The french educational satellite arsene

ARSENE (Ariane, Radio-amateur, Satellite pour l'ENseignement de l'Espace) is a telecommunications satellite for Amateur Space Service. Its main feature is that more than 100 students from French engineering schools and universities have been working since 1979 for definition phase and satellite development. The highest IAF awards has been obtained by “ARSENE students” in Tokyo (1980) and Rome (1981). The French space agency, CNES and French aerospace industries are supporting the program. The European Space Agency offered to place ARSENE in orbit on the first Ariane mark IV launch late 1985.     

Regulating ISS— An interdisciplinary essay

The International Space Station (ISS) is a multifaceted international project. Several space agencies from different countries work together in the Outer Space. This paper will illustrate the exciting questions arising from such a venture and therefore the challenge to incorporate a variety of issues into a legal order. The Paper is addressed to lawyers who need not necessarily be experts in space law, and also to space experts who have no legal background. It demonstrates the three layers of the ISS regime—from the “Intergovernmental Agreement” (IGA) as a “frame” with pillars and boundaries, over the “Memoranda of Understanding” (MOU) which rules in a more specific way, to the so-called “Implementing Arrangements” regulating the overall and single aspects of ISS in detail.The paper underlines questions of applicable jurisdiction, utilization rights and the rights on intellectual property onboard of the ISS. Furthermore the problem of liability in space flight is highlighted, also with a view to the different aspects of the liability issue, for example (internal) liability caused by programme delays (e.g. US Space Shuttle delays).In conclusion, the paper illustrates the situation of astronauts by the “Code of Conduct for the International Space Station Crew” and provides an example for the actual ISS Programme—an international cooperation in a highly demanding environment which will be a basis for future space ventures in many ways.     

Historical aspects of human presence in Space

Purpose: This paper presents the development of human presence in Space from its beginnings. Study hypotheses were based on historical findings on scientific, medical, cultural, and political aspects of manned Space flight due to the different attitudes of Space minded nations and organizations. Impacts of aerospace medicine on the advances of biomedical sciences will be touched upon, as well as the historical development of aviation and Space medical achievements which are described briefly and visions for future developments are given.Methods: An overview was gained by literature-study, archives research and oral history taking.Results: Aviation Medicine evolved parallel to Man's ability to fly. War-triggered advancements in aviation brought mankind to the edge of space-equivalent conditions within a few decades of the first motor-flight, which took place in the USA in 1903 [V. Harsch, Aerospace medicine in Germany: from the very beginnings, Aviation and Space Environment Medicine 71 (2000) 447–450 [1]].Forerunners and precursors of aerospace medicine can be found in the fields of high mountain physiology and aviation medicine. In Germany, in 1901, the meteorologists Arthur Berson and Reinhard Suering reached a height of 10,500 m with their balloon “Preussen” in 1901 [V. Harsch, Aerospace medicine in Germany: from the very beginnings, Aviation and Space Environment Medicine 71 (2000) 447–450 [1]]. For further ascents to the stratosphere the aviation-physiologists, Nathan Zuntz (Berlin) and his colleague Hermann von Schroetter (Vienna), in 1905 not only suggested the use of face-fitting breathing-masks, but also the employment of a hermetically sealed cabin [H.C. Gunga, K.A. Kirsch, Nathan Zuntz (1847–1920)—A German pioneer in high altitude physiology and aviation medicine, Aviation and Space Environment Medicine 66 (1995) 168–176 [9]]. Auguste Piccard successfully applied this principle in cooperation with Paul Kipfer in 1931, when they reached a height of 15,781 m [A. Piccard, Über den Wolken, unter den Wellen (Above the clouds, below the waves). Brockhaus, Wiesbaden, 1954 [11]].     

Spaceflight effects on consecutive generations of peas grown onboard the Russian segment of the International Space Station

In the period from March 2003 to April 2005 we fulfilled five experimental cultivations of genetically marked dwarf pea species in greenhouse Lada installed in the Russian segment (RS) of the International Space Station (ISS). The purpose of this series of experiments was to make morphologic and genetic analysis of pea plants grown in successive generations.According to our results, pea growth and development over the full cycle of ontogenesis (from seed to seed) taking place in space greenhouse Lada were not different as compared with the ground control plants. In addition, four successive pea crops gathered in space flight did not loose their reproductive functions and formed viable seeds.Genetic analysis of the plants grown from the “space” and “ground” seeds produced by the first to fourth successive crops was performed using the methods of chromosomal aberrations count and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (molecular method). No genetic polymorphism was found either in the experimental or control crops. This can serve as a sound argument for the supposition that the genetic apparatus of plants is not impacted by exposure of several successive generations to the conditions of space flight.     

