得亚米级的绝对测高精度和0.1 m/s的测速精度。     

星载激光通信终端在轨机动对温度影响

对激光通信终端在轨瞬态温度变化开展了仿真，以期研究在轨机动的影响、热分析和热试验时机动模式的简化模拟。通过合理地分析与简化，建立终端的轨道热分析模型，准确模拟在轨机动，根据典型机动模式、外热流和涂层退化等因素设计了计算工况，得出了终端在轨运行过程中的温度场随时间和姿态变化规律。结果表明：不同机动模式下的温度变化存在差异，最大可达23.0℃，采用固定姿态或一维转动的简化热分析或热试验不能准确模拟实际飞行温度，甚至不能部分替代二维转动热分析或热试验；光学天线和反射镜的温度控制是制约终端工作的瓶颈，为终端设计合适的避光机动策略，可大幅度提高温度稳定度和均匀度。研究结果可以为光机电设备在轨机动策略的设计和改进提供参考。     

纳米碳粉掺杂对激光烧蚀GAP的推进性能影响

实验以含能聚合物聚叠氮缩水甘油醚(Glycidyl azide polymer,GAP）作为激光烧蚀微推力器的靶材。通过对不同浓度纳米碳粉掺杂和靶材厚度下激光烧蚀GAP的比冲、冲量耦合系数和能量转化效率测量，结合靶材喷射羽流图像，分析了纳米碳粉掺杂提高激光烧蚀聚合物靶材推进性能的机理，给出纳米碳粉掺杂的适用方式。实验结果表明：透射式下，掺杂纳米碳粉之后，聚合物对激光的吸收大幅增强，但激光烧蚀推进性能不随掺杂浓度增加而显著提升；纳米碳粉吸收激光能量形成温度极高的局部热区促进聚合物中化学能的释放，是推进性能提升的主要原因；掺杂纳米碳粉之后的GAP烧蚀深度降低，表现出面吸收特性；随着靶材厚度的增加，未完全烧蚀的工质质量增加，使得靶材的利用率大大降低，导致聚合物推进性能下降。实验中掺杂3%纳米碳粉、厚度为54 μm的GAP靶材最优能量转化效率超过250%，适合作为透射式激光烧蚀微推力器的靶材。     

点阵结构空气舵及内部流体热流固耦合研究

开展了钛合金TC4材料激光粉末床熔融(LPBF)工艺研究,在此基础上设计了多孔轻质空气舵模型,并基于有限差分法(FDM),采用三维流固耦合共轭传热数值计算方法,利用流体体积法(VOF)追踪流体自由液面,研究了典型的点阵夹层结构的空气舵内部冷却液动态换热过程的相互影响过程,考虑了冷却液与钛合金材料蒙皮间的耦合传热及湍流换热。结果表明,空气舵的内部流体压强随速度的增加而增加,从而导致流体出口的速度增加。当压强增加到一定程度时,流体的出口以水柱形式喷出。虽然较大的流体速度可以带走较多的热量,但是影响远小于对压强的影响。综合考虑空气舵的服役要求,获得了合适的冷却水入口速度。     

基于激光扫描技术的大型船舶舱容量计量技术研究

介绍了一种应用三维激光扫描技术，采集获取船舱三维点云数据，对点云数据进行配准、修补，完成船舱内部构件精细建模，快速高精度的重建大型船舱三维模型，实现大型船舱容量快速计算的方法。运用三维激光扫描技术完成158000吨大型油轮液货舱容量计量，通过与传统容量计量方法进行比对分析，解决了单点数据采集模式弊端，达到了大型船舶舱容量快速、精准计量效果。     

基于激光反射层析法的换能器声场测量技术及仿真研究

换能器的辐射声场分布能够直接反映出换能器声学性能的好坏，若不能精确测量出换能器的辐射声场，则会对换能器的诊断和评估造成严重影响。从理论仿真的角度出发，推导了运用激光反射层析法重建换能器辐射声场的理论公式，着重利用推导出的理论公式对激光反射层析法进行了仿真计算。结果表明激光反射层析法能够精确地重建出换能器的辐射声场分布及声场中的声压量值，这为换能器的声场重建及声压测量提供了一种可行的方法。     

Thermal-optical design of a geodetic satellite for one millimeter accuracy

The LAGEOS (LAser GEOdynamic Satellite) satellites use a 1.5 in. uncoated retroreflector (cube corner). Design studies done for LAGEOS-1 showed that using smaller cubes would result in greater accuracy and lower thermal gradients. However, this would require using a larger number of cubes. Simulations showed that the accuracy goal of 5 mm could be met using 1.5 in. cubes by adding a dihedral angle offset. The LARES (LAser RElativity Satellite) satellite launched in 2012 is a smaller version of LAGEOS using the same size cube corner and floating mount as LAGEOS.The recent development of COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) cube corners has eliminated cost as an obstacle to using a larger number of smaller cubes. COTS cubes have no dihedral angle offset. However, no offset is needed if the size is chosen properly. The diffraction pattern of a 1.0 in. uncoated cube with no dihedral angle offset has 6 lobes around the central peak due to total internal reflection, The velocity aberration for LAGEOS is about 32–40 microradians. The OCS (Optical Cross Section) of a one inch uncoated COTS retroreflector is about 0.5 million sq m for the LAGEOS orbit.Testing of 10 inexpensive COTS cubes by Ludwig Grunwaldt and Reinhart Neubert shows good cross section (unpublished work done at GFZ Potsdam, Germany). Measurement of 50 COTS cubes at INFN (Mondaini et al., 2018), shows a loss of cross section of only 33% (Slide 10). Simulations show that systematic range errors on the order of a half millimeter are possible for a spherical geodetic satellite such as LARES. Adjustments for the holding and ejection system result in some loss of accuracy.     

InfraRed Astronomy Satellite Swarm Interferometry (IRASSI): Overview and study results

The far-infrared (FIR) regime is one of the few wavelength ranges where no astronomical data with sub-arcsecond spatial resolution exist yet. Neither of the medium-term satellite projects like SPICA, Millimetron or OST will resolve this malady. For many research areas, however, information at high spatial and spectral resolution in the FIR, taken from atomic fine-structure lines, from highly excited carbon monoxide (CO) and especially from water lines would open the door for transformative science. These demands call for interferometric concepts. We present here first results of our feasibility study IRASSI (Infrared Astronomy Satellite Swarm Interferometry) for an FIR space interferometer. Extending on the principal concept of the previous study ESPRIT, it features heterodyne interferometry within a swarm of five satellite elements. The satellites can drift in and out within a range of several hundred meters, thereby achieving spatial resolutions of <0.1 arcsec over the whole wavelength range of 1–6 THz. Precise knowledge on the baselines will be ensured by metrology methods employing laser-based optical frequency combs, for which preliminary ground-based tests have been designed by members of our study team. We first give a motivation on how the science requirements translate into operational and design parameters for IRASSI. Our consortium has put much emphasis on the navigational aspects of such a free-flying swarm of satellites operating in relatively close vicinity. We hence present work on the formation geometry, the relative dynamics of the swarm, and aspects of our investigation towards attitude estimation. Furthermore, we discuss issues regarding the real-time capability of the autonomous relative positioning system, which is an important aspect for IRASSI where, due to the large raw data rates expected, the interferometric correlation has to be done onboard, in quasi-real-time. We also address questions regarding the spacecraft architecture and how a first thermomechanical model is used to study the effect of thermal perturbations on the spacecraft. This will have implications for the necessary internal calibration of the local tie between the laser metrology and the phase centres of the science signals and will ultimately affect the accuracy of the baseline estimations.