Radar sounding of Mars from the orbit of the Mars-Express automatic interplanetary station

On the base of the laser altimetry results obtained using the orbital altimeter MOLA (the MGS mission) and the data of radio occultation experiments of transionospheric sounding of the Mars ionosphere, a method for interpretation of the planet radar sounding data is developed. The proposed method includes a program package for numerical simulation of the process of radiowave propagation through the media under study.     

Power law distribution in statistics of failures in operation of spacecraft onboard equipment

The possibility of using the statistics of recurrence time for extreme events is studied in this paper having in mind the problems of control and prediction of failures in spacecraft operation. The information about failures onboard satellites of various types presented by the US National Geophysical Data Center was analyzed. It was found that the probability density of recurrence intervals followed a power law of the Pareto type with an index equal to 2.3. The obtained result is consistent both with the theory of normal catastrophes and with the principle of self-organization of criticality for metastable active heterogeneous environment. A practical consequence of the obtained result consists in the fact that predictions of these extreme events should not rely on traditional models with the second-order Pearson statistics. To make predictions, the models are necessary that take into account the power law distribution of recurrence intervals for failures on satellites. The failures should be considered in these models as extreme events connected with manifestation of the space environment factors.     

NASA's new Mars Exploration Program: the trajectory of knowledge

NASA's newly restructured Mars Exploration Program (MEP) is finally on the way to Mars with the successful April 7 launch of the 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter. In addition, the announcement by the Bush Administration that the exploration of Mars will be a priority within NASA's Office of Space Science further cements the first decade of the new millennium as one of the major thrusts to understand the "new" Mars. Over the course of the past year and a half, an integrated team of managers, scientists, and engineers has crafted a revamped MEP to respond to the scientific as well as management and resource challenges associated with deep space exploration of the Red Planet. This article describes the new program from the perspective of its guiding philosophies, major events, and scientific strategy. It is intended to serve as a roadmap to the next 10-15 years of Mars exploration from the NASA viewpoint. [For further details, see the Mars Exploration Program web site (URL): http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov]. The new MEP will certainly evolve in response to discoveries, to successes, and potentially to setbacks as well. However, the design of the restructured strategy is attentive to risks, and a major attempt to instill resiliency in the program has been adopted. Mars beckons, and the next decade of exploration should provide the impetus for a follow-on decade in which multiple sample returns and other major program directions are executed. Ultimately the vision to consider the first human scientific expeditions to the Red Planet will be enabled. By the end of the first decade of this program, we may know where and how to look for the elusive clues associated with a possible martian biological record, if any was every preserved, even if only as "chemical fossils."     

邻近空间链路协议在火星探测中的应用研究

介绍了邻近空间链路协议(Proximity-1space link protocol)的分层模型和业务类型。从3个方面分析了在我国火星探测任务中应用邻近空间链路协议的优势:首先提出了火星探测中在轨道器和漫游车之间建立邻近空间链路的典型应用,其次分析了邻近空间链路在解决远距离传输信号衰减和延时问题上起到了一定的作用,最后说明了邻近空间链路比高级在轨系统(AOS)空间数据链路更适合于火星探测任务。文章进一步设计了邻近空间链路协议的传输帧结构,提出了数据传输帧的几种端口路由策略以及数据链路的差错控制方式。     

COSAC onboard Rosetta: a bioastronomy experiment for the short-period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The COSAC (Cometary Sampling and Composition Experiment) onboard the Rosetta mission is a combined gas chromatograph (GC)-mass spectrometer (MS). It is situated on Philae, the lander of the mission, which is intended to land on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko. The purpose of the experiment is to analyze the volatile fraction of soil samples retrieved by a drill. For investigation, the samples will be pyrolysed, and the emanating gases fed into a GC, into an MS, or the combination of both. In the first part of this paper, the bioastronomical relevance of such measurements is outlined. In the second part the details of the hardware and its performance are described.     

美印探火合作，你怎么看？

2014年9月24日,“曼加里安”号成功进入火星轨道。正在印度举国振奋,为“印度制造”深感自豪之时,美国又仲来了橄揽枝,美印两国航天机构在9月30日正式签署协议,将在探索火星等领域展开合作。别看如今印度成了美国的“香饽饽”,但是在印度宣布“曼加里安”号计划之初,美国媒体却对此颇不以为意,也非常不看好“曼加里安”号的相关技术。     

Results of measurements with the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer onboard Mars Express: Clouds and dust at the end of southern summer. A comparison with OMEGA images

We discuss the results of measurements made with the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) onboard the Mars Express spacecraft. The data were obtained in the beginning of the mission and correspond to the end of summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars (L _s ～ 340°). Three orbits are considered, two of which passed through volcanoes Olympus and Ascraeus Mons (the height above the surface is about +20 km), while the third orbit intersects lowland Hellas (?7 km). The influence of the relief on the properties of the aerosol observed is demonstrated: clouds of water ice with a visual optical thickness of 0.1–0.5 were observed above volcanoes, while only dust was found during the observations (close in time) along the orbit passing through Hellas in low and middle latitudes. This dust is homogeneously mixed with gas and has a reduced optical thickness of 0.25±0.05 (at v = 1100 cm^?1). In addition to orographic clouds, ice clouds were observed in this season in the northern polar region. The clouds seen in the images obtained simultaneously by the mapping spectrometer OMEGA confirm the PFS results. Temperature inversion is discovered in the north polar hood below the level 1 mbar with a temperature maximum at about 0.6 mbar. This inversion is associated with descending movements in the Hadley cell.     

