Planetary protection—A microbial ethics approach

Planetary protection policies designed to reduce the cross-transfer of life on spacecraft from one planet to another can either be formulated from the pragmatic instrumental needs of scientific exploration, or from ethical principles. I address planetary protection concerns by starting from a normative ethical framework for the treatment of microorganisms. This argues that they have intrinsic value at the level of the individual through to the level of the community, but at the individual level this ethic can only be theoretical. This approach yields a solution to the problem of the inevitable contamination of Mars by human explorers and suggests that in some instances the local contamination of other planets may be acceptable. An exception would be where this contamination would cause destruction of microbial ecosystems. Within the framework of such an ethic, the term ‘planetary protection’ may be normatively too narrow and ‘planetary preservation’ may better describe the activity of controlling cross-inoculation of planets. I discuss an example of a contamination event that might be ethically acceptable within the framework of ‘preservation’, but would be regarded as unacceptable under current planetary ‘protection’ guidelines.     

Space education policy — a global imperative

The discoveries and knowledge gained from space exploration and technology development are valuable scientific education tools which are not being adequately used in the classroom. Moreover, the increasing application of space technology to everyday life and industry requires a work force educated to be able to work productively in this field and to take advantage of all it has to offer. This article provides a survey of what is presently being done in the field of space education in Europe and the USA. Although encouraging, it is not nearly enough to meet the needs of 21st century society, principally because current efforts lack government or industry support. The author argues that this state of affairs must change, and proposed an international symposium as a first step towards this goal.     

UK space policy — a problem of culture

According to the UK government, the announcement in July 1987 of a freeze on the British National Space Centre's (BNSC) budget was based solely on lack of money and the belief that private industry, rather than the state, should fund space activities. In challenging the validity of this view, the author suggests that it has also been used to conceal internal bureaucratic competition and a myopic, market-driven mind-set.     

High energy-density propulsion—reducing the risk to humans in planetary exploration

The potential benefits to humankind of space exploration are tremendous. Space is not only the final frontier but is also the next marketplace. The orbital space above Earth offers tremendous opportunities for both strategic assets and commercial development. The critical obstacle retarding the use of the space around the Earth is the lack of low cost access to orbit. Further out, the next giant leap for mankind will be the human exploration of Mars. Almost certainly within the next 30 years, a human crew will brave the isolation, the radiation, and the lack of gravity to walk on and explore the Red planet. Both of these missions will change the outlook and perspective of every human being on the planet. However, these missions are expensive and extremely difficult. Chemical propulsion has demonstrated an inability to achieve orbit cheaply and is a very high-risk option to accomplish the Mars mission. An alternative solution is to develop a high performance propulsion system. Nuclear propulsion has the potential to be such a system. The question will be whether humanity is willing to take on the challenge.     

Ukrainian space policy — contributing to national economic development

Following Ukraine's 1991 declaration of independence and the disintegration of the USSR, Ukraine inherited a third of the Soviet Union's space industry. This paper presents an overview of the main features of Ukraine's current policy on the exploitation of this capability as a factor in the transformation of its economy. It illustrates how the policy is being realized in the areas of launch systems, Earth observation, satellite communications and international relations, and concludes that Ukraine's strengths in the space field are counterbalanced by obstacles which must be faced, both within the country and externally.     

Options for space — proposal for a programme

Because of the physical scale of human operations at present, we need to extend them into the Solar System for sustainability and into interstellar space for knowledge. Stabilizing the population on Earth, as well as reducing poverty, is vital, as is a more environmentally appropriate demographic transition than the historical one. Space assets can contribute most to strategic threats in areas like power and minerals and can also assist global education. Such public interest is important as education, but it is vital to remember that a certain level of precision in materials and engineering is needed before ideas become realizable. The crucial step is to turn the space environment to an open market and override the present government monopoly constraint. As a start, a Center for International Space Industrialization Research (CSIR) is to be set up as a model for the better understanding of the issues involved, thus making a case for strategic investment for space assets.     

SPS — time for a pilot plant

Scientists have expended much energy researching SPS but their theories have never yet been realistically tested. It is time for this to change and SPS 2000 — a Japanese-sponsored project to construct and operate a pilot plant to supply electricity to residents of equatorial zones — could provide the means. The project and its benefits are described and the political—economic imperatives for undertaking it presented. The author argues that there are cogent — and practical — reasons for funding a pilot plant, especially given the vast sums spent on other space activities, and on nuclear power, although the latter has never lived up to expectations.     

Astrobiology—a new opportunity for interdisciplinary thinking

During the past decade new questions in science have emerged that require broad inter-disciplinary approaches. ‘Do asteroids and comets cause extinctions?’ and ‘Was there, or is there, life on Mars?’ are just two examples of questions that cut across planetary or astronomical sciences and biological sciences. The re-emergent science of ‘astrobiology’ represents a new synthesis of inter-disciplinary thinking that in many respects bears similarities to what in the 18th and 19th century would have been called ‘Natural Sciences’. But new astrobiology offers the scientific community, including the space community, two important possibilities. First, an opportunity to galvanize diverse scientific disciplines together to answer some fundamental questions on the relationship between life and the cosmic environment and, second, a chance to create a new environment conducive to interdisciplinary thinking. This is in contrast to the general trend that occurred during the 20th century towards increasing specialization in the sciences. During the 21st century astrobiology has the potential to open rich and productive seams of research.     

