Measuring the economic benefits of a national planetary protection policy to regulate future private space activities between Earth and Mars: Results of a contingent valuation survey in Greece

The emergence of private space actors may soon enable the growth of the novel market segments of space research and exploration, space resources utilization, and human access to space. The interdisciplinary field of Planetary Protection has to keep up with these advances. Planetary Protection is defined as a set of guidelines that aim to prevent the forward contamination of celestial bodies with biological material from Earth and the backward contamination of the terrestrial biosphere with extraterrestrial biological material. As space entrepreneurs acquire and develop the resources and competencies for commercial access to space, significant questions are expected to be raised in the future with respect to potential forward and backward contamination issues, particularly with respect to activities between Earth and Mars. Although such private activities do not seem to pose a serious Planetary Protection threat at the moment, certain preparatory steps need to be taken in order to prudently inform the relevant policy-making procedures. This work describes the application of the Contingent Valuation Method, a useful tool of the environmental economics discipline, with the aim of demonstrating a novel approach to estimate the economic valuation of the external benefits of preventing forward and backward contamination between Earth and Mars. Particularly, via a survey specifically developed for this purpose, a set of questions are used to elicit the perceived economic value that respondents place on the prevention of forward and backward contamination; the survey is administered to a national probability sample in Greece, and the generated data is processed through statistical analysis. The Contingent Valuation Method is a popular and well-established stated preference valuation technique; these techniques are often the more suitable choice for ex-ante valuations of future changes, and are currently the only known approach to capture all the aspects of the economic value of non-market goods. Through an initial proof-of-concept in Greece, the goal of this work is to provide useful insights on the expected external benefits of a national Planetary Protection policy to regulate future private space activities between Earth and Mars, and to encourage a larger-scale application of this tool in other countries around the world.     

基于贝叶斯网络的航空灾害成因机理探析

为了预防和矫正航空事故诱发因素的萌生与发展,改善民航安全管理的科学性和可靠性,进一步降低事故率,减少航空灾害造成的损失.针对航空灾害的形成特点,探讨致灾因素的相互作用是成因机理分析的关键.基于贝叶斯网络模型,综合运用诊断推理和支持推理形式,分析致灾因素的因果关系,揭示了人、机、环境与管理因素相互作用的内在规律.通过高斯贝叶斯网络在典型案例致灾成因机理分析中的应用,挖掘隐含的内部因素对系统的影响程度,发现了隐含因素从不确定性状态向确定性状态的演变过程,以及表层因素与隐含因素的关系.     

Distributing space weather monitoring instruments and educational materials worldwide for IHY 2007: The AWESOME and SID project

The International Heliophysical Year (IHY) aims to advance our understanding of the fundamental processes that govern the Sun, Earth, and heliosphere. The IHY Education and Outreach Program is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of space and Earth scientists as well as spreading the knowledge, beauty, and relevance of our solar system to the people of the world. In our Space Weather Monitor project we deploy a global network of sensors to high schools and universities to provide quantitative diagnostics of solar-induced ionospheric disturbances, thunderstorm intensity, and magnetospheric activity. We bring real scientific instruments and data in a cost-effective way to students throughout the world. Instruments meet the objectives of being sensitive enough to produce research-quality data, yet inexpensive enough for placement in high schools and universities. The instruments and data have been shown to be appropriate to, and usable by, high school age and early university students. Data contributed to the Stanford data center is openly shared and partnerships between groups in different nations develop naturally. Students and teachers have direct access to scientific expertise.     

Methods and measurements to assess physical and geochemical conditions at the surface of Europa

An international effort dedicated to the science exploration of Jupiter system planned by ESA and NASA in the beginning of the next decade includes in-depth science investigation of Europa. In parallel to EJSM (Europa-Jupiter System Mission) Russia plans a Laplace-Europa Lander mission, which will include another orbiter and the surface element: Europa Lander. In-situ methods on the lander provide the only direct way to assess environmental conditions, and to perform the search for signatures of life. A critical advantage of such in situ analysis is the possibility to enhance concentration and detection limits and to provide ground truth for orbital measurements. The science mission of the lander is biological, geophysical, chemical, and environmental characterizations of the Europa surface. This review is dedicated to methods and strategies of geophysical and environmental measurements to be performed at the surface of Europa, and their significance for the biological assessment, basing on the concept of a relatively large softly landed module, allowing to probe a shallow subsurface. Many of the discussed methods were presented on the workshop “Europa Lander: Science Goals and Experiments” held in Moscow in February 2009. Methods and instruments are grouped into geophysical package, means of access to the subsurface, methods of chemical and structural characterization, and methods to assess physical conditions on the surface.     

