Excavation of artificial caverns inside asteroids by leveraging rotational self-energy

Future space ventures will likely require exploitation of near-Earth asteroid resources. Moreover, it can be envisaged that asteroids may host habitats in their interiors. In fact, a cavern inside an asteroid would be a natural radiation shield against cosmic radiation and may also serve as a confined environment for storage of mined material such as water ice or other processed volatiles such as propellants. To this end, this paper proposes to leverage the asteroid rotational self-energy to remove material from the asteroid interiors and create a spherical cavern, by means of the orbital siphon concept. The siphon is a chain of tether-connected payload masses (the asteroid material), which exploits the rotation of the asteroid for the delivery of mass from the asteroid to escape. Under certain conditions the siphon can be initiated to ensure self-sustained flow of mass from the asteroid to escape. A net orbital siphon effect is generated by connecting new payloads at the bottom of the chain while releasing the upper payloads. Key parameters are discussed, such as the required siphon dimension and the maximum size of the internal cavity that can be excavated, as a function of the asteroid rotational period. Moreover, assuming elastic material behaviour, a closed-form expression for the stress tensor is found and a failure criterion is used to identify regions in the asteroid interiors subjected to the larger stresses. It is shown that the conditions for failure are relaxed as the radius of the internal void increases.     

A concept mission for the Stellar Population and Evolution with Cubesats (SPEC)

Binary or multiple stellar systems, constituting almost a third of the content of the Milky Way, represent a high priority astronomical target due to their repercussions on the stellar dynamical and evolutionary parameters. Moreover the spectral study of such class of stars allows to better constrain the evolutionary theories of the Galactic stellar populations. By resolving the members of stellar systems through photometric observations we are able to perform more detailed measurements to infer their mass. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of a cubesat based mission including an optical payload to directly optically discriminate the members of a selected sample of binary systems. The scientific targets, consisting 11?M class dwarf stars binary systems, have been extracted from the already studied Riaz catalogue. These subset has been selected considering the star distance, the members angular separation, and the distance from the Galactic plane (due to limit the background and foreground contamination). The satellite concept is based on a 6 unit Cubesat embedding some commercial off the shelf components and an ad hoc designed optical payload occupying almost 4 units. The optical configuration has been chosen in order to fit the angular resolution requirements, as derived from the target characteristics. Moreover, according to the optical analysis and the computed field of view some requirements on the attitude control system have been inferred and fulfilled by the component selection. The paper is organized as in the following: a brief scientific introduction is made; consequently the project is described with particular attention to the optical design and the standard sub-systems; finally the conclusions are drawn and the future perspectives are investigated.     

Observational Appearance of Black Holes in X-Ray Binaries and AGN

Accretion onto black holes powers most luminous compact sources in the Universe. Black holes are found with masses extending over an extraordinary broad dynamic range, from several to a few billion times the mass of the Sun. Depending on their position on the mass scale, they may manifest themselves as X-ray binaries or active galactic nuclei. X-ray binaries harbor stellar mass black holes—endpoints of the evolution of massive stars. They have been studied by X-ray astronomy since its inception in the early 60-ies, however, the enigma of the most luminous of them—ultra-luminous X-ray sources, still remains unsolved. Supermassive black holes, lurking at the centers of galaxies, are up to hundreds of millions times more massive and give rise to the wide variety of different phenomena collectively termed “Active Galactic Nuclei”. The most luminous of them reach the Eddington luminosity limit for a few billions solar masses object and are found at redshifts as high as z≥5–7. Accretion onto supermassive black holes in AGN and stellar- and (possibly) intermediate mass black holes in X-ray binaries and ultra-luminous X-ray sources in star-forming galaxies can explain most, if not all, of the observed brightness of the cosmic X-ray background radiation. Despite the vast difference in the mass scale, accretion in X-ray binaries and AGN is governed by the same physical laws, so a degree of quantitative analogy among them is expected. Indeed, all luminous black holes are successfully described by the standard Shakura-Sunyaev theory of accretion disks, while the output of low-luminosity accreting black holes in the form of mechanical and radiative power of the associated jets obeys to a unified scaling relation, termed as the “fundamental plane of black holes”. From that standpoint, in this review we discuss formation of radiation in X-ray binaries and AGN, emphasizing their main similarities and differences, and examine our current knowledge of the demographics of stellar mass and supermassive black holes.     

