Experimental investigation of fuel regression rate in a HTPB based lab-scale hybrid rocket motor

The fuel regression rate is an important parameter in the design process of the hybrid rocket motor. Additives in the solid fuel may have influences on the fuel regression rate, which will affect the internal ballistics of the motor. A series of firing experiments have been conducted on lab-scale hybrid rocket motors with 98% hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) oxidizer and hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) based fuels in this paper. An innovative fuel regression rate analysis method is established to diminish the errors caused by start and tailing stages in a short time firing test. The effects of the metal Mg, Al, aromatic hydrocarbon anthracene (C₁₄H₁₀), and carbon black (C) on the fuel regression rate are investigated. The fuel regression rate formulas of different fuel components are fitted according to the experiment data. The results indicate that the influence of C₁₄H₁₀ on the fuel regression rate of HTPB is not evident. However, the metal additives in the HTPB fuel can increase the fuel regression rate significantly.     

The hydrogen value chain: applying the automotive role model of the hydrogen economy in the aerospace sector to increase performance and reduce costs

Hydrogen will assume a key role in Europe's effort to adopt its energy dependent society to satisfy its needs without releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases. The paradigm shift is so paramount that one speaks of the “Hydrogen Economy”, as the energy in this new and ecological type of economy is to be distributed by hydrogen. However, H₂ is not a primary energy source but rather an energy carrier, a means of storing, transporting and distributing energy, which has to be generated by other means.Various H₂ storage methods are possible; however industries' favourite is the storage of gaseous hydrogen in high pressure tanks. The biggest promoter of this storage methodology is the automotive industry, which is currently preparing for the generation change from the fossil fuel internal combustion engines to hydrogen based fuel cells. The current roadmaps foresee a market roll-out by 2015, when the hydrogen supply infrastructure is expected to have reached a critical mass. The hydrogen economy is about to take off as being demonstrated by various national mobility strategies, which foresee several millions of electric cars driving on the road in 2020.Fuel cell cars are only one type of “electric car”, battery electric as well as hybrid cars – all featuring electric drive trains – are the others. Which type of technology is chosen for a specific application depends primarily on the involved energy storage and power requirements. These considerations are very similar to the ones in the aerospace sector, which had introduced the fuel cell already in the 1960s. The automotive sector followed only recently, but has succeeded in moving forward the technology to a level, where the aerospace sector is starting considering to spin-in terrestrial hydrogen technologies into its technology portfolio. Target areas are again high power/high energy applications like aviation, manned spaceflight and exploration missions, as well as future generation high power telecommunication satellites. Similar trends can be expected in the future for RADAR Earth Observation satellites and space infrastructure concepts of great scale.This paper examines current activities along the hydrogen value chain, both in the terrestrial and the aerospace sector. A general assessment of the synergy potential is complemented by a thorough analysis of specific applications serving as role models like a lunar manned base or pressurised rover, an aircraft APU or a high power telecommunications satellite. Potential performance improvements and cost savings serve as key performance indicators in these comparisons and trade-offs.     

温差发电模块面积比功率实验优化研究

同位素温差发电器是目前深空探测航天器广泛采用的电源装置。为优选温差发电模块构型、提高模块的输出功率和面积比功率,制备了具有不同热电元件截面积的碲化铋基温差发电模块。通过建立的实验测试系统,测量了多种温差条件下发电模块的输出功率随负载的变化。实验结果表明:当模块包含的热电元件(p–n结)对数一定时,热电元件的截面积越大、模块占空比越高,则模块输出功率越高、匹配负载越小;在热源温度450 K、热沉温度300 K的条件下,测得热电元件截面积为1.6 mm×1.6 mm、占空比为0.406的发电模块的最大面积比功率约为0.282 W·cm~(-2)。最后,对理想与实际情况下,占空比为1时的模块面积比功率进行了分析。     

地面力学在火星壤力学参数估计研究中的 进展与展望

掌握火星土壤的力学参数是保障火星车顺利完成巡视探测的关键。通过对已成功开展的火星巡视探测任务进行汇总，探讨了复杂火星地貌对火星车移动性能的影响，分析了基于地面力学理论的火星土壤力学参数估计方法，包括：基于车轮的火星壤在轨力学参数估计方法和基于轮壤力学模型的力学参数辨识方法。最后，对未来关于地面力学在星壤力学参数评估进行了探讨。     

