Heading control strategy assessment for coaxial compound helicopters

The coaxial compound helicopter has two possible strategies for heading control: collective differential and rudder deflection. A flight dynamics model is developed to assess the effect of different heading control strategies. This includes the trim characteristics, steady flight performance,controllability, and manoeuvrability. The trim study demonstrates that heading control strategies are less influential on trim results, and the steady flight performance is also not significantly affected by the heading control strategy adopted. The controllability analysis shows although heading bandwidth and phase delay results at various speeds with different heading control strategies are all satisfied, the control derivative of the collective differential decreases as speed increases, and its heading aggressive agility is degraded into Level 3 in high-speed flight. In addition, using collective differential would lead to severe heading-rolling coupling as forward speed increases. On the contrary, the control derivative and aggressive agility of the rudder deflection is improved with forward speed, and there is no evidence of heading-rolling coupling. Finally, the transient turn MissionTask-Element(MTE) is utilized to investigate the heading manoeuvre characteristics in different heading control strategies, which indicates that the collective differential would add the amplitude of control input and the power consumption during this MTE.     

单推力航天器交会对接轨迹规划及跟踪控制

针对单推力航天器交会对接问题，提出一种轨迹规划及跟踪算法。首先，考虑到追踪航天器只沿本体X轴安装推力器，且推力方向固定，为了实现从起始位置转移至期望位置并满足姿态要求，基于三维螺旋线设计两阶段转移轨迹，根据初末位置以及末端速度方向要求，求解螺旋线参数。该螺旋线可以保证在初末速度方向固定情况下，曲率积分最小。其次，为了降低轨迹跟踪难度并减小初始时刻的位置跟踪控制力，需要将转移轨迹初始速度与追踪星X轴重合。传统螺旋线无法满足该约束条件。本文对传统螺旋线进行改进，提出一种旋转螺旋线轨迹设计方法。通过引入姿态旋转矩阵，将螺旋线在三维空间旋转，在不改变曲线形状的前提下满足初末位置及速度方向要求。然后，为了跟踪转移轨迹以及跟踪期望推力方向，提出基于CLF（Control Lyapunov Function）的滑模控制策略，当追踪星X轴与期望推力方向夹角较大时，采用CLF，保证最优性；当姿态误差收敛至滑模面附近时，切换为滑模控制，以提升系统鲁棒性。最后，通过仿真验证旋转螺旋线相比于传统螺旋线的优势。     

Responsibility,capability, and Active SETI: Policy,law, ethics,and communication with extraterrestrial intelligence

With recently growing interest in the Active Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), in which humankind would send intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations, there have been increased concerns about appropriate policy, as well as the role of space law and ethics in guiding such activities. Implicit in these discussions are notions of responsibility and capability that affect judgments about whether humans or other civilizations should initiate transmissions. Existing protocols that guide SETI research address transmissions from Earth, but there is debate over whether these guidelines should inform de novo transmissions as well. Relevant responsibilities to address include (1) looking out for the interests of humankind as a whole, (2) being truthful in interstellar messages, and (3) benefiting extraterrestrial civilizations. Our capabilities as a species and a civilization affect how well we can fulfill responsibilities, as seen when we consider whether we will be able to reach consensus about message contents (and whether that would be desirable), and whether we have the capacity to decode messages from beings that rely on different sensory modalities. The interplay of these responsibilities and capabilities suggests that humankind should place increased emphasis on Active SETI.     

A Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector Array for the 21st Century

Over the past 40 years, the Lunar Laser Ranging Program (LLRP) to the Apollo Cube Corner (CCR) Retroreflector Arrays (ALLRRA) [1] has supplied almost all of the significant tests of General Relativity. The LLRP has evaluated the PPN parameters, addressed the possible changes in the gravitational constant and the properties of the self-energy of the gravitational field. In addition, the LLRP has provided significant information on the composition and origin of the moon. This is the only Apollo experiment that is still in operation. Initially the ALLRRAs contributed a negligible fraction of the ranging error budget. Over the decades, the ranging capabilities of the ground stations have improved by more than two orders of magnitude. Now, because of the lunar librations, the existing Apollo retroreflector arrays contribute a significant fraction of the limiting errors in the range measurements.The University of Maryland, as the Principal Investigator for the original Apollo arrays, is now proposing a new approach to the Lunar Laser Array technology [2]. The investigation of this new technology, with Professor Currie as Principal Investigator, is currently being supported by two NASA programs and by the INFN-LNF in Frascati, Italy. Thus after the proposed installation during the next lunar landing, the new arrays will support ranging observations that are a factor 100 more accurate than the current ALLRRAs.The new fundamental cosmological physics and the lunar physics [3] that this new Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector Array for the 21st Century (LLRRA-21) can provide will be described. In the design of the new array, there are three major challenges: (1) validate the ability to fabricate a CCR of the required specifications, which is significantly beyond the properties of current CCRs, (2) address the thermal and optical effects of the absorption of solar radiation within the CCR, reduce the transfer of heat from the CCR housing and (3) validate an accurate emplacement technique to install the CCR package on the lunar surface. The latter requires a long-term stable relation between the optical center of the array and the deep regolith, that is, below the thermally driven expansion and contraction of the regolith during the lunar day/night cycle.     

