Experimental investigation on silica dust lofting due to charging within micro-cavities and surface electric field in the vacuum chamber

The charged dust particles can be mobilized electrostatically by the repulsion between the adjacent grains and the surface electric field due to the incoming electron current and the charge accumulation within the micro-cavities. In this study, the experimental results of the initial vertical launching velocities and the maximum dust heights are compared with the estimated values for the lofted spherical dust grains by the patch surface charging equations. Silica particles with the sizes between <6 and 45?µm in radius are loaded on a graphite plate, and they are exposed to the electron beam with 450?eV energy under 4?×?10^?3?Pa vacuum chamber pressure. During the first set of the experiments, the dust samples are tested without an initial compression process and an additional horizontal electric field. Second, the dust samples are compressed by two different weights in order to increase the packing density under approximately 780.7?Pa and 3780?Pa. Finally, the dust grains are placed between the two parallel aluminum plates to apply approximately 2000?V/m and 4800?V/m horizontal electric field. A high-speed camera is used to record the transportation of the dust grains together with a microscopic telescope, and the results point out that the patch surface dust-charging model estimations are in agreement with the first experiments. On the other hand, the dust particles from the compressed samples are lofted with higher velocities than the estimations, and the number of the dust lofting observations decreases significantly, which demonstrates the importance of the micro-cavities and the increased charging requirement to overcome the contact forces. When the horizontal electric field is present, the initial vertical launching velocities are measured to be lower than the other experiments, which can be attributed to the decreased charging requirement for the dust lofting as a result of inter-particle collisions and rolling motion. According to the experimental results, the electrostatic dust transportation can be controlled not only by the ambient plasma and the solar irradiation on the airless planetary bodies, but also by the surface properties such as the contact surfaces between the dust grains, the number of the micro-cavities related to the packing density, and the presence of the horizontal electric field contributing to the external forces by other particle motions.     

Supersonic biplane—A review

One of the fundamental problems preventing commercial transport aircraft from supersonic flight is the generation of strong sonic booms. Sonic booms are the ground-level manifestation of shock waves created by airplanes flying at supersonic speeds. The strength of the shock waves generated by an aircraft flying at supersonic speed is a direct function of both the aircraft’s weight and its occupying volume; it has been very difficult to sufficiently reduce the shock waves generated by the heavier and larger conventional supersonic transport (SST) configuration to meet acceptable at-ground sonic-boom levels. It is our dream to develop a quiet SST aircraft that can carry more than 100 passengers while meeting acceptable at-ground sonic-boom levels. We have started a supersonic-biplane project at Tohoku University since 2004. We meet the challenge of quiet SST flight by extending the classic two-dimensional (2-D) Busemann biplane concept to a 3-D supersonic-biplane wing that effectively reduces the shock waves generated by the aircraft. A lifted airfoil at supersonic speeds, in general, generates shock waves (therefore, wave drag) through two fundamentally different mechanisms. One is due to the airfoil’s lift, and the other is due to its thickness. Multi-airfoil configurations can reduce wave drag by redistributing the system’s total lift among the individual airfoil elements, knowing that wave drag of an airfoil element is proportional to the square of its lift. Likewise, the wave drag due to airfoil thickness can also be nearly eliminated using the Busemann biplane concept, which promotes favorable wave interactions between two neighboring airfoil elements. One of the main objectives of our supersonic-biplane study is, with the help of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools, to find biplane configurations that simultaneously exhibit both traits. We first re-analyzed using CFD tools, the classic Busemann biplane configurations to understand its basic wave-cancellation concept. We then designed a 2-D supersonic biplane that exhibits both wave-reduction and cancellation effects simultaneously, utilizing an inverse-design method. The designed supersonic biplane not only showed the desired aerodynamic characteristics at its design condition but also outperformed a zero-thickness flat-plate airfoil. (Zero-thickness flat-plate airfoils are known as the most efficient monoplane airfoil at supersonic speeds.) Also discussed in this paper is how to design 2-D biplanes, not only at their design Mach numbers but also at off-design conditions. Supersonic biplanes have unacceptable characteristics at their off-design conditions such as flow choking and its related hysteresis problems. Flow choking causes rapid increase of wave drag and it continues to be kept up to the Mach numbers greater the cruise (design) Mach numbers due to its hysteresis. Some wing devices such as slats and flaps, which could be used at take-off and landing conditions as high-lift devices, were utilized to overcome these off-design problems. Then supersonic-biplane airfoils were extended to 3-D wings. Because that rectangular-shaped 3-D biplane wings showed undesirable aerodynamic characteristics at their wingtips, a tapered-wing planform was chosen for the study. A 3-D biplane wing having a taper ratio and aspect ratio of 0.25 and 5.12, respectively, was designed utilizing the inverse-design method. Aerodynamic characteristics of the designed biplane wing were further improved by using winglets at its wingtips. Flow choking and its hysteresis problems, however, occurred at their off-design conditions. It was shown that these off-design problems could also be resolved by utilizing slats and flaps. Finally, a study on the aerodynamic characteristics of wing-body configurations was conducted using the tapered biplane wing. In this study a body was chosen in order to generate strong shock waves at its nose region. Preliminary parametric studies on the interference effects between the body and the tapered biplane wing were performed by choosing several different wing locations on the body. From this study, it can be concluded that the aerodynamic characteristics of the tapered biplane wing are minimally affected by the disturbances generated from the body, and that the biplane wing shows promise for quiet commercial supersonic transport.     

Ground-to-satellite laser communication experiments

Ground-to-satellite laser communication experiments between the optical ground station located in Koganei, central Tokyo, and a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite were jointly performed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. In 18 trials during three non-consecutive months, the satellite was acquired and tracked 61 % of the time, when clear or partly-clear conditions were predominant. The optical link was maintained for about 6 minutes when the satellite was visible in spite of the high angular velocity of the satellite. In 3 of the 18 trials, the link was not interrupted due to clouds during the six-minute transit. The failures (39% of the time) occurred when cloudy or rainy conditions were predominant. Fluctuation in the uplink received signal power was minimized by using multiple laser beam transmissions. The measured uplink and downlink bit error ratios were 10^-7-10^-4. These results demonstrate the applicability of free-space laser communication for not only geostationary earth orbit-LEO optical links but also ground-to-LEO optical links.