The influence of pressure on combustion intensity

The influence of pressure in the range of 3–15 kgf/cm² on combustion intensity is studied experimentally in a medium-sized rig. The apparatus is described and temperature measurements by different thermocouple techniques are discussed; gas composition was monitored by gas chromatography. The experiments were performed at different cross sections allowing to map temperatures and gas concentrations. The results show that temperature and carbon dioxide concentration increase more rapidly as the pressure is raised. Carbon monoxide appears as an intermediate and is concentrated near the combustion axis. The combustion zone becomes shorter with increasing pressure and the combustion intensity increases correspondingly.     

MOA2—an R&D paradigm buster enabling space propulsion by commercial applications

More than 60 years after the late Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén had published a letter stating that oscillating magnetic fields can accelerate ionised matter via magneto–hydrodynamic interactions in a wave like fashion, the technical implementation of Alfvén waves for propulsive purposes has been proposed, patented and examined for the first time by a group of inventors.Consequently improved since then, the name of the latest concept, relying on magneto-acoustic waves to accelerate electric conductive matter, is MOA²—Magnetic field Oscillating Amplified Accelerator. Based on computer simulations, which were undertaken to get a first estimate on the performance of the system, MOA² is a corrosion free and highly flexible propulsion system, whose performance parameters might easily be adapted in operation, by changing the mass flow and/or the power level. As such the system is capable of delivering a maximum specific impulse of 13116 s (12.87 mN) at a power level of 11.16 kW, using Xe as propellant, but can also be attuned to provide a thrust of 236.5 mN (2411 s) at 6.15 kW of power. First tests—that are further described in this paper—have been conducted successfully with a 400 W prototype system at an ambient pressure of 0.20 Pa, delivered 9.24 mN of thrust at 1472 s I_SP, thereby underlining the feasibility of the concept.Based on these results, space propulsion is expected to be a prime application for MOA²—a claim that is supported by numerous applications such as Solar and/or Nuclear Electric Propulsion or even as an ‘afterburner system’ for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion. However, MOA² has so far seen most of its R&D impetus from terrestrial applications, like coating, semiconductor implantation and manufacturing as well as steel cutting. Based on this observation, MOA² resembles an R&D paradigm buster, as it is the first space propulsion system, whose R&D is driven primarily by its terrestrial applications. Different terrestrial applications exist, but the most successful scenarios so far revolve around MOA²'s unique features with respect to high throughput/low target temperature coatings on sensitive materials. In combination with its intrinsic high flexibility, MOA² is highly suited for a common space-terrestrial application research and utilisation strategy.This paper presents the recent developments of the MOA² R&D activities at Q₂ Technologie(s), the company in Vienna, Austria, which has been set up to further develop and test the magneto-acoustic wave technology and its applications.     

Experimental and theoretical modeling of laser propulsion

Some schemes of laser propulsive systems are discussed. The question concerned with a body acceleration due to series of air blast waves generated by laser sparks is studied. For this purpose the numerical solutions of gasdynamic equations are found under appropriate initial conditions corresponding to the real ones. Radiative losses and spatial effects at the nozzle exit are taken into account. Theoretical results presented as coupling coefficients (equivalent to reciprocal thrust cost realizing under periodical pulse laser operation) are compared with the experiment. Using conical and parabolic nozzles irradiated by pulsed CO₂ laser the thrust cost about 2000 W/N is achieved which is close to the minimum possible one for the air blast wave-nozzle wall interaction. The main characteristics of laser propulsive jet are presented. Experimental results on recoil momentum transfered to solids under their evaporation by the pulsed CO₂-laser are presented as well. The question of plasma shielding effects on the momentum transfer under the vapour optical breakdown conditions is touched on.     