Finding a ‘genuine’ space policy for Europe: the European space policy workshop series

Despite some impressive programmes, Europe has not yet succeeded in forging a coherent space policy and, as a result, has not achieved its full potential in this field. As efforts to formulate a more comprehensive policy intensify, a series of workshops has been initiated in order to provide an independent platform, allowing broad participation, for discussion of the issues. This article describes the rationale behind the process and the structure of the workshops and reports on the highlights of the first workshop, examining the fundamental questions involved. The themes of forthcoming workshops are also presented.     

The ISMA proposal — time for a reappraisal?

The proposal for an International Satellite Monitoring Agency (ISMA) was made by France in 1978. This article looks at the arguments raised against developing an ISMA and reassesses the proposal in the light of current and anticipated developments in the field of verification, and new national space programmes.     

Nuclear propulsion—a historical perspective

Those who fear development of nuclear propulsion for space travel forget that considerable work on it has already been done, starting in the 1950s, and that the concept of a nuclear rocket was safely and successfully tested in the 1960s. This article describes the history of the US Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application programme, with technical details of its development. Although funding for the programme ceased in the 1970s, there is no reason to suppose that the concept would not work today.     

Orbit design for future SpaceChip swarm missions in a planetary atmosphere

The effect of solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag on the orbital dynamics of satellites-on-a-chip (SpaceChips) is exploited to design equatorial long-lived orbits about the oblate Earth. The orbit energy gain due to asymmetric solar radiation pressure, considering the Earth's shadow, is used to balance the energy loss due to atmospheric drag. Future missions for a swarm of SpaceChips are proposed, where a number of small devices are released from a conventional spacecraft to perform spatially distributed measurements of the conditions in the ionosphere and exosphere. It is shown that the orbit lifetime can be extended and indeed selected through solar radiation pressure and the end-of-life re-entry of the swarm can be ensured, by exploiting atmospheric drag.     

Design and testing of a roto-translational shutter mechanism for planetary operation

This work describes the design and testing of a shutter mechanism for a miniaturized infrared spectrometer developed for the ESA ExoMars Pasteur mission. Unlike most usual cover mechanisms, the conceived one provides a roto-translational motion. This feature allows the sealing of the interferometer main entrance window from dust contamination, in addition to the usual function of shuttering the instrument field of view. Although this characteristic is strongly desired because it avoids dust deposition and optics contamination while the instrument is not operating, it makes the mechanism design significantly more complex. Moreover, challenging design constraints were faced: the mass budget allowed for no more than 30 g allocation, the expected working thermal range extended down to −80 °C and high vibration levels with an acceleration peak of 670 m/s² were predicted during Mars landing. To complete the picture, the mechanism cover was required to provide also a calibration target for the 2–25 μm spectral range of the spectrometer. The resulting system is made by a calibrating/shutter cover moved by a purposely designed out of plane cams system which provides the desired motion. A mechanism mockup was assembled and successfully tested in the predicted thermal and mechanical environments.     

Space in Poland—a promising future

Poland has been involved in space activities for some years, specialising in the manufacturing of space instrumentation. Projects are carried out within the framework of international cooperation, with ESA being the main partner. The country's experience and existing potential currently encourage consideration of an expansion of the scope and character of the programmes undertaken, including activities aimed at the commercial market. Early steps have been taken towards establishment of a coordinated and consolidated space programme. Poland also has well-defined interests with regard to the space policy of the European Union.     

Space and ESDP—a growing partnership?

The ‘European satellites for security’ conference was held in Brussels, 18–19 June 2002, at a time when interest in the military use of outer space was clearly growing. But doubts remain as how to far such interest will be translated into action. This article reports on some of the impressions gained at the conference.     

一种行星探测应用的可量测虚拟现实环境构建方法

提出了一种基于行星探测巡视器地面图像和高分辨率卫星图像的可量测虚拟现实环境构建方法。根据巡视器在不同方位角、高度角获取的立体图像,经过圆柱投影、自动匹配和无缝拼接生成360°全景图像。同时开发了从全景图像到原始图像的反算功能,使用户可直接在全景图像上进行量测,从原始立体像对上得到三维地形信息。三维可量测全景图像与基于NASA的World Wind的星球浏览器进行无缝集成,为行星探测应用提供了可量测虚拟现实环境,实现了从垂直视角卫星图像到地面水平视角巡视器图像的一体化量测。     

A novel autonomous low-cost on-board data handling architecture for a pin-point planetary lander

There has been increased interest in the exploration of the Moon in recent years. Pin-point precision landing is highly desirable for future lunar missions. This paper is concerned with the design of the on-board data handling (OBDH) subsystem for the pin-point lunar lander of the Magnolia-1 project, funded by NASA. Four proposed on-board data handling architectures are outlined and compared in terms of power consumption, performance and reliability. Implementation results are presented, which are obtained from prototyping of the flight computer for the optimal OBDH architecture option on a Xilinx Virtex-5 Field Programmable Gate Array.     

Pricing competitively — a response to Jay Lightfoot

A recent paper in this journal criticized the two methods commonly used to allocate the costs of multi-payload launches, and proposed two new alternatives. The paper argued that ‘Shapley-value’ pricing and the ‘Independent Cost Proportional Scheme’ are immune to instability problems possible under the traditional mass-proportional approach, and reduce ‘subsidies’ paid to small payloads. This rejoinder shows that neither claim is true in general. It also questions whether new pricing formulas are truly needed — or even sustainable in today's competitive market.     

Commercial spaceports — a window of opportunity?

The feasibility of building commercial spaceports is being actively investigated in several countries. Potential benefits include boosting economic development and assisting the commercial launch industry. This report finds, however, that commercial spaceport development will probably not be capable of generating a large enough return on investment to attract private sector involvement without significant government assistance. It is also unlikely that the market for large launch vehicles will support spaceport development; however, small satellites may offer better prospects.