Dextre: Improving maintenance operations on the International Space Station

The Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), known as “Dextre”, is currently slated to launch in February 2008 for deployment on the International Space Station (ISS) as the final component of Canada's Mobile Servicing System (MSS). Dextre's primary role on the Space Station is to perform repair and replacement (R&R) maintenance tasks on robotically compatible hardware such as Orbital Replaceable Units (ORUs), thereby eventually easing the burden on the ISS crew.This burden on the on-orbit crew translates practically into crew time being a limited resource on the ISS, and as such, finding ways to assist the crew in performing their tasks or offloading the crew completely when appropriate is a bonus to the ISS program. This is already accomplished very effectively by commanding as many non-critical robotics tasks as possible, such as powering up and free-space maneuvering of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), known as “Canadarm2”, from the Ground.Thus, beyond its primary role, and based on an increasing clarity regarding the challenges of external maintenance on the ISS, Dextre is being considered for use in a number of ways with the objective of improving ISS operations while reducing and optimizing the use of crew time through the use of ground control for various tasks, pre-positioning hardware, acting as a temporary storage platform to break an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) day into manageable timelines, and extending the physical reach and range of the Canadarm2.This paper discusses the planned activities and operations for Dextre an rationale for how these will help optimize the use of crew resources on the ISS.     

Alexandre Ananoff (1910–1992): 30 years to promote astronautics before Sputnik

2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Alexandre Ananoff's death. Born in 1910 in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Russian–French space expert and enthusiast Alexandre Ananoff is known for being the organiser of the first International Astronautical Congress at La Sorbonne University, Paris, in September–October 1950, as well as being the author of the famous book L’Astronautique (1950) and for advising fellow author Hergé for his book adventures of Tintin on the Moon. The purpose of our paper is to present his complete works promoting space, from his first public presentations after discovering the works of Tsiolkovsky in the late 20s to his analysis of the first Sputnik launch in the popular French magazine Paris Match in 1957.A. Ananoff was a real ambassador for astronautics and a pioneer in space education for the general public—probably the first one in France. He built a unique collection of books and novels about space travel (donated before his death to the French Air and Space Museum of Paris-Le Bourget), wrote dozens of articles, gave numerous lectures and corresponded with most of the space pioneers around the world. However, he was criticised for being an autodidact and was very disappointed by the lack of consideration accorded him within his own country. During the 60s, he progressively stopped his space activities to turn his attention to becoming a specialist of 18th century French painters. He published his Memoirs of an Astronaut in 1978 and gave his last lecture at IAC in September 1979. He died in Paris on 25 December 1992, aged 82. His last wish was that his ashes could be sent on the Moon, an end accomplishment for all his efforts.     

Apollo: Learning from the past,for the future

This paper shares an interesting and unique case study of knowledge capture by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an ongoing project to recapture and make available the lessons learned from the Apollo lunar landing project so that those working on future projects do not have to “reinvent the wheel”. NASA’s new Constellation program, the successor to the Space Shuttle program, proposes a return to the Moon using a new generation of vehicles. The Orion Crew Vehicle and the Altair Lunar Lander will use hardware, practices, and techniques descended and derived from Apollo, Shuttle, and the International Space Station. However, the new generation of engineers and managers who will be working with Orion and Altair are largely from the decades following Apollo, and are likely not well aware of what was developed in the 1960s. In 2006, a project at NASA’s Johnson Space Center was started to find pertinent Apollo-era documentation and gather it, format it, and present it using modern tools for today’s engineers and managers. This “Apollo Mission Familiarization for Constellation Personnel” project is accessible via the web from any NASA center for those interested in learning answers to the question “how did we do this during Apollo?”     

Some psychophysiological and behavioral aspects of adaptation to simulated autonomous Mission to Mars

“Mars-105” experiment was executed in March–July 2009 in Moscow, at the Institute for Bio-Medical Problems (IBMP) with participation of European Space Agency (ESA) to simulate some specific conditions of future piloted Mars mission. In the last 35 days of isolation, in order to simulate autonomous flight conditions, some serious restrictions were established for the crew resupply and communication with Mission Control (MC). The objective of the study was to investigate psychophysiological and behavioral aspects (communication) of adaptation during this period of “high autonomy”. We used computerized analysis of the crew written daily reports to calculate the frequencies of utilization of certain semantic units, expressing different psychological functions. To estimate the level of psycho-physiological stress, we measured the concentration of urinal cortisol once in two weeks. To investigate psycho-emotional state, we used the questionnaire SAN, estimating Mood, Activity and Health once in two weeks.During the simulation of autonomous flight, we found out the different tendencies of communicative behavior. One group of subjects demonstrated the tendency to “activation and self-government” under “high autonomy” conditions. The other subjects continued to use communicative strategy that we called “closing the communication channel”. “Active” communication strategy was accompanied by increasing in subjective scores of mood and activity. The subjects, whose communication strategy was attributed as “closing”, demonstrated the considerably lower subjective scores of mood and activity. Period of high autonomy causes specific changes in communication strategies of the isolated crew.     

