A neutral gas mass spectrometer to measure the chemical composition of the stratosphere

The Polar Balloon Atmospheric Composition Experiment (P-BACE) is a new generation of neutral gas mass spectrometer based on the time-of-flight principle. P-BACE is the scientific experiment on the Mars Environment Analog Platform (MEAP) flown successfully on a balloon mission in summer 2008. The MEAP mission was flown with a 334,000 m³ helium balloon in the stratosphere on a semicircular trajectory from northern Sweden around the North Pole to Canada using the summer northern hemispheric wind current. The atmospheric conditions at an atmospheric altitude of 35–40 km are remarkably similar to those on the surface of Mars and thus the balloon mission was an ideal testbed for our mass spectrometer P-BACE. Originally this instrument was designed for in situ measurements of the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere.P-BACE has a unique mass range from 0 to 1000 amu/q with a mass resolution m/Δm (FWHM) > 1000, and the dynamic range is at least six orders of magnitude. During this experiment, the acquisition of one mass spectrum is a sum of 65,535 single spectra, recorded in a time frame of 66 s.The balloon mission lasted 5 days and had successfully demonstrated the functionality of the P-BACE instrument during flight conditions. We had recorded more than 4500 mass spectra. With little modifications, P-BACE can be used on a planetary mission for Mars, but for example also for Venus or Mercury, if placed on a satellite.     

ToF相机在空间非合作目标近距离测量中的应用

针对已有测量手段在空间非合作目标近距离测量中的问题,本文主要分析了ToF（Time-of-Flight）相机在空间应用中的可能性。首先总结了空间非合作目标近距离测量现状及已有测量手段;随后介绍了ToF相机的原理及发展,并以非合作目标典型特征为例对其性能指标进行分析;接着将ToF相机与现有空间近距离测量手段进行性能比较;并对其中的关键技术进行梳理;最后对ToF相机的未来发展趋势及其在空间中的应用进行展望。     

镱原子二级冷却的实验研究

介绍了镱原子光钟中的二级冷却实验过程。在一级冷却的基础上,将冷镱原子成功转移至555.8nm磁光阱中。用时间飞行法测量174Yb超冷原子的温度约为100μK,171Yb超冷原子的温度约为30μK。     

Two-dimensional launch window method to search for launch opportunities of interplanetary missions

Accurate and highly efficient approaches to obtain mission opportunities are still the goals of mission planners of interplanetary explorations. The search for launch opportunities not only determines the specified launch window of the mission but also presents the performance requirements for the interplanetary probe and its launch vehicle. An effective method, namely the two-dimensional launch window method, is developed from a completely new perspective to determine all the launch opportunities of the mission in this research. For a fixed launch time, the method to determine all the time windows in the dimension of Time-of-Flight (TOF) is firstly proposed and these time windows represent all the launch opportunities for the given launch time. And then, the two-dimensional launch window method is proposed, which computes the time windows in both the launch time and TOF dimensions to achieve all launch opportunities of the mission. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the accuracy and high efficiency of the method. Compared with the widely-used pock-chop plot method, the proposed method reduces the computational time by two orders of magnitude for the same search precision, and thus is especially suitable for the cases involving rapid, high-precision, and/or large-scale searches for mission opportunities.     

Real-time spacecraft intercept strategy on J2-perturbed orbits

A real-time intercept strategy for spacecraft under the non-uniform gravitational perturbation of Earth is addressed in this paper. To intercept a target spacecraft on general conic sections, an interceptor considered in this work makes use of a thruster propelling the constant thrust which is comparable to unrealistic impulse-type thrust. The $J_2$ perturbation introduces critical dynamic variations of spacecraft orbiting the Earth, which results in a considerable amount of position error of the interceptor at the final intercept point. In order to release the burden of $J_2$ disturbance and make the miss distance between the target and interceptor small, a real-time intercept technique with an optimal intercept algorithm is suggested. The strategy proposed is to obtain an optimized output iteratively for a given time interval with previously obtained optimal values. These parameters are evaluated by the optimal intercept algorithm suggested. Once the optimal velocity change is obtained to satisfy intercept requirements, although the orbital system is perturbed, it is easy to regenerate a new solution by setting the previous solution as new initial guesses. This strategy is employed iteratively until the interceptor meets the target. Several numerical simulations are performed to highlight the proposed real-time strategy for spacecraft intercept missions.     

基于飞行时间相机的非合作慢旋卫星稠密重建研究

针对非合作慢旋卫星的模型重建问题，提出基于飞行时间(time-of-flight, TOF)相机和同时定位与制图(simultaneous localization and mapping, SLAM)的稠密重建方法。基于预先检测与自适应阈值方法提高旋转提取与描述(oriented fast and rotated brief, ORB)的特征尺度适应性。利用运动度量方法选取关键帧。利用子模型拼接方法加快重建效率。利用仿真环境制作非合作慢旋卫星的数据集。仿真实验结果表明:该方法能够实现长时间稳定地工作，可在3 min内重建出卫星模型的稠密点云，点云密度大于5 000，重建误差小于5 cm。利用机械臂、卫星模型及光学暗室搭建半物理实验系统，表明算法的精度及抗噪声能力基本满足非合作目标感知的任务的需求。