Women and mission leadership

Only one of NASA's planetary science flight missions in the past 30 years has been led by a women scientist as Principal Investigator. The number of senior women in the field is small, but women are still underutilized, as seen by a cohort age analysis correlating with median ages for various key science roles. Worse, the more junior women are not joining missions as Co-Investigators and Participating Scientists at rates approaching their representation in the field of planetary science. In fact, they are underutilized in these roles not by a few percent, but by greater than a factor of two. The pipeline of women gaining mission experience today is increasing, but it is not keeping pace with the rate that women are now choosing to stay in the field for postdoctoral studies and beyond. The numbers definitively show for the first time that, for whatever reason, women are still underrepresented in mission leadership at NASA.     

Study of satellite situations mission

Problems of situational investigations during the planning and control of the space experiment in the near-Earth space are considered in this paper. It gives the concept of the orbital torus and shows its application in various problems of situational investigations: the forecast of intersections of the orbit with the magnetopause and bow shock, regions of satellites radiovisibility from the ground observation post and others.     

Phoenix--the first Mars Scout mission

NASA has initiated the first of a new series of missions to augment the current Mars Program. In addition to the systematic series of planned, directed missions currently comprising the Mars Program plan, NASA has started a series of Mars Scout missions that are low cost, price fixed, Principal [correction of Principle] Investigator-led projects. These missions are intended to provide an avenue for rapid response to discoveries made as a result of the primary Mars missions, as well as allow more risky technologies and approaches to be applied in the investigation of Mars. The first in this new series is the Phoenix mission which was selected as part of a highly competitive process. Phoenix will use the Mars 2001 Lander that was discontinued in 2000 and apply a new set of science objectives and mission objectives and will validate this soft lander architecture for future applications. This paper will provide an overview of both the Program and the Project.     

Principal Investigators and mission leadership

Principal Investigators of small and medium sized space and earth science missions face many challenges during formulation, design, development, integration and test, launch, and operations; these challenges may be more easily met by team leaders with prior mission experience. This paper reports the results of the first known demographic study of NASA's Principal-Investigator-led missions and makes recommendations for preparing additional space scientists to lead. The addition of a Deputy Principal Investigator to proposal teams could reduce the burden on the Principal Investigator and provide an opportunity for additional scientists to gain mission leadership experience useful on future missions. The pool of mission-knowledgeable scientists could further be expanded to include scientists earlier in their careers via carefully managed Participating Scientist Programs. Adding Deputy Principal Investigators and Participating Scientist Programs to missions as a matter of course would reinforce effective management practices, open the field of proposers, and provide concrete ways to mentor the next generation of Principal Investigators.     

The IRS-P3 remote sensing mission

ISRO has developed the PSLV rocket (Polar Spacecraft Launch Vehicle) for polar orbiting satellites up to 1000 kg and is conducting a series of test missions. One of this is the IRS-P3, an remote sensing satellite with German participation. The payload consists of 3 scientific instruments: The wide field sensor WiFS for vegetation monitoring (ISRO), the imaging spectrometer MOS (DLR/Germany) for coastal zone and ocean studies an the X-ray astronomy payload (ISRO). The paper gives technical details and parameters on the launch vehicle, the satellite, the instruments and scientific goals and data utilization.     

Natural killer cells after ALTAIR mission

Reduced in vitro NK cytotoxic activity have routinely been observed after both prolonged and short-term space flights. This study investigated the effects of space flight on NK cell functions, NK cell counts and the production of IL-2 and TNF by lymphocytes of French-Russian crew members. In the French cosmonaut, after 21 days space flight, the cytotoxic activity of NK cells, the capacity the NK cells to bind and lyse the individual target cells and the percentage of NK cells were decreased. In this cosmonaut a twofold reduction TNF production in cultures of lymphocytes stimulated with PMA and with the mixture of PHA and PMA was observed on the first day after landing. However, the activity of the production of TNF in 48-hour PHA-cultures of lymphocytes was unchanged and the biological activity of IL-2 was not reduced. The immunological examination did not detecte any substantial deviations from the norm in both russian cosmonauts after 197 days space flight. Various explanations for decreased cytotoxicity in cosmonauts after space flight can be proposed, and these include the defective function of NK cells and reduced numbers of circulating effector cells.     

Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon

Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian planetary exploration mission that will perform remote sensing observation of the Moon to further our understanding about its origin and evolution. Hyper-spectral studies in the 0.4– region using three different imaging spectrometers, coupled with a low energy X-ray spectrometer, a sub-keV atom analyzer, a 3D terrain mapping camera and a laser ranging instrument will provide data on mineralogical and chemical composition and topography of the lunar surface at high spatial resolution. A low energy gamma ray spectrometer and a miniature imaging radar will investigate volatile transport on lunar surface and possible presence of water ice in the polar region. A radiation dose monitor will provide an estimation of energetic particle flux en route to the Moon as well as in lunar orbit. An impact probe carrying a mass spectrometer will also be a part of the spacecraft. The 1 ton class spacecraft will be launched by using a variant of flight proven indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL). The spacecraft will be finally placed in a 100 km circular polar orbit around the Moon with a planned mission life of two years.     

Navigation support for the RadioAstron mission

A developed method of determination of orbital parameters allows one to estimate, along with orbit elements, some additional parameters that characterize solar radiation pressure and perturbing accelerations due to unloadings of reactiion wheels. A parameterized model of perturbing action of solar radiation pressure on the spacecraft motion is described (this model takes into account the shape, reflecting properties of surfaces, and spacecraft attitude). Some orbit determination results are presented obtained by the joint processing of radio measurements of slant range and Doppler, laser range measurements used to calibrate the radio measurements, optical observations of right ascension and declination, and telemetry data on spacecraft thrusters’ firings during an unloading of reaction wheels.     