Lunar exploration and development--a sustainable model

A long-term goal of space exploration is the development of a lunar settlement that will not only be largely self-sufficient but also contribute to the economy of the Earth-Moon system. Proposals for lunar mining and materials processing developments, as well as tourism-based applications, have appeared in the literature for many years. However, so great are the technical and financial difficulties associated with sustained lunar development that, more than 30 years after the end of the Apollo programme, there have been no practical advances towards this goal. While this may soon be remedied by a series of proposed unmanned orbiters, landers and rovers, the philosophy of lunar exploration and development remains the same as it has for decades: conquer, exploit, and ignore the consequences. By contrasting the well-recognised problems of Earth orbital debris and the barely recognised issue of intentional spacecraft impacts on the lunar surface, this paper illustrates the need for a new model for lunar exploration and development. This new paradigm would assign a value to the lunar environment and provide a balance between protection and exploitation, creating, in effect, a philosophy of sustainable development for the Moon. It is suggested that this new philosophy should be an integral part of any future strategy for lunar colonisation.     

Three-rigid-frames walking planetary rovers: a new concept

The rovers designed for planetary exploration and exploitation are usually wheeled vehicles and the many proposals advocating the use of walking machines never materialised in actual applications. This is mainly due to the complexity and lower reliability of many prototypes and demonstrators. A twin rigid-frames layout allows to simplify the machine without sacrificing performances, at least in the case of very slow rovers. In the present paper a slightly more complex configuration, obtained by adding a third frame to what is essentially a twin-frame machine, is proposed with the aim of extending the applicability of rigid-frames walking machines to applications requiring higher velocities.     

行星车视觉导航与自主控制进展与展望

以视觉为主的行星车自主地形感知、导航、规划与控制系统是其安全高效探测的重要保障。本文通过对已成功开展和计划中的系列行星车任务导航与控制系统进行汇总，重点梳理了行星车多源地形感知、自主全局和局部导航、自主路径规划与控制等若干关键问题的进展情况，展望了未来自主化、智能化的发展趋势，并结合任务需求构建了行星车视觉导航与自主控制研究框架设想。     

行星表面巡视探测器遥操作技术研究

行星表面巡视探测器的遥操作,是整个行星遥科学探测过程的重要组成部分。文章首先对遥操作的基本概念和行星表面巡视探测器遥操作的基本特性做了初步的分析,然后对成功发射到月球和火星表面并进行巡视探测的8个巡视探测器进行了归纳与总结,最后对行星表面巡视探测器的遥操作技术进行了总结与展望,并建议在我国首次登陆的月面巡视探测器上采用以遥操作为主,同时设置遥操作加半自主的操作模式。     

Influences of H2O mass fraction and chemical kinetics mechanism on the turbulent diffusion combustion of H2–O2 in supersonic flows

Hydrogen is one of the most promising fuels for the airbreathing hypersonic propulsion system, and it attracts an increasing attention of the researchers worldwide. In this study, a typical hydrogen-fueled supersonic combustor was investigated numerically, and the predicted results were compared with the available experimental data in the open literature. Two different chemical reaction mechanisms were employed to evaluate their effects on the combustion of H₂–O₂, namely the two-step and the seven-step mechanisms, and the vitiation effect was analyzed by varying the H₂O mass fraction. The obtained results show that the predicted mole fraction profiles for different components show very good agreement with the available experimental data under the supersonic mixing and combustion conditions, and the chemical reaction mechanism has only a slight impact on the overall performance of the turbulent diffusion combustion. The simple mechanism of H₂–O₂ can be employed to evaluate the performance of the combustor in order to reduce the computational cost. The H₂O flow vitiation makes a great difference to the combustion of H₂–O₂, and there is an optimal H₂O mass fraction existing to enhance the intensity of the turbulent combustion. In the range considered in this paper, its optimal value is 0.15. The initiated location of the reaction appears far away from the bottom wall with the increase of the H₂O mass fraction, and the H₂O flow vitiation quickens the transition from subsonic to supersonic mode at the exit of the combustor.     

Technology-based design and scaling for RTGs for space exploration in the 100 W range

This paper presents the results of a study on design considerations for a 100 W radioisotope thermo-electric generator (RTG). Special emphasis has been put on designing a modular, multi-purpose system with high overall TRL levels and making full use of the extensive Russian heritage in the design of radioisotope power systems. The modular approach allowed insight into the scaling of such RTGs covering the electric power range from 50 to 200 W_e (EoL). The retained concept is based on a modular thermal block structure, a radiative inner-RTG heat transfer and using a two-stage thermo-electric conversion system.     