Shaping a legal framework for the commercial use of outer space: recommendations and conclusions from Project 2001

Private and commercial activity in outer space still poses challenges to space law and policy. Within ‘Project 2001’—a legal research project by the University of Cologne's Institute of Air and Space Law and the German Aerospace Center (DLR)—six international expert working groups examined international and national laws, in order to identify gaps and, where necessary, propose improvements to the present legal framework for private space activities. The results were presented and discussed at an international colloquium in May 2001 in Cologne, Germany, where final conclusions have been drawn. This report presents a summary of the project's work and main conclusions, which are documented in full in a comprehensive book to be published in May 2002.     

GEO卫星寿命末期离轨控制策略

根据机构间空间碎片协调委员会(IADC)1997年的建议,提出了一种采用多次两脉冲霍曼变轨对寿命末期地球同步轨道(GEO)卫星实施离轨控制的策略。分析了剩余燃料充足时变轨中燃料消耗的计算,以及剩余燃料不足时应采用一次两脉冲霍曼变轨使卫星尽可能离开GEO的对策。仿真结果表明,该离轨控制策略可行。     

Flight demonstration of new thruster and green propellant technology on the PRISMA satellite

The concept of a storable liquid monopropellant blend for space applications based on ammonium dinitramide (ADN) was invented in 1997, within a co-operation between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI). The objective was to develop a propellant which has higher performance and is safer than hydrazine. The work has been performed under contract from the Swedish National Space Board and ESA. The progress of the development has been presented in several papers since 2000.ECAPS, a subsidiary of the Swedish Space Corporation was established in 2000 with the aim to develop and market the novel “high performance green propellant” (HPGP) technology for space applications. The new technology is based on several innovations and patents w.r.t. propellant formulation and thruster design, including a high temperature resistant catalyst and thrust chamber.The first flight demonstration of the HPGP propulsion system will be performed on PRISMA. PRISMA is an international technology demonstration program with Swedish Space Corporation as the Prime Contractor.This paper describes the performance, characteristics, design and verification of the HPGP propulsion system for PRISMA. Compatibility issues related to using a new propellant with COTS components is also discussed. The PRISMA mission includes two satellites in LEO orbit were the focus is on rendezvous and formation flying. One of the satellites will act as a “target” and the main spacecraft performs rendezvous and formation flying maneuvers, where the ECAPS HPGP propulsion system will provide delta-V capability.The PRISMA CDR was held in January 2007. Integration of the flight propulsion system is about to be finalized.The flight opportunity on PRISMA represents a unique opportunity to demonstrate the HPGP propulsion system in space, and thus take a significant step towards its use in future space applications. The launch of PRISMA scheduled to 2009.     

Informed consent v. ITAR: Regulatory conflicts that could constrain commercial human space flight

The Human Space Flight Requirements (promulgated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) seek to protect the fledgling commercial space flight industry by shifting risk from the operator to the space flight participants. However, in order to do this effectively the regulations require a great deal of information to be given to the participants. The information required might be extensive enough that it could be considered “technical data” under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. If this is the case then commercial spaceflight companies will have to get export licenses for non-U.S. participants on their flights which could cause additional costs as well as other problems.     

Experiments on the transition from the steady to the oscillatory Marangoni-convection of a floating zone under reduced gravity effect

The transition from the steady to the oscillatory Marangoni convection in a floating zone under reduced influence of the gravity is visualized by means of the already proved method of “light-cut-technique”. The Marangoni convection is caused by a negative temperature gradient from the upper to the lower copper plug, whose diameter is kept to a small magnitude of 3 mm Φ to obtain a small Bond's number. By this way the micro-gravity effect in respect to the Marangoni convection can be simulated. From the visualization and the simultaneous measurements of the local temperature the range of the Marangoni number for the transition is determined. A strong correlation exists between the observed period of the oscillation of the branching streamline between the two vortices on the plane with the axis of the floating zone on one hand and the period of the temperature oscillation on the other hand. A model conception for the physical mechanism is introduced to understand this oscillatory instability.     