NanoSail-D: A solar sail demonstration mission

In the early to mid-2000s, NASA made substantial progress in the development of solar sail propulsion systems. Solar sail propulsion uses the solar radiation pressure exerted by the momentum transfer of reflected photons to generate a net force on a spacecraft. To date, solar sail propulsion systems were designed for large robotic spacecraft. Recently, however, NASA has been investigating the application of solar sails for small satellite propulsion. The NanoSail-D is a subscale solar sail system designed for possible small spacecraft applications. The NanoSail-D mission flew on board the ill-fated Falcon Rocket launched August 2, 2008, and due to the failure of that rocket, never achieved orbit. The NanoSail-D flight spare is ready for flight and a suitable launch arrangement is being actively pursued. This paper will present an introduction solar sail propulsion systems and an overview of the NanoSail-D spacecraft.     

Results of impact simulation for the GIOTTO mission

The European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to carry out a fly-by mission to the comet Halley. The spacecraft will be launched by an ARIANE II and intercept the retrograde Halley orbit on 13 March, 1986. One group of experiments is designed to obtain data on size, mass and composition of the dust in the cometary tail. Because of the very high relative velocity during fly-by (69 km/s) laboratory experiments are necessary to develop and calibrate the experiments. These experiments are presently under way in the laboratory of the Lehrstuhl für Raumfahrttechnik of the Technische Universität München. First results have been obtained for both the Dust Impact Detection System (DIDSY) and the P?articulate Impact Analyzer (PIA). These results are compared with the theoretical models for hypervelocity impact craters. The agreement is good at impact velocities around 15 km/s.     

Orbital design and technological feasibility of Halley mission

Missions to Halley's comet in 1985–1986 are discussed. They include pre-perihelion encounter, post-perihelion encounter, the utilization of Venus swing-by, one round mission in which the spacecraft goes the round of the Sun before the encounter and missions to the point beneath the perihelion of Halley's orbit. Technological feasibility of the small spacecraft is also discussed on the basis of the use of the improved version of M-3S launch vehicle.     

Portable end-to-end ground system for low-cost mission support

This paper presents a revolutionary architecture of the end-to-end ground system to reduce overall mission support costs. The present ground system of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is costly to operate, maintain, deploy, reproduce, and document. In the present climate of shrinking NASA budgets, this proposed architecture takes on added importance as it should dramatically reduce all of the above costs. Currently, the ground support functions (i.e., receiver, tracking, ranging, telemetry, command, monitor and control) are distributed among several subsystems that are housed in individual rack-mounted chassis. These subsystems can be integrated into one portable laptop system using established Multi Chip Module (MCM) packaging technology and object-based software libraries. The large scale integration of subsystems into a small portable system connected to the World Wide Web (WWW) will greatly reduce operations, maintenance and reproduction costs. Several of the subsystems can be implemented using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products further decreasing non-recurring engineering costs. The inherent portability of the system will open up new ways for using the ground system at the “point-of-use” site as opposed to maintaining several large centralized stations. This eliminates the propagation delay of the data to the Principal Investigator (PI), enabling the capture of data in real-time and performing multiple tasks concurrently from any location in the world. Sample applications are to use the portable ground system in remote areas or mobile vessels for real-time correlation of satellite data with earth-bound instruments; thus, allowing near real-time feedback and control of scientific instruments. This end-to-end portable ground system will undoubtedly create opportunities for better scientific observation and data acquisition.     

无人机任务规划系统研究及发展

无人机任务规划系统是指根据所要完成的任务、无人机的数量及任务载荷的不同,对各架无人机进行任务分配并通过航路规划技术制定飞行路线。首先介绍了无人机任务规划系统的基本功能及组成结构。然后,详细分析了任务规划系统的建模技术及其优化算法的研究现状。最后指出了讨论了无人机任务规划存在的问题,并阐述了无人机任务规划系统的发展趋势。     

Martian manned mission: what cosmonauts think about this

The experience of cosmonauts who have participated in long-duration space flights has great value for solving problems connected with realization of the Martian manned mission. To study the cosmonauts’ opinion in relation to the Martian crew size, professional specialization of crewmembers, duration of their joint training, the possible sources of psychological tension in the flight, etc., a special questionnaire has been developed. The results of the 11 Russian cosmonauts’ survey are presented in this article.     

Physiological and biomechanical considerations for a human Mars mission

Evolving on Earth has made humans perfectly adapted, both physiologically and biomechanically, to its gravity and atmospheric conditions. Leaving the Earth and its protective environment, therefore, results in the degradation of a number of human systems. Long-duration stays on the International Space Station (ISS) are accompanied by significant effects on crew's cardiovascular, vestibular and musculoskeletal systems. Bone loss and muscle atrophy are experienced at a rate of 1-3% and 5% per month respectively, while VO2 (oxygen consumption) measurements are reduced by approximately 25% after a few weeks in space. If these figures are simply extrapolated, a future human mission to Mars will be seriously jeopardised and crews may find they cross the threshold of bone and muscle loss and aerobic fitness--ultimately with them being unable to return to Earth. When arriving on Mars, considerable biomechanical alterations will also occur. Optimum walking speeds will be approximately 30% lower and transitioning from a walk to a run will occur at a speed 25% slower. Peak vertical forces will be reduced by as much as 50%, while stride length, stride time and airborne time will all increase. On Mars, half as much energy will be required to travel the equivalent distance on Earth and it will be 65% more economical to run rather than to walk.