History of UK contribution to astronautics: Politics and government

In all developed countries, once it emerged from the amateur era, Space (and especially rocketry) moved on the public agenda because of its potential significance for both the civil and military policies of governments (coupled with its appetite for new money). In the UK the policy treatment of Space broadly paralleled that in other countries until the post-Empire trauma, the burn-out of the White-Hot Technological revolution of Harold Wilson, and the financial crises of the 1970s exhausted the public appetite for large scale publicly funded projects in high technology. The culmination for Space of these pressures came in 1986–1987 when the UK rejected the emerging international consensus and, almost alone, stayed outside the manned space commitments which developed into the International Space Station. In this paper, Colin Hicks will review the UK political developments which led up to the 1986–1987 decision and how the politics and organisation of UK space activity have developed since then to the point where in 2008 a major government review of the UK involvement in manned space was commissioned.     

Mineralization of wastes of human vital activity and plants to be used in a Life Support System

Available methods for mineralizing wastes of human activity and inedible biomass of plants used in this country and abroad are divided into two types: dry mineralization at high temperatures up to 1270 K with subsequent partial dissolution of the ash and the other--wet oxidation by acids. In this case mineralization is performed at a temperature of 470-460 K and a pressure of 220-270 atmospheres in pure oxygen with the output of mineral solution and dissoluble sediments in the form of scale. The drawback of the first method is the formation of dioxins, CO, SO2, NO2 and other toxic compounds. The latter method is too sophisticated and is presently confined to bench testing. The here proposed method to mineralize the wastes is in mid-position between the thermal and physical chemical methods. At a temperature of 80-90 degrees C the mixture was exposed to a controlled electromagnetic field at normal atmospheric pressure. The method merits simplicity, reliability, produces no dissoluble sediment or emissions noxious for human and plants. The basic difference from the above said methods is to employ as an oxidizer atomic oxygen, its active forms including OH-radicals with hydrogen peroxide as the source. Hydrogen peroxide can be produced with electric power from water inside the Life Support System (LSS).     

Averaging of the equation of motion of a satellite with respect to its center of mass in degenerate cases: 1. Oscillations in the absolute frame of reference

The problem of attitude oscillations of a satellite with a small dynamic asymmetry in the plane of the orbit leads to a system degenerate to the fifth order from the point of view of the method of averaging. An explicit expression for the dominant term is obtained by integration in the complex plane. The recurrence procedure of calculating the higher approximations of the method of averaging is considered, as well as an approach to the analysis of the structure of derived expressions.     

Concentration of ions in the topside ionosphere as measured onboard the <Emphasis Type=Italic>DEMETER</Emphasis> satellite: Morphology and dependence on solar and geomagnetic activity

Variations in concentration of ions H⁺, He⁺, and O⁺ are studied at a height of about 700 km using the data of continuous observations onboard the DEMETER satellite at the decline and in the minimum of solar activity from 2004 to 2008. Latitudinal distributions, seasonal behavior, and irregular variations in ion concentrations and their dependence on solar and geomagnetic activity are considered. Within this altitude range, for the first time an analysis is performed of the dataset of many-year continuous observations in both hemispheres from the equatorial to subauroral latitudes. This made it possible to describe the seasonal and irregular variations of the concentrations of main ion species with better time and spatial resolution than in the available empirical models. The dependence of concentrations of three types of ions on solar and geomagnetic activity is studied at time scales from several days to several years, and it is shown that the anti-phase change in concentrations of O⁺ and light ions known from publications is partly a result of mutual dependence of solar and geomagnetic activity and is observed only at time scales beginning from several months. At time scales from several days to several weeks, variations in the concentration of O⁺ and light ions are governed mainly by solar and geomagnetic activity, respectively.     

Erratum to: Postvolcanic Aerosols: Measurements of Altitude and Particle Sizes with Twilight-Sky Polarimetry

Cosmic Research - An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0010952521110010     

Characteristics of the Martian Magnetosphere according to the Data of the Mars 3 and Phobos 2 Satellites: Comparison with MGS and MAVEN Results

Cosmic Research - On January 21, 1972, the Mars 3 satellite recorded a strong (~27 nT) regular magnetic field in the region of the spacecraft’s closest approach to the dayside of Mars. Many...     

The Influence of Landmarks and Pre-exposure to a Structural Map During the Process of Spatial Knowledge Acquisition: A Study with Children and Adults in a Virtual Environment

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of featural information (landmarks) and geometric information (pre-exposure to a structural map) and their possible interaction during the process of spatial knowledge acquisition of 8- and 11-year-old children and adults in a virtual environment. The study confirmed the well-known result of a developmental achievement in spatial cognition from childhood to adulthood. Although landmarks and the pre-exposure to a structural map did not affect the time to learn a specific route, they influenced the use of behavior in spatial learning and eased the acquisition of spatial knowledge measured by a route reversal and map-drawing tasks. Children and adults are able to integrate featural and geometric information in the spatial knowledge acquisition process in an environmental space, but their integration depends on the spatial processing stages that are investigated. Moreover, it was successfully demonstrated that the use of desktop virtual environments seems to be appropriate to investigate the development of spatial cognition.