A Search for Possible Mesolensing of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts: II. Double and Triple Bursts in the BATSE Catalog

The paper is devoted to searching for a possible phenomenon of the gravitational lensing of cosmic gamma-ray bursts on celestial bodies of a globular cluster type (mesolensing). If this phenomenon takes place, gamma-ray bursts should have light curves with two or three similar components whose spectra are identical. These components are separated in time by a few seconds. Using a statistical method developed for comparing the components, we have found in the BATSE catalog 11 candidates of gamma-ray bursts with mesolensing for the entire time of operation of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (1991–2000). Two of these 11 gamma-ray bursts have light curves with three components. The possibility of gravitational mesolensing of these gamma-ray bursts on the King's type bodies is investigated.     

通信卫星系统级真空热试验技术风险分析及解决策略

文章在积累多个型号系统级真空热试验经验的基础上,对试验技术风险进行了分析识别,进而针对通信卫星系统级真空热试验中存在的技术风险给出相应的解决措施,编写出相应的产品保证流程。所总结的经验及风险解决策略已成功应用于多颗通信卫星,同时为其他系统级产品保证工作提供参考与借鉴。     

Priorities and policy analysis: A response to Alex Roland

This response to Alex Roland's article, ‘Priorities in space for the USA’, argues that his analysis and conclusions are based on shaky historical evidence. Professor Roland's interpretation of NASA's priorities since 1959 is challenged, and it is pointed out that the manned spaceflight programme has widespread support in the USA. The most important issue, raised by the article but not treated extensively enough, is whether the pursuit of the widely accepted emphasis on manned spaceflight is a large-scale societal mistake.     

轴压载荷作用下全复合材料裙与壳体搭接区的结构分析

对轴压载荷作用下固体火箭发动机复合材料裙与壳体搭接区的受力变形情况及承载能力进行了有限元分析,应用板壳理论对搭接区进行了分析,证明有限元计算结果合理可信;对裙搭接长度在40~60 mm范围内进行了寻优计算。结果说明,搭接区裙外铺层是搭接区最薄弱的环节;影响搭接区承载能力的主要结构因素有裙尖厚度、裙外铺层厚度、直段橡胶长度;随裙搭接长度的增大,搭接区承载能力呈现先增大后减小的趋势,存在搭接区承载能力的极大值。该分析方法和结果可供搭接区分析设计参考。     

Project Catch: A space based solution to combat illegal,unreported and unregulated fishing: Part I: Vessel monitoring system

Space assets have a unique opportunity to play a more active role in global resource management. There is a clear need to develop resource management tools in a global framework. Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing is placing pressure on the health and size of fishing stocks around the world. Earth observation systems can provide fishery management organizations with cost effective monitoring of large swaths of ocean. Project Catch is a fisheries management project based upon the complimentary, but independent Catch-VMS and Catch-GIS systems. Catch-VMS is a Vessel Monitoring System with increased fidelity over existing offerings. Catch-GIS is a Geographical Information System that combines VMS information with existing Earth Observation data and other data sources to identify Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing. Project Catch was undertaken by 19 Masters students from the 2010 class of the International Space University. In this paper, the space-based system architecture of Project Catch is presented and analyzed. The rationale for the creation of the system, as well as the engineering trade-off studies in its creation, are discussed. The Catch-VMS proposal was envisaged in order to address two specific problems: (1) the expansion of illegal fishing to high-latitude regions where existing satellite systems coverage is an issue and (2) the lack of coverage in remote oceanic regions due to reliance on coastal-based monitoring. Catch-VMS utilizes ship-borne transponders and hosted-payload receivers on a Global Navigation Satellite System in order to monitor the position and activity of compliant fishing vessels. Coverage is global and continuous with multiple satellites in view providing positional verification through multilateration techniques. The second part of the paper briefly describes the Catch-GIS system and investigates its cost of implementation.     

基于ABAQUS的固体火箭发动机复合材料壳体快速化建模方法及验证分析

提出了一种基于ABAQUS的固体火箭发动机复合材料壳体快速化建模方法。通过编写PYTHON脚本程序,实现将缠绕软件生成的信息文件进行数据处理,导入ABAQUS中参数化生成有限元模型的建模功能。通过数值分析中的B样条函数法对缠绕软件导出的波动数据进行光滑处理,并分析其在压力载荷工况下的力学性能变化。使用干法预浸带缠绕壳体,通过水压爆破实验结果与有限元结果进行对比,验证建模方法的准确性。结果表明,快速化建模方法建立的壳体有限元模型在压强为26.02 MPa时发生了失效,水压爆破实验中内压达到27 MPa时壳体失效,有限元模型的位移和失效形式等均能与实验结果吻合较好。基于ABAQUS的固体火箭发动机复合材料壳体快速化建模方法能较准确地对壳体的实际工作情况进行预测。     

