Using Spacelab as a precursor of science operations for the Space Station

For more than 15 years, Spacelab, has provided a laboratory in space for an international array of experiments, facilities, and experimenters. In addition to continuing this important work, Spacelab is now serving as a crucial stepping-stone to the improved science, improved operations, and rapid access to space that will characterize International Space Station. In the Space Station era, science operations will depend primarily on distributed/remote operations that will allow investigators to direct science activities from their universities, facilities, or home bases. Spacelab missions are a crucial part of preparing for these activities, having been used to test, prove, and refine remote operations over several missions. The knowledge gained from preparing these Missions is also playing a crucial role in reducing the time required to put an experiment into orbit, from revolutionizing the processes involved to testing the hardware needed for these more advanced operations. This paper discusses the role of the Spacelab program and the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center- (MSFC-) managed missions in developing and refining remote operations, new hardware and facilities for use on Space Station, and procedures that dramatically reduce preparation time for flight.     

空间实验室低轨高压长寿命半刚性太阳电池翼技术研究

介绍了国内首次使用的半刚性太阳电池翼的任务与技术指标和产品组成。给出了编织用玻璃纤维纱线制备、柔性玻璃纤维编织、半刚性基板组合工艺和低轨空间环境适应性等关键技术。阐述了研制中进行的运动学和动力学、模态、热、在轨栽荷、强度等仿真分析,以及噪声、振动、高低温展开、模态和其他试验。     

Magnetic Cusp as a Source of Dust Swarms in the Near-Earth Space

Within the framework of the concept of steady-state flow of a flux of dust particles through the cusp channel of the Earth's magnetosphere, we develop the idea that the magnetic cusp is a generator of dust swarms in the near-Earth space. The analytical dependencies for the density (concentration) of dust particles in the cusp and near-Earth space region are obtained.     

深空自主光学导航观测小行星选取方法研究

深空探测转移轨道段的自主光学导航一般以小行星作为观测量来源.为了选出可观测的小行星,分析了小行星用于导航的限制因素,给出了视星等、太阳相角、视运动、三星概率、探测器与小行星距离和视线夹角等选取标准;然后,为了从多颗可观测小行星中选出最优组合,以提高导航精度,基于滤波误差协方差分析,给出了一种可量化的选取最优小行星组合的方法,该方法只与小行星到探测器距离和视线夹角有关;最后,参照"深空一号"飞行方案进行了仿真验证.分析和仿真结果表明该方法可有效提高导航精度.     

Evolution of the Orbit of an Earth Satellite with a Solar Sail

The efficiency of using the light pressure of solar radiation for increasing the semimajor axis of the orbit of an Earth Satellite carrying a solar sail is estimated. The orbit is nearly circular and has an altitude of about 900 km. The satellite is in the mode of single-axis solar orientation: it rotates at an angular velocity of 1 deg/s around the axis of symmetry, which traces the direction to the Sun. This mode is maintained by the solar sail, which serves in this case as a solar stabilizer. The following method of increasing the semimajor axis of the orbit (which is equivalent to increasing the total energy of the satellite's orbital motion) is considered. On those sections of the orbit, where the angle between the light pressure force acting upon the sail and the vector of geocentric velocity of the satellite does not exceed a specified limit, the sail is functioning as a solar stabilizer. On those sections of the orbit, where the above-indicated angle exceeds this limit, the sail is furled by way of turning the edges of the petals towards the Sun. Such a control increases the semimajor axis by more than 150 km for three months of flight. In this case, the accuracy of solar orientation decreases insignificantly.     

Creating a productive international partnership in the Vision for Space Exploration

When US President George W. Bush on 14 January 2004 announced a new US “Vision for Space Exploration”, he called for international participation in “a journey, not a race”, a call received with skepticism and concern elsewhere. But, after a slow start in implementing this directive, during 2006 NASA has increased the forward momentum of action on the program and of discussions on international cooperation in exploring “the Moon, Mars, and beyond”. There are nevertheless a number of significant top-level issues that must be addressed if a cooperative approach to human space exploration is to be pursued. These include the relationship between utilization of the ISS and the lunar exploration plans, integration of potential partners’ current and future capabilities into the exploration plans, and the evolving space-related intentions of other countries.     