返回舱再入过程密封舱气体泄漏计算研究

为分析返回舱再入过程中密封舱漏孔内外压差,并对漏孔变流量充气过程进行研究,采用离散化分析方法将返回舱再入过程分成若干个阶段,针对容积为14 m~3的密封舱和面积为10 cm~2的漏孔,计算并获得了密封舱内外压差、漏孔质量流率、漏孔流速等参数在50~5 km范围内随高度下降的变化规律。结果表明:在高度5 km开伞时刻,漏孔质量流率达到最大值0.134 kg/s,舱内外压差趋近于最大值,约20 172 Pa;返回舱下降过程中漏孔流速在148.4~181.5 m/s之间,处于亚声速区;漏孔气体流速与漏孔面积大小无关,仅与漏孔内外压力及漏孔进口空气密度有关。以上研究结果可为密封舱结构强度设计、伞舱弹伞设计提供参考。     

Space-time structure of ion-cyclotron waves in the topside ionosphere as observed onboard the <Emphasis Type="Italic">ST</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">5</Emphasis> satellites

Results of observations of ion-cyclotron (IC) waves onboard the ST-5 satellites in the topside ionosphere (heights from a few hundred up to thousands of km) are presented. In this project, three identical micro-satellites were located during three months in 2006 in almost identical orbits with distances between them from first thousands to hundreds of km. All ion-cyclotron wave packets detected by two-three probes were observed at crossing one and the same latitude, which manifests their narrow localization in latitude with a characteristic scale from the first tens to 100 km. In no event IC waves were recorded with comparable amplitudes by all three satellites. At the same time, in the case of ST-5 flight near the ground-based induction magnetometer, a long emission in the same frequency range on the ground corresponded to a burst of IC waves in the topside ionosphere. This can indicate to the fact that an IC instability develops not continuously, but in the pulsing regime with a characteristic time of up to ∼10 min. A change in the rotation direction when a satellite crosses the wave structure is a characteristic feature of the polarization structure of registered transverse waves. The detected effects are discussed from the point of view of the existing models of generation and waveguide propagation of IC waves.     

红蓝光敏探测器空间环境效应探测数据分析

红蓝光敏太阳电池空间环境效应探测器利用镓铟磷和三结砷化镓太阳电池来探测空间污染、原子氧和辐射环境及效应,搭载在中国空间技术研究院自主研制的“新技术验证一号”卫星上。文章通过分析红蓝光敏探测器在轨1年时间的探测数据,得到如下结论：红蓝光敏探测器污染电池板功率下降2.7%,等效污染累积增加量2.23×10^-5 g/cm^2,日均6×10^-8 g/cm^2;原子氧探测器在轨道高度499.226 km运行11个月,原子氧积分通量探测数据为9.7×10^20 AO/cm^2;辐射效应探测器（三结砷化镓太阳电池）在轨1年后累计接受辐射剂量（等效1 MeV电子注量）5.49×10^11 e/cm^2。     

质子和离子辐照对镁稀土合金 力学性能的影响

文章研究了质子和离子（氮离子）辐照对镁稀土（Mg-Zn-Y-Zr）合金拉伸性能、表面硬度及拉伸变形断裂行为的影响。经能量为170 keV,注量分别为5×1015 /cm2、1×1016 /cm2、2×1016 /cm2、1×1017 /cm2的质子或离子辐照后,合金的拉伸性能和拉伸断口形貌没有发生显著变化,表明质子和离子辐照对Mg-Zn-Y-Zr合金宏观力学性能的影响有限,这与辐照粒子（质子或离子）对合金的穿透深度浅有关。纳米显微硬度测试和扫描分析结果显示,经氮离子辐照后,Mg-Zn-Y-Zr合金被辐照面表层发生了一定程度的硬化,纳米显微硬度随着辐照注量的增加而逐渐增加,而质子辐照的硬化效果不明显。     

Electrostatic and acoustic instrumentation for material science processing in space

The use of electrostatic forces in the design of a positioning system and acoustic forces in the implementation of a mixing system for material science experiments on Spacelab are described. The electrostatic positioning of samples is described with special reference to its advantages and disadvantages with regard to other positioning methods. The design of such a positioner is described including the considerations relating to the processing of both high and low vapour pressure materials in a positioner compatible with both the isothermal heating facility (IHF) and the mirror heating facility (MHF) of Spacelab under microgravity (10^?4–10^?3 g) conditions. The application of acoustic and ultrasonic forces to the problem of sample mixing in material science experiments is explained. The design of a mixer compatible with existing furnace hardware for Spacelab and capable of effectively mixing samples at temperatures up to 1200°C is described. Tests of the mixer show that a 15 μm displacement adequate for good mixing can be achieved with a d.c. power input of 23 W and a conversion efficiency of 70%. Tests on alumina particles and carbon fibres in various alloy matrices show that complete wetting can be achieved.     

