Life sciences flight hardware development for the International Space Station.

During the construction phase of the International Space Station (ISS), early flight opportunities have been identified (including designated Utilization Flights, UF) on which early science experiments may be performed. The focus of NASA's and other agencies' biological studies on the early flight opportunities is cell and molecular biology; with UF-1 scheduled to fly in fall 2001, followed by flights 8A and UF-3. Specific hardware is being developed to verify design concepts, e.g., the Avian Development Facility for incubation of small eggs and the Biomass Production System for plant cultivation. Other hardware concepts will utilize those early research opportunities onboard the ISS, e.g., an Incubator for sample cultivation, the European Modular Cultivation System for research with small plant systems, an Insect Habitat for support of insect species. Following the first Utilization Flights, additional equipment will be transported to the ISS to expand research opportunities and capabilities, e.g., a Cell Culture Unit, the Advanced Animal Habitat for rodents, an Aquatic Facility to support small fish and aquatic specimens, a Plant Research Unit for plant cultivation, and a specialized Egg Incubator for developmental biology studies. Host systems (Figure 1A, B: see text), e.g., a 2.5 m Centrifuge Rotor (g-levels from 0.01-g to 2-g) for direct comparisons between g and selectable g levels, the Life Sciences Glovebox for contained manipulations, and Habitat Holding Racks (Figure 1B: see text) will provide electrical power, communication links, and cooling to the habitats. Habitats will provide food, water, light, air and waste management as well as humidity and temperature control for a variety of research organisms. Operators on Earth and the crew on the ISS will be able to send commands to the laboratory equipment to monitor and control the environmental and experimental parameters inside specific habitats. Common laboratory equipment such as microscopes, cryo freezers, radiation dosimeters, and mass measurement devices are also currently in design stages by NASA and the ISS international partners.     

Angular Velocity Measurement Using Rate Gyros in a Spinning Vehicle

It is shown that when the gyro spin vector is in opposition to the spin vector of the vehicle, the output differential equation of the gyro becomes unstable for large vehicle spin values. When the gyro is used with its spin vector along the spin vector of the vehicle, the steady-state response of the gyro is a nonlinear function of the roll rate of the vehicle.     

Phase Detector Response to Noisy and Noisy Fading Signals

Transfer characteristics of sinusoidal, triangular, and sawtooth-type phase detectors in response to noisy and noisy fading signals have been studied in detail. A new analytical model of the swatooth-type phase detector has been suggested. Detailed experimental results have been supplemented in support of the theoretical findings. Both the theoretical findings and the experimental results clearly indicate that the superiority of a sawtooth-type phase detector over the other two varieties is completely lost in noisy and noisy fading environments.     

Surface temperature estimation in Singhbhum Shear Zone of India using Landsat-7 ETM+ thermal infrared data

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important factor in global change studies, heat balance and as control for climate change. A comparative study of LST over parts of the Singhbhum Shear Zone in India was undertaken using various emissivity and temperature retrieval algorithms applied on visible and near infrared (VNIR), and thermal infrared (TIR) bands of high resolution Landsat-7 ETM+ imagery. LST results obtained from satellite data of October 26, 2001 and November 2, 2001 through various algorithms were validated with ground measurements collected during satellite overpass. In addition, LST products of MODIS and ASTER were compared with Landsat-7 ETM+ and ground truth data to explore the possibility of using multi-sensor approach in LST monitoring. An image-based dark object subtraction (DOS3) algorithm, which is yet to be tested for LST retrieval, was applied on VNIR bands to obtain atmospheric corrected surface reflectance images. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was estimated from VNIR reflectance image. Various surface emissivity retrieval algorithms based on NDVI and vegetation proportion were applied to ascertain emissivities of the various land cover categories in the study area in the spectral range of 10.4–12.5 μm. A minimum emissivity value of about 0.95 was observed over the reflective rock body with a maximum of about 0.99 over dense forest. A strong correlation was established between Landsat ETM+ reflectance band 3 and emissivity. Single channel based algorithms were adopted for surface radiance and brightness temperature. Finally, emissivity correction was applied on ‘brightness temperature’ to obtain LST. Estimated LST values obtained from various algorithms were compared with field ground measurements for different land cover categories. LST values obtained after using Valor’s emissivity and single channel equations were best correlated with ground truth temperature. Minimum LST is observed over dense forest as about 26 °C and maximum LST is observed over rock body of about 38 °C. The estimated LST showed that rock bodies, bare soils and built-up areas exhibit higher surface temperatures, while water bodies, agricultural croplands and dense vegetations have lower surface temperatures during the daytime. The accuracy of the estimated LST was within ±2 °C. LST comparison of ASTER and MODIS with Landsat has a maximum difference of 2 °C. Strong correlation was found between LST and spectral radiance of band 6 of Landsat-7 ETM+. Result corroborates the fact that surface temperatures over land use/land cover types are greatly influenced by the amount of vegetation present.     

Imaging with the ASTROSAT scanning sky monitor

The Scanning Sky Monitor aboard the Indian Multiwavelength Astronomy Satellite ASTROSAT will employ coded mask X-ray cameras, rotating continuously to scan the sky. This paper discusses a method of image reconstruction for such continuously moving coded mask cameras.     

Editorial to the Topical Collection: Oscillatory Processes in Solar and Stellar Coronae

Space Science Reviews - We review novel data analysis techniques developed or adapted for the field of coronal seismology. We focus on methods from the last ten years that were developed for...     

Phase Locked Loop Acquisition for a Noisy FM Signal

A method based upon the quasi-linearization technique of evaluating the pull-in characteristics of a phase locked loop for an angle modulated signal corrupted with Gaussian noise is presented. Experimental results along with formulas for calculating the locking range and locking time are also presented and they are in good agreement with the theoretical results. Some new findings regarding the dependence of the locking range and locking time on the modulating frequency are also incorporated.     

SLX 1746-311 in outburst

We report on RXTE-PCA observations of SLX 1746-311 during a 100 day outburst in April 2003. We present the 3–20 keV PCA energy spectra of the source and study evolution of spectral parameters. The burst spectrum is soft with T_in 1.3 keV at the beginning of the outburst. There is a clear evidence of a hard power law component throughout the outburst. There is also an indication of a broad iron line. The source exhibits three state transitions with considerable change in the hardness ratio at low count rates. We discuss the possible scenario under which this unusual behaviour can be explained.