Biological investigations aboard the biosatellite Cosmos-1129

Experiments on insects, higher plants and lower fungi were carried out aboard the biological satellite Cosmos-1129, in Earth orbit, from 25 September to 14 October 1979. The main objective of these experiments was to gain more profound knowledge of the effect of weightlessness on living organisms and to study the mechanisms by which these various organisms with different life cycles can adjust and develop in weightlessness. Experiments on insects ($\text{Drosophila melanogaster}$) were made with a view towards understanding gravitational preference in flies, the life cycle of which took place on board the biosatellite under conditions of artificial gravity. Experiments on higher plants ($\text{Zea mays, Arabidopsis taliana, Lycopersicum esculentum}$) and lower fungi ($\text{Physarum polycephalum}$) were performed.     

Study of VLF wave with relativistic effect in Saturn magnetosphere in the presence of parallel A.C. electric field

Cassini radio and plasma wave surveys aim to study radio emissions, plasma waves, thermal plasma and dust near Saturn. Using the characteristic solution and dynamics method, the influence of electron beam on the loss cone and bi-Maxwellian distribution of whistler mode waves in the parallel alternating electric field and magnetic field is studied. The dispersion relation and the growth rate of Saturn's magnetic layer were deduced and calculated in detail. Parameter analysis is performed by changing the parameters of the plasma like number density, AC frequency, temperature anisotropy, etc. The influence of AC frequency on Doppler shift and the comparative study of growth rate of oblique and parallel propagating waves are analyzed using generalized distribution function. We found temperature anisotropy ${\text{A}}_{\text{T}}=1.25$ can explain the linear spatiotemporal growth rate of whistler mode waves. It provides the majority of the observed frequency integral power. It can be seen that the effective parameters for the generation of Whistler mode waves are not only temperature anisotropy, but also the relativistic factors discussed in the results and discussion section, and the AC field frequency and width of the loss cone distribution function.     

Radiosensibility of higher plant seeds after space flight.

The influence of long-term storage of higher plant seeds under space flight conditions (49 to 827 days) on their radiosensibility was studied in the experiments on the orbital stations Salyut 6 and 7. Short-term storage has been proved to have no effect on radiosensitivity of Crepis capillaris seeds. Only in the case of maximal exposure duration the frequency of chromosome aberrations in post-flight irradiated seeds significantly exceeded the chromosome aberration frequency in the ground-based irradiated control. A statistically significant increase in the number of cells with multiple chromosome aberrations was also observed in this experiment. After gamma-irradiation of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds the germinating ability and survival rate of plants decreased depending on the duration of seed storage. Flight-exposed seeds were more sensitive to irradiations with respect to these parameters. A statistically significant increase in the frequency of recessive lethal mutations was observed only in two experiments of long exposure duration.     

Effects of prolonged exposure to space flight factors for 175 days on lettuce seeds

We have studied the effects of prolonged (up to 175 days) exposure of $\text{Lactuca sativa}$ seeds to space flight factors, including primary cosmic radiation heavy ions. The data obtained evidence a significant fourfold increase ofs pontaneous mutagenesis in seeds both with regard to the total number of aberrant cells as well as the formation of single cells with multiple aberrations. Comparison of the present experiment with earlier works shows that the frequency of such aberrations increases with the duration of the flight.     

Movement of a material point in the gravity field of a homogeneous ring

A ring-like mass exerts a well computable gravitational attraction on a material point located along a straight line, being perpendicular to the plane of the ring in its centre. In the state of weightlessness, an oscillatory movement will develop owing to this effect. The period, T, of oscillation depends on the gravity constant, on the density and dimensions of the ring, as well as on the amplitude of the oscillation. Its exact computation can be based on the determination of the gravity potential function of the ring. The oscillation has the following form:

$\text{T=}\text{1}\text{√f√}\textcolor{red}{}\text{.I(r,R,z)}$

where f is the gravitational constant.

is the density of the ring, r and R are the radii of the ring, z is the distance of the turning point of the oscillation from the centre of the ring, while I/r,R,z/ is an improper integral which can be computed with any desired accuracy owing to the favourable function-theoretical character of the potential. We computed the oscillation period for various possible values of the parameters and obtained time data of an order of magnitude which falls into a well observable interval.The outlined conceptual experiment for the improved determination of the gravitational constant may present, of course, many technical difficulties and error sources /e.g. the path of the oscillating point is quite unstable owing to the extremely small acting forces, electric charges and also radiation pressure might be present, the gravity field would show a gradient on the spot of the experiment, etc./. Nevertheless, it seems to be worthwhile to consider carrying out such an experiment, using the possibilities offered by modern techniques in observing distances and time. For the path distortions caused by errors, we give a few estimates, but in case of realization of the experiment, a more detailed error analysis must be made.     

An attempt to inverse the ionospheric sporadic-E layer critical frequency based on the COSMIC radio occultation data

Ionospheric sporadic E layer refers to localized thin irregularity with enhanced plasma density appearing in the height range of ionospheric E layer (～90–130?km). The much higher electron density in the sporadic E layer than the background ionosphere would cause sudden TEC enhancement in the occultation TEC profile. A wavelet decomposition and reconstruction method is applied to extract the TEC fluctuation in this paper, and then $S_{\text{max}}$ index is defined to represent the intensity of the sudden TEC enhancement. $S_{\text{max}}$ index is compared with sporadic E critical frequency ($\mathit{foEs}$) observed by the ionosonde. The results show a well linear correlation between them with mean correlation coefficient about 0.7. Thus, an empirical linear model is established to inverse the $\mathit{foEs}$. The monthly/hourly mean values and global distribution of sporadic E intensity and occurrence ratio are calculated using this method based on the COSMIC occultation data from 2007 to 2011. The statistical analysis results indicate that it is feasible to inverse the $\mathit{foEs}$ based on the occultation TEC profile data and the inversion results can be applied to the long-term global variations of sporadic E investigations.     