A new approach based on crater detection and matching for visual navigation in planetary landing

This paper provides an approach of crater detection and matching to visual navigation in planetary landing missions. The approach aims to detect craters on the planetary surface and match them to a landmark database during the descent phase of a planetary landing mission. Firstly an image region pairing method is proposed to detect the crater by using an image region feature detector. Then a WTA-rule is adopted to match the detected crater to the crater in database. To further reduce the false matching rate, an efficient method for reducing false matches using parameters of crater in 3-D database is proposed. Real images of planetary terrain and a semi-physical planetary landing simulation platform are utilized to test the performance of the approach, simulation results show the proposed approach is able to match the required number of craters to the database for pin-point planetary landing with a low rate of false detection and false matching, which will lead to an improved planetary landing precision.     

Study on Satellite-to-ground Laser Communications with Existence of Atmosphere

The laser beam used to establish a communication channel between satellite and ground segments has a small divergence angle and a tiny spot on the Earth’s surface, which may lead to the fail of the system. So it’s important to study the deflection of laser beam by the Earth’s atmosphere and find a way to calibrate this error. Both theoretical analysis and real data processing method are used to obtain the mathematical model for divergence angle of laser communication beam and its correction function. Then the model has been applied to the data, which was used to describe the atmosphere state by traditional ground segments to obtain the critical elevation angle. According to the results of calculation, our conclusion will be that the correction should be done when the critical elevation happens.      

Generic procedure for designing and implementing plan management systems for space science missions operations

This paper is one of the components of a larger framework of activities whose purpose is to improve the performance and productivity of space mission systems, i.e. to increase both what can be achieved and the cost effectiveness of this achievement. Some of these activities introduced the concept of Functional Architecture Module (FAM); FAMs are basic blocks used to build the functional architecture of Plan Management Systems (PMS). They also highlighted the need to involve Science Operations Planning Expertise (SOPE) during the Mission Design Phase (MDP) in order to design and implement efficiently operation planning systems. We define SOPE as the expertise held by people who have both theoretical and practical experience in operations planning, in general, and in space science operations planning in particular. Using ESA’s methodology for studying and selecting science missions we also define the MDP as the combination of the Mission Assessment and Mission Definition Phases. However, there is no generic procedure on how to use FAMs efficiently and systematically, for each new mission, in order to analyse the cost and feasibility of new missions as well as to optimise the functional design of new PMS; the purpose of such a procedure is to build more rapidly and cheaply such PMS as well as to make the latter more reliable and cheaper to run. This is why the purpose of this paper is to provide an embryo of such a generic procedure and to show that the latter needs to be applied by people with SOPE during the MDP. The procedure described here proposes some initial guidelines to identify both the various possible high level functional scenarii, for a given set of possible requirements, and the information that needs to be associated with each scenario. It also introduces the concept of catalogue of generic functional scenarii of PMS for space science missions. The information associated with each catalogued scenarii will have been identified by the above procedure and will be relevant only for some specific mission requirements. In other words, each mission that shares the same type of requirements that lead to a list of specific catalogued scenarii can use this latter list of scenarii (regardless of whether the mission is a plasma, planetary, astronomy, etc. mission). The main advantages of such a catalogue are that it speeds-up the execution of the procedure and makes the latter more reliable. Ultimately, the information associated to each relevant scenario (from the catalogue or freshly generated by the procedure) will then be used by mission designers to make informed decisions, including the modification of the mission requirements, for any missions. In addition, to illustrate the use of such a procedure, the latter is applied to a case study, i.e. the Cross-Scale mission. One of the outcomes of this study is an initial set of generic functional scenarii. Finally, although border line with the above purpose of this paper, we also discuss multi-spacecraft specific issues and issues related to the on-board execution of the plan update system (PUS). In particular, we show that the operation planning cost of N spacecraft is not equal to N times the cost of 1 spacecraft and that on-board non-synchronised operation will not require inter-spacecraft communication. We also believe that on-board PUS should be made possible for all missions as a standard.     