Radio wave propagation in the turbulent solar plasma using three satellites

The radio wave propagation in the solar-wind plasma was investigated before and after Mars-2, Mars-7 and Venera-10's superior conjunction. It was found that the moving turbulent solar-wind plasma produced the amplitude and frequency fluctuations and the spectral broadening of monochromatic radio waves. When the Sun-Earth-spacecraft angle decreases from 6° to (0.6) the bandwidth of spectral broadening increases from (0.3) Hz to 300 Hz. The region of 2.5–4° is specific since the bandwidth of spectral broadening is independent of Sun-Earth-spacecraft angle. The spectrum of frequency fluctuations could be represented by a power law with a spectral index of 0.7 ± 0.2. The temporal frequency spectra of the amplitude have two distinct regions. In the low-frequency region the spectral density is approximately constant. The high-frequency portion of the amplitude spectrum follows the power law with a spectral index of 2.8 ± 0.4. The turbulence characteristics of a solar-wind plasma are determined from the experimental data obtained. The three-dimensional wave-number spectrum of irregularities is found to be close to the Kolmogorov-Oboukhov spectrum.The solar-wind density fluctuations decline with heliocentric distance very steeply, but in the distance interval of 7 × 10⁶ – 12 × 10⁶ km, there is a region of enhanced turbulence which could be caused by shock waves.     

Magneto-ionospheric effects of active experiments conducted on February 18, 2004

Results of radiophysical and magnetometric observations of dynamical processes in the ionosphere and geomagnetic field that followed launches of four rockets of different power and made from different launching sites are analyzed. It is found that the rocket launches were accompanied by an intensification of wave activity in the ionosphere and geomagnetic field. The medium reactions from various sources (various rockets) were overlapping, which made their identification more difficult. Both ionospheric and geomagnetic disturbances have, most probably, two groups of propagation velocities: about 1.2–1.7 km s⁻¹ and 440–760 m s⁻¹. Slow MHD waves and internal gravity waves corresponded to these velocities.     

Method and Results of Direct Measurement of the Interstellar Neutral Helium Abundance and Isotopic Composition

One of the important astrophysical problems is the determination of the abundance of helium isotopes ³He and ⁴He in different regions of the Universe, because this abundance can reflect its history by pointing to the intensity of various possible processes of the creation and decay of light elements. This paper describes the method and results of the determination (for the first time performed by a direct method) of the helium isotopic abundance in the local interstellar medium surrounding the Solar system. The experiment was carried out on the manned Mir space station by long-term space exposure of samples of metal foil with their subsequent recovery to the Earth and detailed laboratory mass-spectrometric analysis. As a result, we succeeded in obtaining an estimation of the ⁴He concentration (about 7.5 × 10^–3 cm^–3) and the isotopic ratio ³He/⁴He (about1.7 × 10^–4) for the local interstellar medium.     

Cylindrical heterogeneous detonation waves

Further experimental studies of blast wave initiated cylindrical heterogeneous (liquid fuel drops, gas oxidizer) detonation waves are described. A pie-shaped shock tube, used for these studies, was altered in certain ways so as to improve the modeling of cylindrical waves. These modifications, along with some operational aspects, are briefly discussed. The breech of the facility, where the blast wave is generated by an explosive, became distorted with usage. Results are presented which show that lower detonation velocities are realized with the damaged breech (other conditions being the same). A photographic and pressure switch wave time of arrival study was made to ascertain the wave shape. Photographs are shown which show that the waves, blast as well as detonation, are close to cylindrical. However, in some cases there is appreciable distortion of the wave front by debris ahead of the wave. Presumably this debris comes from the blasting cap used to ignite the condensed explosive. A series of experiments was conducted using kerosene drops of 388 μm diameter dispersed in air through use of a large number of hypodermic needles. Radial fuel void regions were established by cutting off the fuel flow to a number of needles. Preliminary results relating to the effect of the size of the cloud gap on detonation velocity, quenching, and the initiator energy levels required for detonation are discussed.     

