STARDUST: finessing expensive cometary sample returns

The STARDUST Discovery mission will collect samples of cometary coma and interstellar dust and return them to Earth. Five years after launch in February 1999, coma dust in the 1- to 100-micrometers size range will be captured by impact into ultra-low-density silica aerogel during a 6 kms-1 flyby of Comet Wild 2. The returned samples will be investigated at laboratories where the most critical information on these primitive materials is retained. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will provide project management with Lockheed Martin Astronauts as the spacecraft industrial partner. STARDUST management will aggressively and innovatively achieve cost control through the use of Total Quality Management principles, the chief of which will be organization in a Project Engineering and Integration Team that "flattens" the traditional hierarchical structure by including all project elements from the beginning, in a concurrent engineering framework focusing on evolving Integrated Mission Capability.     

卫星舱内两类剂量计测量结果的比较

本文利用1994年和1996年两次返回式卫星的搭载条件对舱内辐射剂量进行了对比测量．通过对比测量,研究不同掺杂、不同厚度LiF剂量计测量空间辐射剂量的特点;研究GM计数管计数和LiF剂量间的转换系数以及转换系数随屏蔽状况的变化;由剂量和GM计数研究粒子平均碰撞阻止本领的估计方法．结果表明,不同掺杂、不同厚度的LiF剂量计测量结果间无显著差异,而转换系数几乎不受舱内位置和屏蔽状态的影响．不同厚度LiF剂量计,不同屏蔽状态的GM计数管计数和剂量—计数转换系数的比较研究以及对粒子平均碰撞阻止本领的估计表明,舱内辐射剂量起决定作用的是高能粒子成分,其平均碰撞阻止本领估计约为5MeV／cm．