Strategic, technological and ethical aspects of establishing colonies on Moon and Mars

With the vast experience gained by Aerospace Community in the last five decades, the natural future course of action will be to expand Space Exploration. Our understanding of Moon is relatively better with a number of unmanned satellite missions carried out by the leading Space Agencies and manned missions to Moon by USA. Also a number of unmanned satellite missions and surface rover missions were carried out to Mars by those Space agencies generating many new details about Mars. While the future exploration efforts by global community will also be centered obviously on Moon and Mars, it is noteworthy that already NASA had declared its plans for establishing a Surface Base on Moon and developing the technical infrastructure required. Surface Bases on Moon and Mars give rise to a number of strategic, technical and ethical issues both in the process of development, and in the process of establishing the bases. The strategic issues related to Moon and Mars Surface Bases will be centered around development of enabling technologies, cost of the missions, and international cooperation. The obvious path for tackling both the technological development and cost issues will be through innovative and new means of international cooperation. International cooperation can take many forms like—all capable players joining a leader, or sharing of tasks at system level, or all players having their independent programmes with agreed common interfaces of the items being taken to and left on the surface of Moon/Mars. Each model has its own unique features. Among the technical issues, the first one is that of the Mission Objectives—why Surface Bases have to be developed and what will be the activity of crew on Surface Bases? Surface Bases have to meet mainly the issues on long term survivability of humans on the Mars/Moon with their specific atmosphere, gravity and surface characteristics. Moon offers excellent advantages for astronomy while posing difficulties with respect to solar power utilization and extreme temperature variations. Hence the technical challenges depend on a number of factors starting from mission requirements. Obviously the most important technical challenge to be addressed will be in the areas of crew safety, crew survivability, adequate provision to overcome contingencies, and in-situ resource utilization. Towards this, new innovations will be developed in areas such as specialized space suits, rovers, power and communication systems, and ascent and descent modules. The biggest ethical issue is whether humankind from Earth is targeting ‘habitation’ or ‘colonization’ of Moon/Mars. The next question will be whether the in-situ resource exploitation will be only for carrying out further missions to other planets from Moon/Mars or for utilization on Earth. The third ethical issue will be the long term impact of pollution on Moon/Mars due to technologies employed for power generation and other logistics on Surfaces. The paper elaborates the views of the authors on the strategic, technical and ethical aspects of establishing Surface Bases and colonies on Moon and Mars. The underlying assumptions and gray areas under each aspect will be explained with the resulting long-term implications.     

Deployment history and design considerations for space reactor power systems

The history of the deployment of nuclear reactors in Earth orbits is reviewed with emphases on lessons learned and the operation and safety experiences. The former Soviet Union's “BUK” power systems, with SiGe thermoelectric conversion and fast neutron energy spectrum reactors, powered a total of 31 Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellites (RORSATs) from 1970 to 1988 in 260 km orbit. Two of the former Soviet Union's TOPAZ reactors, with in-core thermionic conversion and epithermal neutron energy spectrum, powered two Cosmos missions launched in 1987 in ～800 km orbit. The US’ SNAP-10A system, with SiGe energy conversion and a thermal neutron energy spectrum reactor, was launched in 1965 in 1300 km orbit. The three reactor systems used liquid NaK-78 coolant, stainless steel structure and highly enriched uranium fuel (90–96 wt%) and operated at a reactor exit temperature of 833–973 K. The BUK reactors used U-Mo fuel rods, TOPAZ used UO₂ fuel rods and four ZrH moderator disks, and the SNAP-10A used moderated U-ZrH fuel rods. These low power space reactor systems were designed for short missions (～0.5 kW_e and ～1 year for SNAP-10A, <3.0 kW_e and <6 months for BUK, and ～5.5 kW_e and up to 1 year for TOPAZ). The deactivated BUK reactors at the end of mission, which varied in duration from a few hours to ～4.5 months, were boosted into ～800 km storage orbit with a decay life of more than 600 year. The ejection of the last 16 BUK reactor fuel cores caused significant contamination of Earth orbits with NaK droplets that varied in sizes from a few microns to 5 cm. Power systems to enhance or enable future interplanetary exploration, in-situ resources utilization on Mars and the Moon, and civilian missions in 1000–3000 km orbits would generate significantly more power of 10's to 100's kW_e for 5–10 years, or even longer. A number of design options to enhance the operation reliability and safety of these high power space reactor power systems are presented and discussed.     