Space policy for late comer countries: A case study of South Korea

Korea’s space development program was created almost 40 years behind those of the advanced countries but it has nevertheless made remarkable progress. Korean space development has been focused on technology catch-up, where commercialization and growth of industrial competitiveness are important rationales. However, the program has several problems, including: lack of a space equipment manufacturing industry, total system companies in the space manufacturing industry and communication between industry and researchers, and much concentration of projects and initiatives in the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). This study analyzes the problem by comparing space agencies and programs in Korea and other countries, particularly Japan and the USA. It is shown that the role of a national laboratory is critical in space industry development and argued that KARI should make greater efforts to promote the Korean space industry by encouraging technology transfer, sharing equipment and communication between companies. For successful space development, the main organization – usually the national research institute – should change its role from a research-only laboratory to manager and supporter of space development and industry. Such a move would invigorate Korea’s space industry and allow it to catch up with countries with a similar environment.     

Public funding of space activities: a case of semantics and misdirection

The semantic ambiguity of the word ‘space’ causes problems for both the funding of space activities and the determining of space policies. The historical practice of lumping all space activities together, to be funded by a single budgetary line, is inappropriate to the range of such activities and for the economic and strategic interests at stake: it has direct consequences for the priorities governments want to make, and can pervert the directions industry is trying to go in. While continued government support for space is imperative, given the strategic, national-development nature of many of its applications, new ways must be found of allocating it a budget that take account of the diversity of the areas in which it plays a role.     

Leadership and large-scale technology: The case of the International Space Station

Large-scale, long-term technological programs funded by government are extraordinarily difficult to begin, maintain, and complete. They must negotiate not only technical, but also political hurdles. International connections add to the complexity. This paper analyzes the course of the International Space Station (ISS) from the perspective of the NASA administrator. The roles of James Beggs, Dan Goldin and Sean O’Keefe are discussed as illustrative of how top federal executives can influence such programs. Much depends on when in the program's life cycle an administrator happens to serve and how long he or she serves. There are times when major decisions are possible, and the course of a program set for years. However, these strategic decisions also require tactical choices along the way. The function of the NASA administrator is to successfully harmonize the political environment and technical realities of a huge program like ISS. Administrators influence the birth and execution of a program through choices they make, resources they acquire, and coalitions of support they build for the program. As a program like ISS extends over many years, program success requires NASA administrators to move a technological enterprise forward, rather than to let it drift or be terminated.     

Reflection Model as Applied for the Analysis of Enhancements of Solar Cosmic Rays at Different Heliocentric Distances: An Example of the Event Observed in June 1991 onboard GRANAT and ULYSSES Spacecraft

In this paper we consider a large-scale enhancement of the intensity of solar protons (E = 1–20 MeV) observed in June 1991 for 26 days at different points of interplanetary space, onboard ULYSSES (in the time period under consideration it was located at a heliocentric distance of 3 AU, at an angular distance of 70° to the East of the Sun–Earth line and 3° to the South of the ecliptic plane) and GRANAT (which was orbiting around the Earth spending most of its flight time outside the Earth's magnetosphere). An approximation is made of the complex time profile of the enhancement of the solar cosmic ray (SCR) intensity on the basis of the reflection model of their propagation in the heliosphere. It has been established that, in this event, the transport of SCR particles in the interplanetary space was mainly carried out in the traps made up by the fronts of radially moving flare disturbances. The parameters of these fronts obtained when modeling this enhancement of SCR allow one to estimate the characteristic dimensions of the regions of effective capture of SCR. Comparison of the results of approximations obtained for the data from GRANAT and ULYSSES spacecraft demonstrated an increase in the regions of capture of SCR when the radial distance from the Sun increases.     

A socio-economic evaluation of the lunar environment and resources—III: Selenospheric economics and cislunar/terrestrial market analysis

Geosocio-economically useful lunar development requires adoption of a development strategy designed to balance investments and returns as attractively as possible. This paper deals with a systematic approach to developing early and profitable returns through an appropriate investment strategy and through cislunar and terrestrial market research. In addition, long-term aspects are outlined, including the production of helium-3 for terrestrial fusion power plants and of water from fusion products and lunar oxygen.     

Heading south with a north-up map: A choice processing analysis of map alignment effects

This study employed an information accumulation model of choice reaction times to investigate alignment effects in mental representations of maps. University students studied a map from a single orientation (with north at the top). In a subsequent two-choice reaction time task, the students’ spatial knowledge of the map was assessed employing spatial left/right judgments, which were made from imagined perspectives that were either north-aligned or south-aligned. Data showed a standard alignment effect, favoring north- over south-aligned trials. To examine the locus of this effect, data were fit using the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model of speeded decisions (Brown & Heathcote, 2008). Of interest were three model parameters: drift rate, the speed at which evidence accumulates toward a response; response threshold, the amount of evidence demanded from the decision maker before selecting a response; and non-decision time, the time consumed by pre- and postdecisional processes. The best-fitting model suggested that non-decision time accounted for the alignment effect. The difference in non-decision time between north and south-aligned judgments suggests a mental alignment stage on south-aligned trials, accounting for the longer reaction times for judgements misaligned with the presented north orientation of the map.     