Invariance of Charged Particle Time Profiles at Late Stages of SCR Events from the Data of Multisatellite Observations

Based on the data obtained in simultaneous measurements on the Helios-1 and Helios-2 spacecraft, the properties of the spatial and temporal invariance of spectra of protons with energies more than 4 MeV and electrons with energies more than 0.3 MeV are studied during the phase of intensity decay in events initiated by the following associations: a flare—coronal mass ejection—coronal and interplanetary shock waves. Emphasis is placed on research into the fluxes of electrons, whose possibility to be accelerated by shock waves is problematic. It is shown that the spectra and decay times of both protons and electrons are approximately invariant relative to the flare coordinates in a wide angular range. Depending on the western or eastern spacecraft position in relation to the front part of a shock wave, one observes a delay or advance of the onset of the invariant mode relative to the shock wave arrival, which increases with the growth of the corresponding angular distance.     

Concept of a space telescope able to see the planets and even the satellites around the nearest stars

The Space Telescope will be launched in 1986 and will improve considerably our observational possibilities, but not the visibility of outer planetary systems.The solar system as seen from Alpha Centauri is presented, as well as the nearest stars and the main cameras of the Space Telescope.As a possible improvement the action of a distant and star-shaped screen is described; that screen is 100 to 800 meters and placed 10⁵ to 10⁶ km in front of the telescope; it allows one to avoid the dazzling effect of the stars and to look for planets such as Jupiter and Saturn up to 20 to 40 light-years. Such planets as Earth and Venus are a little less visible.The visibility of satellites such as the Moon is discussed; it remains at the limit of our technical possibilities.This conceptual paper does not consider in detail the technical difficulties involved.     

The mass loss of spacecraft polyimide films under the action of atomic oxygen and vacuum ultraviolet radiation

The threshold values of the annual fluence of atomic oxygen (F _AO ≈ 10²⁰ cm^?2), as well as the ratios of the energy-flux density of vacuum ultraviolet radiation of the solar spectrum to the flux density of atomic oxygen (Φ _ν /Φ _AO ≈ 8 × 10^?15 mJ) were determined, which are characterized the influence of the synergistic effect on the mass loss of Kapton-H, PM-A, and PM-1E polyimide films, which are spacecraft materials.     

Numerical validation and parametric investigation on the cold flow field of a typical cavity-based scramjet combustor

The three-dimensional coupled implicit Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and the two equation standard k–ε turbulence model has been employed to numerically simulate the cold flow field in a typical cavity-based scramjet combustor. The numerical results show reasonable agreement with the schlieren photograph and the pressure distribution available in the open literature. The pressure distribution after the first pressure rise is under-predicted. There are five shock waves existing in the cold flow field of the referenced combustor. The first and second pressure rises on the upper wall of the combustor are predicted accurately with the medium grid. The other three shock waves occur in the core flow of the combustor. The location of the pressure rise due to these three shock waves could not be predicted accurately due to the presence of recirculation zone downstream of the small step. Further, the effect of length-to-depth ratio of the cavity and the back pressure on the wave structure in the combustor has been investigated. The obtained results show that there is an optimal length-to-depth ratio for the cavity to restrict the movement of the shock wave train in the flow field of the scramjet combustor. The low velocity region in the cavity affects the downstream flow field for low back pressure. The intensity of the shock wave generated at the exit of the isolator depends on the back pressure at the exit of the combustor and this in turn affects the pressure distribution on the upper wall of the combustor.     

