中国空间探测领域40年发展

中国空间科学学会成立的40年，是中国空间探测逐渐走进世界舞台的40年，空间探测极大推动了空间科学和相邻学科的发展，也影响到经济、军事和日常生活诸多方面.本文简要回顾了从空间探测专业委员会成立的1980年至今，中国空间探测领域的主要发展历程，包括探空火箭、高空气球、科学卫星、月球与行星探测、载人航天空间探测、遥感卫星地面站等主要项目、进展和所取得的成果，对未来若干年空间探测的发展进行了展望.      

Assessment of the close approach frequency and collision probability for satellites in different configurations of large constellations

The Earth orbital environment is drastically changing due to an intensification of the space activities. In particular, several projects of large constellations, proposed for the next years for communications purpose like global internet access, Internet of Things, or for Earth observations, will lead to the deployment of several thousands of new satellites at an unprecedented rate. It is a crucial challenge for space traffic management, which will deal with a great number of satellite conjunctions, potentially causing a collision with damaging consequences for the constellation itself and the space environment sustainability.In this paper, we investigate the close approach frequency and the cumulative collision probability for each referenced constellation. For this purpose, we compute the orbital evolution of satellites in different constellations during the lifecycle, from the deployment to the decommissioning, and we apply the CUBE algorithm and the Foster method to assess the collision probability with the background space debris population assuming a constant uncertainty in position. We show the variation of risk defined by the close approach frequency and the cumulative collision probability as a function of the proposed configuration. In particular, satellites of the Iridium and Kuiper constellation, but also satellite of the Telesat constellation on polar orbits are the most exposed at a collision. Moreover, the decommissioning phase contribute for a major part to the final cumulative collision probability.     

Deorbiter CubeSat mission design

This paper presents the mission design for a CubeSat-based active debris removal approach intended for transferring sizable debris objects from low-Earth orbit to a deorbit altitude of 100 km. The mission consists of a mothership spacecraft that carries and deploys several debris-removing nanosatellites, called Deorbiter CubeSats. Each Deorbiter is designed based on the utilization of an eight-unit CubeSat form factor and commercially-available components with significant flight heritage. The mothership spacecraft delivers Deorbiter CubeSats to the vicinity of a predetermined target debris, through performing a long-range rendezvous maneuver. Through a formation flying maneuver, the mothership then performs in-situ measurements of debris shape and orbital state. Upon release from the mothership, each Deorbiter CubeSat proceeds to performing a rendezvous and attachment maneuver with a debris object. Once attached to the debris, the CubeSat performs a detumbling maneuver, by which the residual angular momentum of the CubeSat-debris system is dumped using Deorbiter’s onboard reaction wheels. After stabilizing the attitude motion of the combined Deorbiter-debris system, the CubeSat proceeds to performing a deorbiting maneuver, i.e., reducing system’s altitude so much so that the bodies disintegrate and burn up due to atmospheric drag, typically at around 100 km above the Earth surface. The attitude and orbital maneuvers that are planned for the mission are described, both for the mothership and Deorbiter CubeSat. The performance of each spacecraft during their operations is investigated, using the actual performance specifications of the onboard components. The viability of the proposed debris removal approach is discussed in light of the results.     

A multi-stage regulation strategy of space manipulators with a free-swinging joint failure

To ensure tasks can be completed after a free-swinging joint failure occurs, a multi-stage regulation strategy of space manipulators is proposed. Considering all terms of the dynamics equation, an evaluation model of the regulation ability (EMRA) of active joints over the fault joint is established based on the fuzzy entropy. And then a multi-stage regulation strategy based on the EMRA is designed to regulate the fault joint. The strategy divides the regulation process into several stages, and select a certain active joint to regulative the fault joint in every stage. With this multi-stage regulation strategy, the fault joint can be regulated to the desired angle without huge torque on regulative joints. The simulation is carried out with a 7-DOF space manipulator, verifying the correctness and effectiveness of the multi-stage regulation strategy. The strategy has three advantages: Coriolis and centrifugal terms are both considered for the first time in selecting the regulative joint, making the selection result more in line with the actual regulation process; The influence of the model uncertainty is eliminated in establishing the EMRA, making the evaluation of regulative ability more precise; The fault joint is successfully regulated to the desired angle without huge torque on regulative joints.     

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.     