Science and technology for national development: The case of Israel's space program

In the last 25 years Israel developed highly advanced space industry and capable indigenous infrastructure of space technology. The special interconnections between the academia, the industry and different government agencies had a valuable influence on this successful process. This paper identifies and analyzes the characteristics of this partnership. It addresses the issue of sustaining this partnership and maintain it as a major driving force of the Israeli space program in order to provide some conclusions for similar actors, seeking to enhance their space activities and capabilities.     

A new approach to the analysis and design of magnetic stabilization of satellites

The stabilization of a magnetically oriented satellite is treated from a new standpoint. Under the assumption of a uniform magnetic field, the system stability is discussed. By imposing a performance criterion, a damping control law is derived. Stabilization characteristics are analyzed using a more realistic geomagnetic field model. The practical approximate methods of the damping control are sought, and their characteristics are analyzed. Finally the flight results of the recent satellites using an approximate method are presented.     

A multi-disciplinary plan for easier access, management, and analysis of science data

NASA's COST LESS Team is pursuing strategies to reduce the cost and complexity of planning and executing space missions. The team's technical goal is to reverse the trend of constructing unique solutions for similar problems. To this end, the team is exploring ways to represent mission functionality in terms of building blocks and is discovering approaches that could accommodate the same building blocks for seemingly disparate activities, such as organizing processed telemetry data, controlling onboard experiments, searching science archives, reducing and presenting information to science users, and supporting educational outreach. Reusable object technology (UOT), a research undertaking by the authors, is showing promise in recognizing similarities in functions which were previously viewed as unique because they appeared in different programs or mission phases. Since UOT is aimed at being implementation independent (i.e. the function performed could be accomplished manually, by an automated process, by a specialized instrument, etc.), no premature judgment for automation or autonomy need be made. In this paper, the authors attempt to strike a balance between theory and reality as they describe UOT, including its beginnings, its underpinning, its utility, and its potential for achieving substantive reductions in cost and complexity for the Agency's space programs. The authors discuss their collaboration with the Center for EUV Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley to reduce the cost and complexity of science investigations. Their multi-disciplinary plan incorporates both UOT and a complementary technology introduced in this paper, called interactive archives.     

一种振动突频快速统计与瀑布图重建分析系统

在液体火箭发动机试验过程中,对获得的试验振动频域二维数据进行快速提取与分析以及通过三维瀑布图详细查看某时刻的突频数据有着重要的意义.在LMS Test.Lab Rev软件的基础上,使用VS2010与Eclipse联合开发环境编写程序对其导出的.txt数据进行处理,实现二维突频数据的快速统计与排版以及三维数据的彩色显示与频谱切片.在二维数据快速统计程序设计中,提出了一种大文本数据快速统计算法;在三维瀑布图显示中,提出了一种基于文本数据重建三维瀑布图的算法.通过阐述两种算法并对程序进行测试,结果表明程序有着高可靠性与应用推广价值.     

Legal analysis of Sea Launch license: National security and environmental concerns

This paper analyzes the national security and environmental concerns surrounding the Sea Launch consortium's international license from a legal perspective. The growing market demand for a more affordable, reliable, and convenient commercial satellite launching service has led to the idea of Sea Launch—launching satellites from the sea near the Equator. However, this can pose potential conflicts between national security and foreign policy interests, and between environmental conservation and economic growth because of the international technology development issues around launching from the sea. This paper illustrates a case for balancing such multiple constraints via legal interpretation. The analysis is conducted in reference to 49 U.S.C. § 70101–70119 Commercial Space Launch Activities and 42 U.S.C. § 4321–4345 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The paper also examines weather the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is binding on Sea Launch operations. Although the scope of this paper is limited mostly to the US law and the national security and environmental aspects of Sea Launch, it provides a useful example for policy making of an international collaborative technology development project.     

No deal in space: A bargaining model analysis of U.S. resistance to space arms control

Space systems are essential to the global economy and security. The possibility of disruptions arising from competition between the United States and China through the testing and deployment of weapons in space has led to concerns over an incipient space arms race that would threaten satellites, leading to international calls for a space arms control treaty. The paper presents a rationalist theory analysis on the lack of progress in establishing such a treaty, identifying the United States' position of primacy in the global order and its preeminence in space as a primary cause.     

A Herculean task? Economics, politics, and realigning government in the case of US polar-orbiting weather satellites

In 1994 one of the most radical institutional restructurings in the USA's government provision of critical weather information took place after eight previously unsuccessful attempts. The President merged weather data collection by satellites operated by the Department of Defense and satellites operated by the Department of Commerce. Reorganization involving agencies with different objectives, economic constraints, and operating cultures is rare. This paper reviews the decision leading to “convergence,” discusses economic arguments, and addresses the problems confronting the new organization. The paper also discusses the implications of the new organization for incentives to engage in space R&D and the increasingly large role played by these satellites in collecting not only weather but also climate-related data.