Strategic,technological and ethical aspects of establishing colonies on Moon and Mars

With the vast experience gained by Aerospace Community in the last five decades, the natural future course of action will be to expand Space Exploration. Our understanding of Moon is relatively better with a number of unmanned satellite missions carried out by the leading Space Agencies and manned missions to Moon by USA. Also a number of unmanned satellite missions and surface rover missions were carried out to Mars by those Space agencies generating many new details about Mars. While the future exploration efforts by global community will also be centered obviously on Moon and Mars, it is noteworthy that already NASA had declared its plans for establishing a Surface Base on Moon and developing the technical infrastructure required. Surface Bases on Moon and Mars give rise to a number of strategic, technical and ethical issues both in the process of development, and in the process of establishing the bases. The strategic issues related to Moon and Mars Surface Bases will be centered around development of enabling technologies, cost of the missions, and international cooperation. The obvious path for tackling both the technological development and cost issues will be through innovative and new means of international cooperation. International cooperation can take many forms like—all capable players joining a leader, or sharing of tasks at system level, or all players having their independent programmes with agreed common interfaces of the items being taken to and left on the surface of Moon/Mars. Each model has its own unique features. Among the technical issues, the first one is that of the Mission Objectives—why Surface Bases have to be developed and what will be the activity of crew on Surface Bases? Surface Bases have to meet mainly the issues on long term survivability of humans on the Mars/Moon with their specific atmosphere, gravity and surface characteristics. Moon offers excellent advantages for astronomy while posing difficulties with respect to solar power utilization and extreme temperature variations. Hence the technical challenges depend on a number of factors starting from mission requirements. Obviously the most important technical challenge to be addressed will be in the areas of crew safety, crew survivability, adequate provision to overcome contingencies, and in-situ resource utilization. Towards this, new innovations will be developed in areas such as specialized space suits, rovers, power and communication systems, and ascent and descent modules. The biggest ethical issue is whether humankind from Earth is targeting ‘habitation’ or ‘colonization’ of Moon/Mars. The next question will be whether the in-situ resource exploitation will be only for carrying out further missions to other planets from Moon/Mars or for utilization on Earth. The third ethical issue will be the long term impact of pollution on Moon/Mars due to technologies employed for power generation and other logistics on Surfaces. The paper elaborates the views of the authors on the strategic, technical and ethical aspects of establishing Surface Bases and colonies on Moon and Mars. The underlying assumptions and gray areas under each aspect will be explained with the resulting long-term implications.     

A preliminary assessment of an orbiter in the Haumean system: How quickly can a planetary orbiter reach such a distant target?

With the recent discoveries of planetary objects beyond Neptune and Pluto, the vast majority of all sizeable Solar System planetary objects lie now beyond Uranus, where insertion into orbit after a reasonably short travel is still not within the current capabilities of our spacecraft. Being able to go and stop at a transneptunian dwarf planet would represent a step stone for ambitious long-term goals. The pressure to send spacecraft to these bodies will grow, as, among the tens or hundreds of large objects, some will emerge as high priorities for science and exploration missions. It is subsequently necessary to prepare the technologies required for such spacecraft. In addition, being able to achieve a fast journey to a distant object will benefit also missions to closer targets.Thales Alenia Space has carried out a preliminary parameter exploration of such a mission with a challenging target: an orbiter in the Haumean system. The main parameters are the characteristics of the propulsion and power system, as well as the masses of the spacecraft. The exploration has inferred the technological improvement needed for reaching these objects within a reasonable time.     

Reconfigurability in planetary surface vehicles

Traditionally, space systems have been built for fixed requirements and optimized for highest performance. Future systems for human exploration of Moon and Mars, however, require focus on new architectural strategies geared towards increased affordability and survivability in addition to performance. Reconfigurability is a new paradigm in system design that enhances these qualities. Reconfigurable systems can attain different states with new or modified capabilities, as required with changing needs, over time. Such systems can lower mission costs through mass savings by efficient use of a fixed set of hardware for multiple functions. Their survivability is improved through their ability to reconfigure into different states so that some level of over-all functionality is retained. This study, with a focus on planetary surface vehicles, presents a methodology for determining optimal designs of reconfigurable systems. It also proposes metrics for assessing the impact of reconfigurability. It is found that for the specific scenario considered, the mass utilization efficiency in a fleet of reconfigurable vehicles is increased by 27% while the survivability can be increased by a factor of 3.     