Merged series of normalized water leaving radiances obtained from multiple satellite missions for the Mediterranean Sea

Merging time series of ocean color-derived products provided by independent satellite missions supports related biogeochemical and environmental applications by combining temporally overlapping data sets and by increasing data coverage. The creation of a merged series of normalized water leaving radiances _LWN$L_{\text{WN}}$, the primary ocean color product, is presented for the Mediterranean Sea using the SeaWiFS and MODIS data records. The merging relies on an optically-based technique that combines the available _LWN$L_{\text{WN}}$ signal in a spectrally consistent way. Validation statistics indicate uncertainties associated with the merged _LWN$L_{\text{WN}}$ decreasing from 23% at 412 nm to 12% in the 500- to 555-nm spectral range. The inter-comparison of the sensor-specific products, conducted at the scale of the basin for daily-to-monthly time scales, indicates an overall consistency. The level of differences varies with the wavelength considered and shows a marked seasonal cycle, with differences that tend to be higher in winter. The merged series is remarkably consistent with the sensor-specific data, with average absolute percent differences lower than 10% for all wavelengths below 555 nm. The benefit of merging in terms of sampling frequency over the basin is also illustrated. A merged series of _LWN$L_{\text{WN}}$ data based on the two considered missions provides valid data over 36% of the basin area on a daily basis.     

Fast solar radiation pressure modelling with ray tracing and multiple reflections

Physics based SRP (Solar Radiation Pressure) models using ray tracing methods are powerful tools when modelling the forces on complex real world space vehicles. Currently high resolution (1?mm) ray tracing with secondary intersections is done on high performance computers at UCL (University College London). This study introduces the BVH (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) into the ray tracing approach for physics based SRP modelling and makes it possible to run high resolution analysis on personal computers. The ray tracer is both general and efficient enough to cope with the complex shape of satellites and multiple reflections (three or more, with no upper limit). In this study, the traditional ray tracing technique is introduced in the first place and then the BVH is integrated into the ray tracing. Four aspects of the ray tracer were tested for investigating the performance including runtime, accuracy, the effects of multiple reflections and the effects of pixel array resolution.Test results in runtime on GPS IIR and Galileo IOV (In Orbit Validation) satellites show that the BVH can make the force model computation 30–50 times faster. The ray tracer has an absolute accuracy of several nanonewtons by comparing the test results for spheres and planes with the analytical computations. The multiple reflection effects are investigated both in the intersection number and acceleration on GPS IIR, Galileo IOV and Sentinel-1 spacecraft. Considering the number of intersections, the 3rd reflection can capture $99.12\%\text{,}99.14\%$, and $91.34\%$ of the total reflections for GPS IIR, Galileo IOV satellite bus and the Sentinel-1 spacecraft respectively. In terms of the multiple reflection effects on the acceleration, the secondary reflection effect for Galileo IOV satellite and Sentinel-1 can reach 0.2?$\text{nm}/{\text{s}}^2$ and 0.4?$\text{nm}/{\text{s}}^2$ respectively. The error percentage in the accelerations magnitude results show that the 3rd reflection should be considered in order to make it less than $0.035\%$. The pixel array resolution tests show that the dimensions of the components have to be considered when choosing the spacing of the pixel in order not to miss some components of the satellite in ray tracing. This paper presents the first systematic and quantitative study of the secondary and higher order intersection effects. It shows conclusively the effect is non-negligible for certain classes of misson.     

A model study of the negative chlorine ion chemistry in the Earth’s mesosphere

An ion chemistry model is used to investigate the negative chlorine ion chemistry of the mesosphere for quiet ionospheric conditions. Model results are presented for high latitudes in February as well as for the equator in Summer. For nighttime, Cl^-${\text{Cl}}^{-}$, Cl^-${\text{Cl}}^{-}$(HCl), and NO₃⁻(HCl) are the most abundant chlorine anions in the mesosphere. The concentration of ClO₃⁻ depends significantly on its stability against collision-induced dissociation. In contrast to previous model predictions, the abundance of Cl^-(_H2O)${\text{Cl}}^{-}({\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O})$ is small. For daytime, photoelectron detachment and photodissociation have pronounced impact on the negative chlorine ion chemistry in the mesosphere. The abundance of all anion cluster is considerably smaller than at night. While Cl^-${\text{Cl}}^{-}$ decreases in the upper mesosphere, its abundance increases at lower altitudes.     

The action of simulated and true weightlessness on the digestive tract of rats

Rats on board the Soviet Cosmos 936 satellite for 18$\text{1}\text{2}$ days showed a decreased glycoprotein secretion from the salivary mucous glands, stomach and intestine, and an increased leucine aminopeptidase and acid phosphatase content from the small intestine. Grimelius positive cells were activated. One group of rats were centrifuged at 1 g during the flight to simulate terrestrial gravity. Some investigations have suggested that under these conditions muscular and cardiac disorders diminished. In the digestive tract the benefits of centrifugation at 1 g are minimal and limited to a few glycoprotein components. The digestive changes are probably the expression of a stress response, unrelated to weightlessness. Similar changes, concomitant with a glycocorticoid hypersecretion, were found in rats after 15 days of hypokinesia on Earth. These digestive changes persisted even in adrenalectomized rats.