Astrophysics in 2006

The fastest pulsar and the slowest nova; the oldest galaxies and the youngest stars; the weirdest life forms and the commonest dwarfs; the highest energy particles and the lowest energy photons. These were some of the extremes of Astrophysics 2006. We attempt also to bring you updates on things of which there is currently only one (habitable planets, the Sun, and the Universe) and others of which there are always many, like meteors and molecules, black holes and binaries.     

国外航天侦察相机和测绘相机发展概况

航天侦察和测绘是战略武装必不可少的组成部分,航天侦察和测绘相机是对地观测卫星的有效载荷。 该文将简要介绍国外航天侦察和测绘相机发展概况、水平和发展趋势。     

The development of a Russian communication satellite of small class, operating in the geostationary and high-elliptical orbits

In 1994-1995 Lavochkin Association (Russia) together with the other enterprises in accordance with technical requirements of the Russian Space agency, developed a new Russian communication satellite of a small class that will operate in both the geostationary (GSO) and high-elliptical (HEO) orbits. This satellite may be injected into operational orbits using a SOYUZ-2 launch vehicle (LV) and a FREGAT upper stage (US) from Plesetsk and Baykonur space launch sites (SLS).The main reason for creating such a satellite was to decrease the cost of the support and development of the Russian communication geostationary satellites group.Russian satellites Horizont, Express, Ekran and Gals, which operate in GSO, are the basis of the space segment for communications, radio and TV broadcasting. All of these satellites are injected into GSO by the PROTON LV. PROTON is a launch vehicle of a heavy class. The use of a middle class LV instead of a heavy class will allow to reduce considerably the launch cost. The change of a heavy class LV to a LV of middle class determined one economic reason for this project. Besides, the opportunity to launch S/C into GSO from Russian Plesetsk SLS increases the independence of Russia in the domain of space communications, despite the presence of the contract with Kazachstan about the rent of Baykonur SLS. Finally, use of small satellites with a rather small number of transponders is more effective than the use of big satellites. It will allow also to increase a satellite group (by the launch of additional satellites) precisely in accordance to the development of the ground segment.     

编队飞行卫星群的轨道动力学特性与构形设计

编队飞行卫星群由一些相对距离近的小卫星组成,在严格的条件下,若干颗伴随卫星环绕一颗中心卫星作相对运动,相对轨道为特别性质的椭圆,本文研究了编队飞行卫星群的轨道动力学特性,提出了编队飞行的轨道构形设计的原则和方法。     

一种稳健的利用分布式小卫星获取宽域、高分辨SAR图像的方法

 传统星载合成孔径雷达(SAR)受最小天线面积条件的限制，其横向分辨率与测绘带宽度相矛盾，采用编队飞行的分布式小卫星SAR体制，可解决这一矛盾，即能够同时获得大测绘带、高分辨率的地面场景的SAR图像。主要研究如何在误差环境下抑制由小天线引入的多普勒模糊的信号处理方法。该方法利用子空间投影技术对导向矢量进行精确估计，在小卫星存在基线及其他误差时仍然能够稳健地恢复高分辨的二维SAR图像。     

基于BDS-2/BDS-3联合处理的北斗超快速钟差预报优化策略

针对北斗卫星导航系统(BDS)钟差预报产品无法满足高精度快速服务需求的现状，提出了一种基于BDS-2/BDS-3联合估计的超快速卫星钟差预报优化策略。区别于传统两步法预报模型，利用稀疏建模方法一步求解所有模型项，并通过BDS-2/BDS-3星间相关性实现了模型系数解的增强；为进一步降低模型残差的影响，基于残差序列时空相关性，利用半变异函数重构了模型估计的权阵。为验证提出的钟差预报模型，设计了12套对比方案，实验结果表明：基于稀疏建模的钟差模型参数一步估计可略微提高钟差预报精度；通过引入星间相关性对随机模型进行精化，钟差序列一步建模可分别将BDS-2与BDS-3卫星钟差18h预报精度提升28.6%与27.2%；基于半变异函数建模的模型残差相关性提取，可实现BDS-2与BDS-3预报钟差精度8.0%与11.1%的提升。因此，提出的优化策略对当前北斗超快速卫星钟差预报产品精化具有重要意义。     

运动的核弹比静止的核弹威力小?——多普勒效应、红移、光行差和动体的质能当量关系

证明爱因斯坦立足于光速不变假设和长度收缩假设的洛伦茨变换未能正确地解释多普勒效应、红移和光行差现象;他也未能给出正确的动体的质能当量关系.作者立足于完全符合相对性原理的伽利略变换,成功地解决了上述问题.     

Innovation and change? The evolution of Europe's small satellite manufacturers

Since the 1980s a trend has emerged to contain the cost of space missions, which has favored trials in the construction and launch of small satellites. This effort has considerably reduced the cost of the satellites because the construction process uses both traditional components and important technological innovations. There have also been market openings for small satellites, both within the telecommunication sector and for scientific missions and those related to Earth observation. This paper contains the results of a survey of the largest manufacturers of small satellites in Europe and investigates how far (if at all) they have changed the structure of the European space industry. It finds that, through the acquisition of small satellite manufacturers, traditional large companies operating in the field of space in Europe have secured for themselves important technological innovations and market opportunities, while maintaining their oligopolistic position.     

A global survey of COSMIC ionospheric peak electron density and its height: A comparison with ground-based ionosonde measurements

With a network of ground-based ionosondes distributed around the world, the ionospheric peak electron density and its height measured by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites in terms of GPS radio occultation technique are extensively examined in this article. It is found that, in spite of the latitude, the mean values of the peak electron density measured by COSMIC satellites are systematically smaller than those observed by ground-based ionosondes. The discrepancy between them is dependent on the latitude, namely, it is small in low and mid-latitudes and large in high-latitude region. Moreover, statistical analysis shows that the slopes of the regression line that is best fitted to the scatter diagram of occultation-retrieved peak electron density (ordinate axis) versus ionosonde-observed peak density (abscissa axis) are universally less than one. This feature is believed to be the result of path average effect of non-uniform distribution of the electron density along the GSP ray during the occultation. A comparison between COSMIC-measured peak height and ionosonde-derived peak height hmF2 indicates that the former is systematically higher than the latter. The difference in the two can be as large as 20% or more in equatorial and low-latitude regions. This result implies that the peak height hmF2 derived from the virtual height through true height analysis based on Titheridge method seems to underestimate the true peak height. The correlation between COSMIC and ionosonde peak electron densities is analyzed and the result reveals that correlation coefficient seems to be dependent on the fluctuation of the occultation-retrieved electron density profile. The correlation will be higher (lower) for the electron density profiles with smaller (larger) fluctuations. This feature suggests that the inhomogeneous distribution of the electron density along the GPS ray path during the occultation plays an important role affecting the correlation between COSMIC and ionosonde measurements.