Public choice economics and space policy: realising space tourism

Government space agencies have the statutory responsibility to suport the commercialisation of space activities. NASA's 1998 report “General Public Space Travel and Tourism” concluded that passenger space travel can start using already existing technology, and is likely to grow into the largest commercial activity in space: it is therefore greatly in taxpayers' economic interest that passenger space travel and accommodation industries should be developed. However, space agencies are doing nothing to help realise this — indeed, they are actively delaying it. This behaviour is predicted by ‘public choice’ economics, pioneered by Professors George Stigler and James Buchanan who received the 1982 and 1986 Nobel prizes for Economics, which views government organisations as primarily self-interested. The paper uses this viewpoint to discuss public and private roles in the coming development of a space tourism industry.     

The shuttle development and its growth potential

During the next two decades, we will establish the foundation for the 21st century's accomplishments in space. The Space Shuttle vehicle will become the cornerstone for that foundation by providing economical opportunities for space exploration and utilization.Reusability of the Shuttle vehicle is the key to its economy. The major developmental challenges encountered in the Shuttle program are typified by the complexities involved in designing the reusable propulsion and thermal protection subsystems. We successfully met such challenges and are nearing the launch of the first Shuttle orbital flight.Our immediate goal is to enter the Space Shuttle operational phase because only then will we fully understand the unique capabilities of the Shuttle. Concurrent with our effort to begin Shuttle operations are our initial efforts to expand Shuttle capabilities, extending them significantly beyond those of the current baseline system.Shuttle payload capacity and mission-duration capabilities are to increase considerably during the next decade. Just as present Shuttle performance specifications and development timetables were guided by the space program plans and forecasts of the 1960s, so will the development of long-range space programs be determined by our near-future achievements. We anticipate that the Space Shuttle will play a critical role in those achievements.     

Cansat suborbital launch experiment-university educational space program using can sized pico-satellite

Our laboratory is proceeding with a project to design and fabricate a nano satellite named “Gekkabijin” as “CanSat” project. This project was agreed at USSS'98 as a Japan-U.S. joint venture to make satellites for educational purpose. CanSat is, as can be imaged from the name, a Coke can shaped and sized satellite. Our CanSat “Gekkabijin” was designed to deploy a thin flexible membrane using centrifugal force. Before we can launch a CanSat into space, we had a chance to put it into sub-orbit with a support from a U.S. amateur rocket group in the name of ARLISS Project. ARLISS Project has already taken place twice in 1999 and 2000 and we carried out 6 missions. This paper describes the objectives, satellite design, experiment results and lessons learned of University of Tokyo CanSat Project.     

Orbit prediction and shuttle rendezvous strategy for eureca

The European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) is a platform to be launched, deployed and retrieved in low Earth orbit by the Space Shuttle.A newly developed analytical orbit prediction method is described which meets the severe requirements for EURECA's orbit propagation. It is based on an averaging procedure including the Earth's zonal harmonics J₂, J₃ and J₄ and a refined treatment of the air drag perturbation where EURECA's large solar panels are taken into account. Some orbit prediction results are included.In order to offer more flexibility for the Shuttle retrieval of EURECA, it is proposed to execute a part of the rendezvous manoeuvres by EURECA. A corresponding strategy is described.     

A life devoted to astronautics: Dr. Olgierd Wołczek (1922–1982)—Biographical remarks and scientific activity in astronautics and space physics

Dr. Olgierd Wo?czek died in August, 1982 in Warsaw. From 1971 he edited the scientific-popular Polish bimonthly Astronautyka and also, from 1973, the scientific journal of the Polish Astronautical Society (PAS) “Post?py Astronautyki” (Progresses in Astronautics). He was one of the founders of PAS (1954), then its General Secretary for 10 years, and later the deputy of the President of PAS for 15 years.He was very active also in the field of the scientific research in astronautics and space physics. The scope and width of his knowledge can be seen in his 22 books and 34 papers on astronautics and space physics, 10 books and 14 papers on nuclear physics and other subjects. He published also several hundred papers in popular journals, and took part several hundred times in radio and television programmes. His PhD-degree (1963) was based on his research in nuclear spectroscopy. But astronautics became the main interest and aim of his life.He was corresponding member of the IAA in Paris, and a member of several IAA and IAF committees, spoke at more than 20 IAF Congresses and was an honorary member of several foreign astronautical societies.Dealing with almost all astronautics and space physics on popular level, his scientific activity of qualitative character can be placed in four subjects: (1) nuclear energy in rocketry; (2) impact of astronautics on science, our civilization and mankind; various non-selected problems in astronautics; (3) evolution of matter in the Universe; planetology; (4) life in the Universe.During his several last years Dr. Wo?czek was dealing mainly with subjects (3) and (4). Scientific papers of Dr. Wo?czek according to the above classification are reviewed. A full list of Dr. Wo?czek's scientific papers are included.