The First Cosmic Structures and Their Effects

Despite much recent theoretical and observational progress in our knowledge of the early universe, many fundamental questions remain only partially answered. Here, we review the latest achievements and persisting problems in the understanding of first cosmic structure formation.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Relativistic MHD Simulations of Jets with Toroidal Magnetic Fields

This paper presents an application of the recent relativistic HLLC approximate Riemann solver by Mignone & Bodo to magnetized flows with vanishing normal component of the magnetic field. The numerical scheme is validated in two dimensions by investigating the propagation of axisymmetric jets with toroidal magnetic fields. The selected jet models show that the HLLC solver yields sharper resolution of contact and shear waves and better convergence properties over the traditional HLL approach.     

ISO's Contribution to the Study of Clusters of Galaxies

Starting with nearby galaxy clusters like Virgo and Coma, and continuing out to the furthest galaxy clusters for which ISO results have yet been published (z = 0.56), we discuss the development of knowledge of the infrared and associated physical properties of galaxy clusters from early IRAS observations, through the “ISO-era” to the present, in order to explore the status of ISO's contribution to this field. Relevant IRAS and ISO programmes are reviewed, addressing both the cluster galaxies and the still-very-limited evidence for an infrared-emitting intra-cluster medium. ISO made important advances in knowledge of both nearby and distant galaxy clusters, such as the discovery of a major cold dust component in Virgo and Coma cluster galaxies, the elaboration of the correlation between dust emission and Hubble-type, and the detection of numerous Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) in several distant clusters. These and consequent achievements are underlined and described. We recall that, due to observing time constraints, ISO's coverage of higher-redshift galaxy clusters to the depths required to detect and study statistically significant samples of cluster galaxies over a range of morphological types could not be comprehensive and systematic, and such systematic coverage of distant clusters will be an important achievement of the Spitzer Observatory. Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.     

RPC-MAG The Fluxgate Magnetometer in the ROSETTA Plasma Consortium

The fluxgate magnetometer experiment onboard the ROSETTA spacecraft aims to measure the magnetic field in the interaction region of the solar wind plasma with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It consists of a system of two ultra light (about 28 g each ) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, mounted on the 1.5 m long spacecraft boom. The measurement range of each sensor is ±16384 nT with quantization steps of 31 pT. The magnetometer sensors are operated with a time resolution of up to 0.05 s, corresponding to a bandwidth of 0–10 Hz. This performance of the RPC-MAG sensors allows detailed analyses of magnetic field variations in the cometary environment. RPC-MAG furthermore is designed to study possible remnant magnetic fields of the nucleus, measurements which will be done in close cooperation with the ROSETTA lander magnetometer experiment ROMAP.     

Increased urinary excretion rates of serotonin and metabolites during bedrest

Astronauts are often on a voluntarily reduced energy intake during space missions, possibly caused by a metabolic or emotional stress response with involvement of the central serotonergic system (SES). We investigated 24 h urinary excretion (24 h-E) of serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindol acidic acid as indicators of the SES in healthy males under two different normocaloric conditions: normal physical activity (NPA) and -6 degree head-down-tilt (HDT). HDT or NPA were randomly arranged with a recovery period of 6 months in between. 24 h-E of hormones varied widely among individuals. Values were higher in HDT compared to NPA. Assuming that the 24 h-E values are, beside being indicators for alterations in the number and metabolism of platelets. Also indicators of central SES, HDT condition seems to activate central SES in a higher degree compared to NPA. Therefore, changes in central SES might be involved in the mechanisms associated with space flight or microgravity, including possible maladaptations such as voluntary undernutrition.     

Immobilization induces a very rapid increase in osteoclast activity

We studied in a randomized, strictly controlled cross-over design, the effects of 6 days 6 degrees head-down tilt bed rest (HDT) in eight male healthy subjects in our metabolic ward. The study consisted of two periods (phases) of 11 days each in order to allow for the test subjects being their own controls. Both study phases were identical with respect to environmental conditions, study protocol and diet. Two days before arriving in the metabolic ward the subjects started with a diet. The diet was continued in the metabolic ward. The metabolic ward period (1l days) was divided into three parts: 4 ambulatory days, 6 days either HDT or control and 1 recovery day. Continuous urine collection started on the first day in the metabolic ward to analyze calcium excretion and bone resorption markers. On the 2nd ambulatory day in the metabolic ward and on the 5th day in HDT or control blood was drawn to analyze serum calcium, parathyroid hormone, and bone formation markers. Urinary calcium excretion was, as early as the first day in immobilization, increased (p<0.01). CTX- and NTX-excretion stayed unchanged in the first 24 h in HDT compared to the control. But already on the 2nd day of immobilization, both bone resorption markers significantly increased. We conclude from these results--pronounced rise of bone resorption markers--that already 24 h of immobilization induce a significant rise in osteoclast activity in healthy subjects. Thus, it appears possible to use short-term bed rest studies as a first step for the development of countermeasures to immobilization.