Stepping stones toward global space exploration

Several nations are currently engaging in or planning for robotic and human space exploration programs that target the Moon, Mars and near-Earth asteroids. These ambitious plans to build new space infrastructures, transport systems and space probes will require international cooperation if they are to be sustainable and affordable. Partnerships must involve not only established space powers, but also emerging space nations and developing countries; the participation of these new space actors will provide a bottom-up support structure that will aid program continuity, generate more active members in the space community, and increase public awareness of space activities in both developed and developing countries. The integration of many stakeholders into a global space exploration program represents a crucial element securing political and programmatic stability. How can the evolving space community learn to cooperate on a truly international level while engaging emerging space nations and developing countries in a meaningful way? We propose a stepping stone approach toward a global space exploration program, featuring three major elements: (1) an international Earth-based field research program preparing for planetary exploration, (2) enhanced exploitation of the International Space Station (ISS) enabling exploration and (3) a worldwide CubeSat program supporting exploration. An international Earth-based field research program can serve as a truly global exploration testbed that allows both established and new space actors to gain valuable experience by working together to prepare for future planetary exploration missions. Securing greater exploitation of the ISS is a logical step during its prolonged lifetime; ISS experiments, partnerships and legal frameworks are valuable foundations for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Cooperation involving small, low-cost missions could be a major stride toward exciting and meaningful participation from emerging space nations and developing countries. For each of these three proposed stepping stones, recommendations for coordination mechanisms are presented.     

NASA'S Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project

Over the last 5 years, NASA has invested in development and risk-reduction activities for a new generation of planetary landers capable of carrying instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface and other airless bodies. The Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project (RLLDP) is jointly implemented by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The RLLDP team has produced mission architecture designs for multiple airless body missions to meet both science and human precursor mission needs. The mission architecture concept studies encompass small, medium, and large landers, with payloads from a few tens of kilograms to over 1000 kg, to the Moon and other airless bodies. To mature these concepts, the project has made significant investments in technology risk reduction in focused subsystems. In addition, many lander technologies and algorithms have been tested and demonstrated in an integrated systems environment using free-flying test articles. These design and testing investments have significantly reduced development risk for airless body landers, thereby reducing overall risk and associated costs for future missions.     

The Mars Sample Return Project.

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) Project is underway. A 2003 mission to be launched on a Delta III Class vehicle and a 2005 mission launched on an Ariane 5 will culminate in carefully selected Mars samples arriving on Earth in 2008. NASA is the lead agency and will provide the Mars landed elements, namely, landers, rovers, and Mars ascent vehicles (MAVs). The French Space Agency CNES is the largest international partner and will provide for the joint NASA/CNES 2005 Mission the Ariane 5 launch and the Earth Return Mars Orbiter that will capture the sample canisters from the Mars parking orbits the MAVs place them in. The sample canisters will be returned to Earth aboard the CNES Orbiter in the Earth Entry Vehicles provided by NASA. Other national space agencies are also expected to participate in substantial roles. Italy is planning to provide a drill that will operate from the Landers to provide subsurface samples. Other experiments in addition to the MSR payload will also be carried on the Landers. This paper will present the current status of the design of the MSR missions and flight articles.     

Heat storage and electricity generation in the Moon during the lunar night

One of the biggest challenges of the exploration of the Moon is the survival of the crew and the lunar assets during the lunar night. The environmental conditions on the lunar surface and its cycle, with long periods of darkness, make any long mission in need of specific amounts of heat and electricity to be successful. We have analyzed two different systems to produce heat and electricity on the Moon's surface. The first system consists of Thermal Wadis, sources of thermal power that can be used to supply heat to protect the exploration systems from the extreme cold during periods of darkness. Previous results showed that Wadis can supply enough heat to keep lunar devices such as rovers above their minimum operating temperature (approximately 243 K). The second system studied here is the Thermal Energy Storage (TES), which is able to run a heat engine during the lunar night to produce electricity. When the Sun is shining on the Moon's surface, the system can run the engine directly using the solar power and simultaneously heat a thermal mass. This thermal mass is used as a high temperature source to run the heat engine during the night. We present analytical and numerical calculations for the determination of an appropriate thermal mass for the TES system.     

高温SiC器件及其集成电路在空间电子领域应用展望

金星、火星等行星空间探索对航天器电子学系统耐高温、抗辐照、抗腐蚀性等提出了严峻挑战。极低温电子学和高温电子学是近年来深空探索中的强烈需求。文章主要阐述高温SiC集成电路的起源,数字、模拟和功率IC的发展历程和研究现状。重点综述分析了高温SiC集成电路设计方法和流片验证的两条技术途径：首先,基于多层外延制造工艺的BJT器件单元及其双极集成电路;其次,基于离子注入掺杂工艺的互补单元及其CMOS集成电路。在此基础上还进一步介绍了高温SiC传感芯片、BCD功率IC及功率模块的应用可靠性验证。目前国际研究现状展示了SiC BJT和CMOS IC研制中大学学术界和半导体企业界的协同创新格局。最后展望了其在深空探索中的潜在应用及其面临的挑战性。本综述对国内研制空间环境用宽禁带半导体SiC高温集成电路及其电子学系统具有借鉴价值。