Water movement on the convex surfaces of porous media under microgravity

A plant growth system for crop production under microgravity is part of a life supporting system designed for long-duration space missions. A plant growth in soil in space requires the understanding of water movement in soil void spaces under microgravity. Under 1G-force condition, on earth, water movement in porous media is driven by gradients of matric and gravitational potentials. Under microgravity condition, water movement in porous media is supposed to be driven only by a matric potential gradient, but it is still not well understood. We hypothesized that under microgravity water in void spaces of porous media hardly moved comparing in void spaces without obstacles because the concave surfaces of the porous media hindered water movement. The objective of this study was to investigate water movement on the convex surfaces of porous media under microgravity. We conducted parabolic flight experiments that provided 20–25?s of microgravity at the top of a parabolic flight. We observed water movement in void spaces in soil-like porous media made by glass beads and glass spheres (round-bottomed glass flasks) in the different conditions of water injection under microgravity. Without water injection, water did not move much in neither glass beads nor glass spheres. When water was injected during microgravity, water accumulated in contacts between the particles, and the water made thick fluid films on the particles surface. When the water injection was stopped under microgravity, water was held in the contacts between the particles. This study showed that water did not move upward in the void spaces with or without the water injection. In addition, our results suggested that the difficulty of water movement on the convex (i.e. particle surfaces) might result in slower water move in porous media under microgravity than at 1G-force.     

Rotational Motions Excited by Vertical Harmonic Motions

Rotation of a pair of wings was driven by the vertical harmonic motion of a pin inserted into the center hole of the wings.To elucidate the mechanism by which the rotational motion of the wings was excited,the relationship between the wings and the pin was examined by tracking their motions using both displacement measurements and high-speed photography.The motion modes occurred in this study were categorized into five types:slipping,rolling,jumping(without eccentricity),jumping(with eccentricity),and non-rotation.In the case that the hole of the wings was located at a distance from the center of the wings,referred to as″with eccentricity,″the slipping,jumping(with eccentricity),and non-rotation modes resulted.The experimental results showed that the mechanism of the jumping(with eccentricity)was different from that of the other modes(slipping,rolling,jumping(without eccentricity)),which are well known to be driven by the periodical reaction of the wings against the vertical vibration of the pin.It was found that the jumping(with eccentricity)was driven by the non-periodical force with the collision between the wing hole and the pin.     

Experiments and numerical simulations of an electrodynamic tether deployment from a spool-type reel using thrusters

The amount of space debris is ever increasing, and pollution of the space environment has become a serious problem that can no longer be ignored. Consequently, the active removal of large space debris from crowded economically useful orbits should begin as soon as possible. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been investigating an active debris removal system that employs highly efficient electrodynamic tether (EDT) technology for orbital transfer. This study investigates the tether deployment from a spool-type reel using thrusters by means of numerical simulations of an EDT system. The thrusters are used in order to ensure the deployment of a tether with the length of several kilometers. In the simulations using a multiple mass tether model, the key parameters are estimated from various on-ground experiments. By means of the numerical simulations, the dynamics of tether deployment is studied and requirements of thruster needed for the deployment, such as the thrust forces and the periods of thruster activation, are clarified.