Optimization of the Flight of a Spacecraft with a Solar Sail from the Earth to Mars with a Perturbation Maneuver near Venus

The trajectories of the fastest flight of a spacecraft (SC) with a solar sail from the Earth's sphere of activity to the Martian sphere of activity including the section of a perturbation maneuver near Venus are investigated. The planetary spheres of activity are assumed to be point-like; i.e., the maneuver section and the initial and final positions of the SC coincide with the corresponding positions of the planets. The initial velocity of the SC is assumed to be equal to the Earth's velocity, so that no leveling of the velocities of the SC and Mars in the final point of the flight is required. The perturbation maneuver is considered as a jump of the heliocentric velocity of the SC at the point of its contact with Venus, which does not change the magnitude of its Venus-centric velocity. The orbits of planets are assumed to be circular and coplanar; the SC trajectory lies at the plane of these orbits. The sail is planar with a specularly reflecting surface. The trajectories of optimum flights are determined as a result of solving the boundary value problem of the Pontryagin maximum principle. The families of solutions to this problem depending on the initial angular positions of Venus and Mars are constructed by the method of continuation over a parameter.     

地球空间双星探测计划的进展

扼要介绍了地球空间双星探测计划的提出和目标、地球空间双星探测工程系统的组成和特点、双星轨道飞行试验的情况     

建立航天科研领域专业人员胜任力特征模型

为实现航天事业的跨越式发展和人力资源管理以人为本的理念,就要引入以胜任力特征模型为基础的新的人力资源管理模式,针对航天科研的特点,采用问卷调查为主、行为事件访谈和专家小组座谈为辅的方法,提取优秀科技人员的能力素质特点,形成航天科研领域专业人员胜任力特征模型,并以此为基点更有效地开展人力资源管理与开发工作.     

建立航天科研领域专业人员胜任力特征模型

为实现航天事业的跨越式发展和人力资源管理以人为本的理念，就要引入以胜任力特征模型为基础的新的人力资源管理模式，针对航天科研的特点，采用问卷调查为主、行为事件访谈和专家小组座谈为辅的方法，提取优秀科技人员的能力素质特点，形成航天科研领域专业人员胜任力特征模型，并以此为基点更有效地开展人力资源管理与开发工作。     

一种用于交会对接全过程的测量敏感器——复合式激光雷达

本文介绍激光雷达系统的组成和测量原理;提出了一种作为交会对接全过程测量敏感器的复合式激光雷达。所谓复合式就是把激光雷达与光学成象敏感器有机结合起来,远、中距离由激光雷达承担测量任务,近距离测量由CCD光学成像系统来完成。     

自由浮动空间双臂机器人抓持内力的优化控制

运用非线性规划方法，提出了一种本体位置、姿态均不受控的自由浮动空间双臂机器人的内力优化与控制策略。首先根据空间双臂机器人及负载的动力学方程，建立了抓持系统合成动力学方程，进而将机器人各手臂关节广义驱动力矩的范数作为目标函数，内力作为优化变量，采用了序列一次规划法来解决空间机器人的动态内力优化计算问题，并对双臂六自由度空间机器人进行了内力优化控制仿真实验，结果表明了该方法的有效性。     

Power Losses of Solar Arrays under the Action of an Environment in a Geosynchronous Orbit

We derive calculated and experimental relations characterizing the reduction in the electric power of solar arrays under prolonged (∼10 years) action of the environment in orbit. The influence of separate factors related to the environment on the loss of solar arrays power is studied. The following factors are considered: ionizing and ultraviolet emissions, contamination of protective glass by the products of destruction of the outer surface materials of spacecraft, thermal cycling, radiation electrization, and plasma thrusters plumes.__________Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 43, No. 4, 2005, pp. 274–282.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Shuvalov, Kochubei, Gubin, Tokmak.     

航天工程技术保障投资的分配模型研究

研究了航天工程技术保障投资分配决策的影响因素，建立了技术保障投资分配的总体模型和投资比例分配模型，确立了技术保障项目投资预算额、投资分配比例以及技术保障投资总额之间的关系；依据各影响因素的权重和专家们的经验判断，计算出了每个技术保障投资项目的综合得分，并以此为基础确定了投资分配的比例值，从而使得投资分配过程得以量化，而且科学、合理。     

Pumice as a remarkable substrate for the origin of life

The context for the emergence of life on Earth sometime prior to 3.5 billion years ago is almost as big a puzzle as the definition of life itself. Hitherto, the problem has largely been addressed in terms of theoretical and experimental chemistry plus evidence from extremophile habitats like modern hydrothermal vents and meteorite impact structures. Here, we argue that extensive rafts of glassy, porous, and gas-rich pumice could have had a significant role in the origin of life and provided an important habitat for the earliest communities of microorganisms. This is because pumice has four remarkable properties. First, during eruption it develops the highest surface-area-to-volume ratio known for any rock type. Second, it is the only known rock type that floats as rafts at the air-water interface and then becomes beached in the tidal zone for long periods of time. Third, it is exposed to an unusually wide variety of conditions, including dehydration. Finally, from rafting to burial, it has a remarkable ability to adsorb metals, organics, and phosphates as well as to host organic catalysts such as zeolites and titanium oxides. These remarkable properties now deserve to be rigorously explored in the laboratory and the early rock record.     

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.