面向网络化制造的数控车间组织模式

分析了网络化制造的基本特征和内涵,提出了面向企业的网络化制造系统运行模式;在对某大型航空制造企业的数控车间调研与应用实施的基础上,针对其组织模式存在问题,采用分行企业和独立制造岛的思想建立了适合数控车间网络化、敏捷化制造的分形组织模型;针对车间原有生产模式、产品特性,提出了基于成组技术的数控车间生产单元和生产线的划分方法,建立了面向产品流程的机构组成规则和车间内部的服务支援规则.该模型、方法、原则对传统的离散制造企业具有普遍的适用性,现已成功地被该数控车间采纳.     

A multi-objective optimization framework of constellation design for emergency observation

To meet the urgent needs of emergency observation missions, a well-designed constellation is key to ensuring system performance. This paper presents a multi-objective optimization framework which is well suited for constellation designers to identify key trade-offs and make decisions. Firstly, this work investigates the metrics of responsiveness and coverage simultaneously to approximate to the actual conditions of emergencies, and a multi-objective mathematical model is constructed to explore solutions to enhance the overall system performance. Then, according to the characteristics of emergency missions, a hierarchical chromosome encoding method is proposed in the framework to encode a solution that explores different sized constellations without constraining its specific geometry. Finally, we propose the use of radial axes plots to help constellation designers to gain pragmatic insights for informed decision making. The simulation of disaster management verifies that the proposed chromosome encoding method effectively promotes the convergence of the algorithm, and the multi-objective optimization framework helps to generate a rapid and adequate observation satellite constellation to provide maximum coverage performance while ensuring timeliness.     

一种气浮模拟器位姿状态跟踪测量方法研究

气浮模拟器为了模拟空间飞行器在地面状态的姿态运动和轨道机动运动,需要在大平面空间和大角度空间范围内运动。运动控制和实际运动位置和姿态形成闭环控制,需要一种在超大平面空间范围内快速测量位置和姿态的测量方法和策略,从而提供高精度闭环控制。用iGPS和惯导同步测量模拟器的位置和姿态,通过飞轮和冷气喷嘴伺服动作,实现了气浮模拟器的位置和姿态跟踪,可以广泛应用于其他超大尺度空间位置和姿态测量跟踪。     

基于双力源的叠加式多维力传感器校准装置研究CSCD

介绍了一种基于叠加机原理的双力源多维力传感器校准装置的设计与研制,对装置的测量不确定度进行了分析,通过对三分量力传感器的校准实验,证明了校准装置不仅可以对多分量力传感器进行单分量校准,还能方便地实现耦合误差的校准。     

使用贝叶斯网评估基础软件平台的互操作性

互操作性是当前软件最重要的特性之一.通过分析问题域,结合贝叶斯网的特征域,提出使用贝叶斯网来解决基础软件平台的互操作性评估问题.首先根据问题域选取贝叶斯算法,并收集实际数据以引入与问题相关的领域知识.根据所选取的算法构造互操作性的贝叶斯网结构,并且进一步学习此结构的参数.在此过程中,对选取的K2算法进行改进.然后,利用贝叶斯推理来根据互操作性的结构和参数得出评估对象的互操作性等级.最后,一个实例讲述了方法具体的应用过程.实验结果证明了方法的合理性.     

Non-linear methods in remotely sensed multispectral data classification

The aim of this research is to develop an effective approach being able to deal with the stochastic nature of remote sensing data. In order to achieve this objective it is necessary to structure the methodological knowledge in the area of data mining and reveal the most suitable methods for the prediction and decision support based on large amounts of multispectral data. The idea is to establish a framework by decomposing the task into functionality objectives and to allow the end-user to experiment with a set of classification methods and select the best methods for specific applications. As a first step, we compare our results from Bayesian classification based on non-parametric probability density estimates of the data to the results obtained from other classification methods. Tree scenarios are considered, making use of a small benchmark dataset, a larger dataset from Corine land cover project for Bulgaria and analyzing different features and feature selection methods. We show that the theoretically optimal Bayesian classification can also achieve optimal classification in practice and provides a realistic interpretation of the world where land cover classes intergrade gradually.     