Compact high-voltage accelerators of charged particles in space experiments

Some general problems of design and application of compact devices for the generation of pulse electric fields at a megavolt range in space experiments are discussed. The prospect of various applications of powerful electron beams for active diagnostics of upper layers of atmosphere, radiation belts and the earth's magnetic field is also reviewed. The proposed development of powerful impulsive devices is dictated by limitations of energy resources in spacecraft together with a need to get a good signal-to-noise ratio for reliable data recording. Compact devices which directly transform electric energy of a low-voltage source (solar batteries, chemical elements, nuclear reactor, etc.), into the energy of a megavolt charge particle beam of high impulsive power appear as reliable means for satisfying these requirements. In this paper, the basic practical schemes of energy transformation procedures are considered and the optimal operation parameters of high-voltage storage and transformer systems are discussed. Proper application of combined high-voltage insulation techniques result in the development of experimental models of heavy-current electron beam accelerators capable of generating beams of 300–500 kV, 3–5 kA, with a pulse duration of 15 × 10⁻⁹ sec at a frequency of 10 Hz. Typical applications of electron beam accelerators including the generator of electron-beam-controlled discharge laser beams are also described.     

Pulsating aurora and quasiperiodic VLF hiss in the auroral zone morning sector: The event of December 30, 2011

The spatial–temporal variations in aurora and VLF emissions during an weak intensification in the auroral zone morning sector on December 30, 2011, have been analyzed. The event was accompanied by a negative bay (~70 nT) in the X component of the magnetic field at ground stations in northern Scandinavia. At the recovery phase of this bay, the precipitation zone moved and VLF emission frequency simultaneously increased over ten minutes, which may indicate that waves and precipitating electrons had a common source. VLF noise bursts in the 600–1000 Hz band with a characteristic modulation scale of ~10 s and the corresponding aurora intensifications localized in the ~100 km region were observed during the following ten minutes, which also confirms that recorded waves are related to electron precipitation. This correspondence of the pulsating aurora periods and VLF noise modulation has been revealed for the first time. The role of VLF wave generation processes during the cyclotron interaction with electrons in the magnetosphere and the propagation of these waves from the magnetosphere to the observation point are discussed.     

光敏推进剂激光烧蚀过程建模与仿真

相较于传统大卫星,微小卫星具有结构紧凑、质量轻便和成本低廉的特点。然而,受功率和质量负载的限制,微小卫星一般不装备推进系统,其航线也局限于近地轨道。为扩展微小卫星的功能,满足日益复杂的任务需求,需给其配备合适的微推进系统。固体推进系统具有结构简单、寿命长、可靠性高的优点,但无法重复启动。为得到可重复启动的固体微推进系统,设计了一种非自持燃烧的光敏推进剂,采用激光控制其燃烧。在背压为大气压的环境下,利用高速摄像机拍摄燃烧过程并记录燃速。之后,对光敏推进剂的激光烧蚀过程进行建模。分析结果表明:激光可控制光敏推进剂的燃烧,燃速与激光强度成线性关系;该光敏推进剂的最小激光点火强度为0.28 W/mm~2;燃速计算值与实测值的误差在10%以内,证明该数学模型具备工程应用价值。     

Experiment on the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vernov</Emphasis> satellite: Transient energetic processes in the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetosphere. Part I: Description of the experiment

The program of physical studies on the Vernov satellite launched on July 8, 2014 into a polar (640 × 830 km) solar-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 98.4° is presented. We described the complex of scientific equipment on this satellite in detail, including multidirectional gamma-ray detectors, electron spectrometers, red and ultra-violet detectors, and wave probes. The experiment on the Vernov satellite is mainly aimed at a comprehensive study of the processes of generation of transient phenomena in the optical and gamma-ray ranges in the Earth’s atmosphere (such as high-altitude breakdown on runaway relativistic electrons), the study of the action on the atmosphere of electrons precipitated from the radiation belts, and low- and high-frequency electromagnetic waves of both space and atmospheric origin.