火星探测用降落伞研制试验简介

文章主要介绍了美国火星探测用降落伞研制过程以及在研制过程中的一些主要试验，并同时指出了试验中的一些特点。     

火星探测用降落伞研制试验简介

文章主要介绍了美国火星探测用降落伞研制过程以及在研制过程中的一些主要试验,并同时指出了试验中的一些特点。     

Future investigations onboard Soviet biosatellites of the Cosmos series.

Many rat experiments onboard Cosmos biosatellites have furnished information concerning the effects of weightlessness, artificial gravity, and ionizing radiation combined with weightlessness on structural and biochemical parameters of the animal body. The necessity to expand the scope of physiological investigations has led to the project of flight primate studies. It is planned to carry out the first primate experiments onboard the Cosmos biosatellite in 1982. At present investigations of weightlessness effects on the cardiovascular and vestibular systems, higher nervous activity, skeletal muscles and biorhythms of two rhesus monkeys are being developed and tested. It is also planned to conduct a study of weightlessness effects on embryogenesis of rats and bioenergetics of living systems onboard the same biosatellite. Further experiments onboard Cosmos biosatellites are planned.     

Identification of planetary wave patterns associated with ice seasonal sublimation/condensation dynamics in the polar regions of mars,based on IR mapping spectrometer OMEGA onboard <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mars Express</Emphasis>

Channel C of the orbital hyperspectrometer OMEGA onboard Mars Express spacecraft has delivered data on the distribution and seasonal variability of water ice spectral features at 1.25, 1.5, 2.0 μm, based on which one may conclude about the thickness of ice coverage and microstructure of the upper, optically active ice layer on the Martian surface. Data covering polar regions during spring-to-summer periods of both hemispheres have been analyzed. Microstructure of the North polar cap, as well as the residual frost deposits of the seasonal South polar cap, have revealed remarkable zonal variations with regularly located maxima. Based on the comparison with the atmospheric general circulation model results, it has been proposed that these variations result from the impact of mesoscale inertial waves in the circumpolar vortex on water exchange processes between the atmosphere and planetary surface.     

Observations of the Auroral Kilometric Radiation onboard the Interball-1 satellite in 1995–1997

Results of two-year (August 1995–July 1997) continuous observations of the auroral kilometric radiation (AKR) in the AKR-X experiment on board the high-apogee Interball-1 satellite are presented. Observations were carried out in the minimum of solar activity in a frequency range of 100–1500 kHz. The most effective detections of AKR occurred near the maximum of its spectrum at a frequency of 252 kHz and also at a frequency of 500 kHz. The data obtained made it possible to study in more detail the character of AKR global directivity, its frequency dependence, and some other parameters of the emission. These data are interpreted qualitatively in the context of the emission mechanism caused by cyclotron maser instability.     

火星探测着陆系统开伞控制方法研究

文章通过对火星探测进入轨道的分析，提出了一种以动压为控制目标的开伞控制方法，并借鉴过载-时间控制法的相关思想，结合火星探测进入轨道的特点，研究了该开伞控制法的原理和实现方法。根据火星探路者的实际进入条件，采用该方法的分析结果与实际飞行中的开伞情况基本吻合。     

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment for NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory

We present a summary of the physical principles and design of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument onboard NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The DAN instrument will use the method of neutron-neutron activation analysis in a space application to study the abundance and depth distribution of water in the martian subsurface along the path of the MSL rover.     

萤火一号火星探测器科学应用数据处理技术

对萤火一号(YH-1)火星探测器科学应用数据处理技术进行了研究.给出了用磁场数据确定磁堆积区边界(MPB)特性的最小方差分析(MVA)、离子数据各质量通道权重修正和利用星星掩星数据确定火星电离层电子密度等数据处理技术,有助于进一步了解火星空间环境的本质.     

Variations of radiation environment onboard the ISS in the year 2008

Using the data of high-sensitivity dosimetric units DB-8, variations of the radiation environment onboard the International Space Station (ISS) during the year 2008 are analyzed. Very low level of solar activity was observed throughout this time, and no proton events occurred. It is shown that the variations of the mean daily dose rate during this period were caused by variations in the height of the ISS flight.     

萤火一号火星探测器高灵敏度模拟接收机技术

对萤火一号(YH-1)火星探测器高灵敏度模拟接收机技术进行了研究.给出了模拟接收机的主要功能和组成,介绍了降低接收机噪声系数,减少接收机带宽等关键技术.阐述了中频锁相、指令解调等模块的工作原理,列出了研制的高灵敏度模拟接收机的主要性能指标.     

Spiders: water-driven erosive structures in the southern hemisphere of Mars

Recent data from space missions reveal that there are ongoing climatic changes and erosive processes that continuously modify surface features of Mars. We have investigated the seasonal dynamics of a number of morphological features located at Inca City, a representative area at high southern latitude that has undergone seasonal processes. By integrating visual information from the Mars Orbiter Camera on board the Mars Global Surveyor and climatic cycles from a Mars' General Circulation Model, and considering the recently reported evidence for the presence of water-ice and aqueous precipitates on Mars, we propose that a number of the erosive features identified in Inca City, among them spiders, result from the seasonal melting of aqueous salty solutions.     

萤火一号火星探测器综合测试软件技术

对YH-1火星探测器测试软件设计进行了研究.介绍了软件系统的结构与组成、通信协议和运行模型.采用了面向对象设计、多线程、曲线显示双缓冲、共享循环数据缓冲区的多曲线显示技术、遥测组合计算,以及数据库等设计.实际应用效果表明:设计的综合测试软件系统具有测试体系结构通用化、数据分析功能和运行性能良好等优点.