Estimating the spin axis orientation of the Echostar-2 box-wing geosynchronous satellite

For the first time, the spin axis orientation of an inactive box-wing geosynchronous satellite has been estimated from ground-based optical photometric observations of Echostar-2’s specular reflections. Recent photometric light curves obtained of Echostar-2 over four years suggest that unusually bright and brief specular reflections were occurring twice within an observed spin period. These bright and brief specular reflections suggested two satellite surfaces with surface normals separated by approximately 180°. The geometry between the satellite, the Sun, and the observing location at the time of each of the brightest observed reflections, was used to estimate Echostar-2’s equatorial spin axis orientation coordinates. When considering prograde and retrograde rotation, Echostar-2’s spin axis orientation was estimated to have been located within 30° of either equatorial coordinate pole. Echostar-2’s spin axis was observed to have moved approximately 180° in right ascension, within a time span of six months, suggesting a roughly one year spin axis precession period about the satellite’s angular momentum vector.     

Impact of geomagnetic variation over sub-auroral ionospheric region during high solar activity year 2014

The present work is an attempt to evaluate the impact of changing space weather condition over sub-auroral ionosphere during high solar activity year 2014. In view of this, the GPS based TEC along with Ionosonde data over Indian permanent scientific base “Maitri”, Antarctica (70°46′00″S, 11°43′56″E) has been utilized. The results suggested that the nature of ionospheric responses to the geomagnetic disturbances not only depended upon the status of high latitudinal electro-dynamic processes but also influenced by the seasonal variations. The results revel both negative and positive type of ionospheric response in a single year but during different seasons. The study suggested that the combination of equator-ward plasma transportation along with ionospheric compositional changes causes a negative ionospheric impact especially during summer and equinox seasons. However, the combination of pole-ward contraction of the oval region along with particle precipitation may lead to exhibit positive ionospheric response during the winter season. The plasma transportation direction has been validated with the help of convection boundary (HM boundary) deduced with the help of SuperDARN observations. The ground based ionosonde observations clearly provided the evidence of deep penetration of high energetic particles up to the E-layer heights which results a sudden and strong appearance of E-layer. The strengthening of E-layer is responsible for modification of auroral electrojet and field-aligned current system. Also, the sudden appearance of E-layer along with a decrease in F-layer electron density suggested the dominance of NO⁺ over O⁺ in a considered region under geomagnetic disturbed condition.     

Packaging of thick membranes using a multi-spiral folding approach: Flat and curved surfaces

Elucidating versatile configurations of spiral folding, and investigating the deployment performance is of relevant interest to extend the applicability of deployable membranes towards large-scale and functional configurations.In this paper we propose new schemes to package flat and curved membranes of finite thickness by using multiple spirals, whose governing equations render folding lines by juxtaposing spirals and by accommodating membrane thickness. Our experiments using a set of topologically distinct flat and curved membranes deployed by tensile forces applied in the radial and circumferential directions have shown that (1) the multi-spiral approach with prismatic folding lines offered the improved deployment performance, and (2) the deployment of curved surfaces progresses rapidly within a finite load domain. Furthermore, we confirmed the high efficiency of membranes folded by multi-spiral patterns.From viewpoints of configuration and deployment performance, the multi-spiral approach is potential to extend the versatility and maneuverability of spiral folding mechanisms.     

利用地月间空间站的载人登月飞行模式分析

为提高空间站利用率，降低载人登月任务成本，有效开发地月空间，研究了基于地月空间不同轨道空间站的载人登月飞行模式。首先对比直接往返登月飞行模式，对基于空间站的载人登月飞行模式进行任务分析，通过空间站将载人登月任务解耦为载人天地往返任务和登月任务两部分；其次通过轨道设计和稳定性分析提出考虑登月任务需求的地月间空间站可运行轨道和停泊点；最后建立一套飞行模式评价模型，从速度增量需求、飞行时间、空间环境、登月任务窗口、测控条件、交会对接技术难度、后续任务支持性和任务可靠性方面对6种不同位置空间站的登月飞行模式进行分析和定量评价。评价结果表明基于L2点Halo轨道空间站的载人登月飞行模式为更优飞行模式。     

Space Astronomy in China:2002-2004

More and more proposals, or potential projects have been proposed in recent two years. We try to briefly outline these new proposals, although most of them are in fact only in their conception studies. The progress of previously mentioned projects, like Space Solar Telescope (SST), the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), as well as newly initiated LUnar Resource Explorer (LUREX), will be introduced elsewhere.