Coherent superposition of multi-GNSS wavelet analysis periodogram for sea-level retrieval in GNSS multipath reflectometry

The multipath signals of GNSS can act as a tide gauge via a technology called Global Navigation Satellite Systems multipath reflectometry (GNSS-MR), which is based on the relationship between multipath frequency and height to sea surface. In addition to the traditional frequency extraction method of Lomb–Scargle periodogram (LSP), wavelet analysis can be applied to extract instantaneous multipath frequencies of GPS L1, thus improving data utilization. However, because of the sensitivity of instantaneous frequency to noise and the introduction of more signals, multi-constellation retrievals exhibit many outliers and errors. The aim of this study is to apply wavelet analysis to multi-constellation multi-frequency signals and most importantly to find a method to avoid noise. We used coherent superposition to overlap the intra-track inter-signal instantaneous frequency spectrograms to enhance effective information and to weaken noise. This coherent superposition method can achieve intra-track inter-signal combination. The multi-GNSS data from two Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations were used. The results showed that the coherent superposition spectrogram has a clear energy concentration, and the frequencies calculated from it depict sea-level changes. To compare the method with the LSP method and to combine inter-track retrievals, a robust regression method was used to combine retrievals and to produce equally spaced retrieval series. The results show that the combined retrievals from the coherent superposition method have a slightly higher accuracy than those from the classical LSP method. Because this method can be used to retrieve sea-level data from instantaneous frequency, it increases data utilization and provides a way to obtain details of SNR arcs, which is a potential method to benefit GNSS-MR, especially for sites with narrow reflecting sensing zones in a small sea azimuth range.     

Creation of the new industry-standard space test of laser retroreflectors for the GNSS and LAGEOS

We built a new experimental apparatus (the “Satellite/lunar laser ranging Characterization Facility”, SCF) and created a new test procedure (the SCF-Test) to characterize and model the detailed thermal behavior and the optical performance of cube corner laser retroreflectors in space for industrial and scientific applications. The primary goal of these innovative tools is to provide critical design and diagnostic capabilities for Satellites Laser Ranging (SLR) to Galileo and other GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) constellations. The capability will allow us to optimize the design of GNSS laser retroreflector payloads to maximize ranging efficiency, to improve signal-to-noise conditions in daylight and to provide pre-launch validation of retroreflector performance under laboratory-simulated space conditions. Implementation of new retroreflector designs being studied will help to improve GNSS orbits, which will then increase the accuracy, stability, and distribution of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), to provide better definition of the geocenter (origin) and the scale (length unit).     

零动量轮卫星姿态控制系统研究

针对零动量轮卫星控制系统解耦和进动抑制问题,提出了一种新的进动抑制方案。分析了仅靠飞轮控制的零动量轮卫星系统的稳定性。将偏置动量轮卫星的进动和章动抑制原理引入零动量控制系统,并针对零动量轮卫星自身特性,对磁控制规律进行改进,解决了不解耦情况下零动量轮卫星的进动抑制问题。仿真结果验证了所提方案的可行性和有效性。     

成熟度在飞机研制一体化流程的应用

为满足现代飞机的市场需求和最大限度地规避技术和质量风险,提高飞机设计制造一体化水平是必由之路.通过借鉴波音和空中客车相关思想,从一体化流程和数字化产品模型来明确成熟度的基本定义并强调成熟度的重要性,提出数字化模型成熟度和里程碑两项关键技术,研究在一体化流程中应用数字化模型成熟度的管理和控制方法,结合模块化的产品结构分解方法和企业的设计、生产和工艺的实际情况,建立起基于模块化的多级成熟度思想,并给出制造工艺流程设计的实例来验证这种方法对保证数字化产品模型完整和一体化流程畅通的有效性.      

基于投影约束的C臂外参数优化方法

C臂外参数计算是手术导航系统实现图像空间与手术空间映射的关键环节.标记点提取误差将使外参数偏离真值.采用投影方法系统分析选点误差对外参数计算的影响,发现相机光轴方向平移参数收敛性弱、易受误差干扰.利用不同平面上投影距离之比作为约束对线性方法所得外参数进行修正.借鉴二/三维图像配准方法,采用修正后的估计外参数与已标定内参数进行重投影,根据几何方法直接求出外参数修正量,避免反复迭代优化.仿真结果表明,该标定方法对误差具有一定免疫性,能够提高外参数精度.