Disk Evolution and the Fate of Water

Space Science Reviews - We review the general theoretical concepts and observational constraints on the distribution and evolution of water vapor and ice in protoplanetary disks, with a focus on...     

Flexbus — an attractive technical solution for small missions

Responding to the demand for a ‘faster, cheaper, better’ implementation of space related services, Domier Satellitensysteme GmbH has established and exercised an approach for the development and production of satellites and the corresponding ground equipment for small missions, referred to as Flexbus. It allows to support space service customers starting from mission engineering via design, development and manufacturing of the necessary hardware, the launch service and ending with the hand-over of the operational system. Flexbus harmonises a modular component concept with a sound design and development approach, as a whole providing the means to offer high quality products in a fairly short time and for competitive pricing. This paper will outline the major features of the Flexbus approach and describe application examples.     

Degradation of Signal-to-Noise Ratio Due to IF Filtering

A receiver for biphase modulated signals using an integrate-and-dump filter is optimum only if the IF filter bandwidth is infinite. Finite IF filter bandwidth results is a performance degradation. Using the predetection signal-to-noise ratio as the performance criterion, a lower bound on this quantity is determined as a function of the ratio (IF filter bandwidth)/(bit rate). The corresponding upper bound on the error probability is also presented.     

Cratering Records in the Inner Solar System in Relation to the Lunar Reference System

The well investigated size-frequency distributions (SFD) for lunar craters is used to estimate the SFD for projectiles which formed craters on terrestrial planets and on asteroids. The result shows the relative stability of these distributions during the past 4 Gyr. The derived projectile size-frequency distribution is found to be very close to the size-frequency distribution of Main-Belt asteroids as compared with the recent Spacewatch asteroid data and astronomical observations (Palomar-Leiden survey, IRAS data) as well as data from close-up imagery by space missions. It means that asteroids (or, more generally, collisionally evolved bodies) are the main component of the impactor family. Lunar crater chronology models of the authors published elsewhere are reviewed and refined by making use of refinements in the interpretation of radiometric ages and the improved lunar SFD. In this way, a unified cratering chronology model is established which can be used as a safe basis for modeling the impact chronology of other terrestrial planets, especially Mars.     

Martian Seeps and their Relation to Youthful Geothermal Activity

Gullies found on Martian hillsides by Malin and Edgett (2000) appear in many cases to be formed by water seeps produced by underground aquifers. It is proposed that these aquifers result from geologically recent melting of permafrost ice by sporadic, localized geothermal activity. This is consistent with evidence from crater counts and Martian meteorites that much higher-temperature geothermal activity has produced volcanic activity and lava flows within the last 200 Myr, and perhaps within the last 10 Myr. This hypothesis explains an aspect initially described as surprising, namely concentration of the gullies at high latitudes and on shadowed slopes. Similar features are found on Icelandic basaltic hillsides, which may be ideal analogs for further studies that may clarify the Martian phenomena.     

Effectiveness of Airborne Integral Relay Operations

"Integral relay" is a relay concept in which all the aircraft in a control sector that are under the control of an Army flight operations center (FOC) are electronically capable of functioning as relays for communication with aircraft out of direct contact with the FOC. This paper deals with the effectiveness of integral relay operations based on the assumption of random spatial distribution of aircraft. It describes the development of a control sector line-of-sight (LOS) model and of a methodology for effectiveness analysis, and the application of the methodology to one numerical example. It is shown that the LOS conditions in the control sector may be represented by two LOS characteristics which are functions of both aircraft clearance and the terrain and FOC characteristics. Probabilities of direct and indirect (via relay) LOS between the FOC and randomly located aircraft are derived for operations without and with integral relay. The effectiveness, expressed as an increase in LOS probability, is a function of aircraft density and the above two LOS characteristics and is representative of the control sector as a whole. Numerical results are obtained by probability analysis and statistical sampling.     

Observational Constraints on Transport (and Mixing) in Pre-Main Sequence Disks

Currently available observational constraints on transport mechanisms in pre-main sequence disks are reviewed. The main observable quantity accessable by imaging the spatial structure of disks is the mass accretion rate, which constrains angular momentum transport, and migration and diffusion of disk material. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Radiation from relativistic shocks in turbulent magnetic fields

Using our new 3-D relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) code parallelized with MPI, we investigated long-term particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron–positron jet propagating in an unmagnetized ambient electron–positron plasma. The simulations were performed using a much longer simulation system than our previous simulations in order to investigate the full nonlinear stage of the Weibel instability and its particle acceleration mechanism. Cold jet electrons are thermalized and ambient electrons are accelerated in the resulting shocks. Acceleration of ambient electrons leads to a maximum ambient electron density three times larger than the original value as predicted by hydrodynamic shock compression. In the jet (reverse) shock behind the bow (forward) shock the strongest electromagnetic fields are generated. These fields may lead to time dependent afterglow emission. In order to calculate radiation from first principles that goes beyond the standard synchrotron model used in astrophysical objects we have used PIC simulations. Initially we calculated radiation from electrons propagating in a uniform parallel magnetic field to verify the technique. We then used the technique to calculate emission from electrons in a small simulation system. From these simulations we obtained spectra which are consistent with those generated from electrons propagating in turbulent magnetic fields with red noise. This turbulent magnetic field is similar to the magnetic field generated at an early nonlinear stage of the Weibel instability. A fully developed shock within a larger simulation system may generate a jitter/synchrotron spectrum.