Topological biosignatures: large-scale structure of chemical networks from biology and astrochemistry

The chemical basis of life involves more than simply the presence of biological molecules; biochemical systems embody a complex network of reactions with characteristic topological features. At the same time, chemical complexity is also present in nonbiological contexts, inviting us to clarify the relationship between chemistry and life through comparative studies. This study examines chemical networks from biology (the metabolism of E. coli) and astronomy (gas-phase reactions in dark molecular clouds) to establish common topological features that may be generic for any complex chemical system, as well as clear differences that may be topological signatures of life. The biological and astrochemical networks exhibit different scaling behaviors, and the network motifs found in the two systems show similarities as well as significant differences. The PageRank algorithm was used to quantify the degree to which individual species act primarily as products or reactants; in the metabolic network, these two roles are nearly identical for most species, whereas the astrochemical network shows a clearer partitioning into reactants and products.     

Experiments with a Low Polarization Error Loop Array Direction Finder

A previously reported HF loop antenna array for multipolarization direction finding consisting of two spaced loops is described. The method is compatible with twin channel Watson-Watt operation as an Adcock so that the direction finding process is independent of polarization characteristics of the element pattern. Experimentally measured direction finder (DF) bearings were compared with near simultaneous polarimeter data and conventional crossed loops bearings. A major reduction in polarization error was obtained at the expense of full 360° azimuth response. It is theoretically possible to cover 360° with two similar arrays of the type investigated or with crossed loops elements with quadrature phase shifters.     

Modeling Piecewise-Linear Systems by Topological Techniques

Flowgraph techniques are extended to systems with piecewise-linear characteristics by developing criteria for construction of an optimum model from related subregions in which linearity holds. This requires the synthesis of several known techniques and results in a wide range of useful applications including: 1) devices with nonlinear characteristics which may be considered as linear over certain subregions; 2) networks whose response to changes in applied signal frequency or magnitude may be approximated by piecewise-linear asymptotes; 3) systems processing two or more signals simultaneously with different transfer or immitance characteristics for each signal; 4) circuits approximated by different equivalent circuits depending on the numerical values of critical parameters. Representative examples will illustrate these and similar applications. Procedures are presented to provide a logical, orderly, and effective approach to construct a model, to determine figures of merit, and to optimize the model for a prescribed region of operation or for a desired range of parameters.     

UWB Perimeter Surveillance

This program will develop an automated and unmanned ultra-wide band (UWB) perimeter surveillance sensor designed to provide detection and tracking of personnel and vehicles at the perimeter of critical areas such as military installations and other such facilities. This effort describes the work being done for the protection of high value assets using a compact system which incorporates two technologies to enhance the probability of detection in stressing environments     

Global imaging of O+ from IMAGE/HENA

The magnetospheric O⁺ population in the 52–180 keV range during storms is investigated through the analysis of energetic neutral atom (ENA) images. The images are obtained from the high energy neutral atom (HENA) imager onboard the IMAGE satellite. At each substorm onset following the commencement of a geomagnetic storm the oxygen ENA display ～30 min intense bursts. Only very weak corresponding features in the 60–119 keV hydrogen ENA can be occasionally seen. The dominating fraction of the oxygen ENA emissions are produced when O⁺ ions mirror/precipitate at low altitudes, where the number density of the neutral atmosphere is high. During the storm we observed several bursts of oxygen ENA, but it is still not clear how much the O⁺ content of the ring current increases during the storm main phase. Our observations suggest that the responsible injection mechanism is mass-dependent and scatters the pitch angles. This leads us to favor a non-adiabatic mechanism proposed by (Delcourt, 2002).     

Cassini Imaging Science: Instrument Characteristics And Anticipated Scientific Investigations At Saturn

The Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) is the highest-resolution two-dimensional imaging device on the Cassini Orbiter and has been designed for investigations of the bodies and phenomena found within the Saturnian planetary system. It consists of two framing cameras: a narrow angle, reflecting telescope with a 2-m focal length and a square field of view (FOV) 0.35^∘ across, and a wide-angle refractor with a 0.2-m focal length and a FOV 3.5^∘ across. At the heart of each camera is a charged coupled device (CCD) detector consisting of a 1024 square array of pixels, each 12 μ on a side. The data system allows many options for data collection, including choices for on-chip summing, rapid imaging and data compression. Each camera is outfitted with a large number of spectral filters which, taken together, span the electromagnetic spectrum from 200 to 1100 nm. These were chosen to address a multitude of Saturn-system scientific objectives: sounding the three-dimensional cloud structure and meteorology of the Saturn and Titan atmospheres, capturing lightning on both bodies, imaging the surfaces of Saturn’s many icy satellites, determining the structure of its enormous ring system, searching for previously undiscovered Saturnian moons (within and exterior to the rings), peering through the hazy Titan atmosphere to its yet-unexplored surface, and in general searching for temporal variability throughout the system on a variety of time scales. The ISS is also the optical navigation instrument for the Cassini mission. We describe here the capabilities and characteristics of the Cassini ISS, determined from both ground calibration data and in-flight data taken during cruise, and the Saturn-system investigations that will be conducted with it. At the time of writing, Cassini is approaching Saturn and the images returned to Earth thus far are both breathtaking and promising.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.