One hundred US EVAs: a perspective on spacewalks

In the 36 years between June 1965 and February 2001, the US human space flight program has conducted 100 spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs), as NASA officially calls them. EVA occurs when astronauts wearing spacesuits travel outside their protective spacecraft to perform tasks in the space vacuum environment. US EVA started with pioneering feasibility tests during the Gemini Program. The Apollo Program required sending astronauts to the moon and performing EVA to explore the lunar surface. EVA supported scientific mission objectives of the Skylab program, but may be best remembered for repairing launch damage to the vehicle and thus saving the program. EVA capability on Shuttle was initially planned to be a kit that could be flown at will, and was primarily intended for coping with vehicle return emergencies. The Skylab emergency and the pivotal role of EVA in salvaging that program quickly promoted Shuttle EVA to an essential element for achieving mission objectives, including retrieving satellites and developing techniques to assemble and maintain the International Space Station (ISS). Now, EVA is supporting assembly of ISS. This paper highlights development of US EVA capability within the context of the overarching mission objectives of the US human space flight program.     

Interpreting and reporting on a SETI discovery: We should be prepared

This article presents a typology of extraterrestrial signals which demonstrates the possibilities of very complex social and psychological reactions to the receipts of a message from outer space, and also helps to address the problem of signal detection. The author argues that there is a clear need to establish a Contact Verification and Interpretation Committee. A great deal of planning and forethought is necessary if we are to assure the smoothest possible social assimilation of the news that another intelligence has been detected.     

Loading effects on rat craniomandibular morphology: a system for gravity studies

Gravity effects on muscle and bone are a major impediment to long-term space travel. We introduce a model for studying these effects, the craniomandibular system. Some advantages of this system include: (1) craniomandibular morphology is determined by epigenetic factors including gravity, (2) relatively light forces can significantly alter its morphology, and (3) soft diet and tooth loss produce effects that are similar to those produced in lower limbs by weightlessness. In the study, implants made either of gold (experimental group) or lightweight acrylic (controls) were attached to adult rats' mandibles. After 13 weeks, the animals' skulls and mandibles were dissected. Pair-wise comparisons indicated that the experimental animals showed significantly shortened and narrowed cranial bases, and significant changes in the posterior zygomatic arch region. These results indicate that simulated macrogravity influences bone remodeling in the adult craniomandibular system.     

Disaster assessment and satellite communication: on the threshold of a new era

Disaster events have always been with us. Success or failure of a disaster response is often determined by timely access to communication and the exchange of reliable information. Especially, crucial is information acquired by on-site first responders responsible for initial disaster assessment. The rapid progress in satellite communication development is laying a foundation for a future where lack of communications will no longer be a limiting or paralyzing factor in disaster response. This paper discusses emerging satellite communications tools that can enhance on site assessment and change the way disaster management is viewed and carried out in the next century.     

Research into the effects of astronaut motion on the spacecraft: a review

The paper reviews the research that has been undertaken to understand and quantify the disturbance effects of the astronaut's motion inside and outside the spacecraft on the vehicle's attitude and acceleratory environment. In early investigations, the dynamic interaction of astronauts, modeled as point masses, and the spacecraft, modelled as a rigid body, was analyzed. Through ground-based experiments and the modeling of astronaut-induced forces and moments as stochastic processes, it became possible to estimate the magnitude and energy content of the loads produced by the astronaut. The first experiment in space to measure the astronaut-induced disturbances was conducted on the Skylab orbital station. Loads generated while performing routine operations were measured on board the Space Shuttle in 1994 and on the space station Mir in 1996–1997.     

Spatial Thinking Across the College Curriculum: A Report on a Specialist Meeting

This report presents findings from a specialist meeting of spatially-minded researchers and administrators from education and industry to consider prospects for introducing courses and curricula on spatial thinking in higher education. More than 40 participants explored the rationale for expanding student exposure to concepts, tools, and applications of spatial reasoning across a range of science, engineering, and humanities disciplines. The focus was on what we know and what we need to know to make the case for space, underscoring basic research on what is meant by spatial thinking and on variations in the spatial reasoning skills required in different domains of knowledge. The need for rigorous assessments of learning outcomes associated with different approaches to teaching spatial thinking was emphasized.     

Weightlessness: a case history

The facts presented represent, for convenience, a composite clinical picture of the three crewmen aboard Skylab II as observed by me.     

Evaluating the benefits from space technology: Thoughts on a Swedish study

In 1995 the Swedish Government produced a report evaluating the benefits of space over the past 20 years and recommending areas on which the state should focus in the future. While the follow-on detail promised by the report is still awaited, this article reviews its main findings and recommendations and sets these against the historical development of Swedish space activities which, because of the country's geographical location, have concentrated on atmospheric studies. The author argues that the report does not fully get to grips with the differing administrative efforts required by the various types of space activity and that a response to the need for low-cost access to space - the element on which all else depends - is also ducked.     

Cospas-Sarsat: a quiet success story

This article will look at the origins of the Cospas-Sarsat International cooperative space program and its transition in the mid-1980s from a technical demonstration to an operational program. It will then attempt to identify some of the reasons for its success, with a view toward determining their applicability to other joint space applications projects.     

Space education: a step forward

One hundred European university students, with different interests and backgrounds, were asked to complete a questionnaire aimed at understanding their general knowledge and personal rapport with space issues and activities. Although the overall interest in space seemed to be relatively satisfactory, the data resulting from the survey—used for statistical purposes only—showed a poor awareness concerning the past, present and future of space programmes and achievements, and more generally of the economic, political and social implications of space. Stimulated and moved by the survey questions, the students interviewed showed their worries about the already developing process of division, control and commercialisation of space, underlining how the concept of education is differentiated from that of information when dealing with these issues. However, at the same time, all their statements seemed to be based on simple assumptions, preconceptions and presumptions. On the basis of the survey results, the final section of the paper reviews and discusses the present situation of space education in Europe, analysing its deficiencies and suggesting modifications, adjustments and a “step forward” that should be taken into consideration.     

Space: a challenge for Europe

This Viewpoint presents an industrial perspective of the policies needed to support and advance the capabilities and competitiveness of the European space industry. It is argued that Europe needs a coordinated longterm space policy to help create the climate in which industry can invest in and exploit space. Europe must also accelerate the development of advanced technology products and services, improve its competitiveness in applications and commercial markets including launchers, and secure fair and reliable international partnerships in in-orbit infrastructure and manned space activities. To this end European governments are urged to acknowledge the increasing political, economic and military importance of space and their continuing governance of space activities, and to establish mechanisms that promote industrial competitiveness; the development of the commercial sector; autonomy in key technologies; and international partnerships which are fair and affordable.     

The biological terraforming of Mars: planetary ecosynthesis as ecological succession on a global scale

Mars is bitterly cold and dry, but robotic spacecraft have returned abundant data that indicate Mars once had a much warmer and wetter climate in the past. These data, the basis of the search for past or present life on Mars, suggest the possibility of returning Mars to its previous climate by global engineering techniques. Greenhouse gases, such as perfluorocarbons, appear to be the best method for warming Mars and increasing its atmospheric density so that liquid water becomes stable. The process of making Mars habitable for terrestrial organisms is called terraforming or planetary ecosynthesis. The process of introducing terrestrial ecosystems to Mars can be compared with a descent down a high mountain. Each drop in elevation results in a warmer, wetter climate and more diverse biological community. Beginning with a polar desert, the sequence of ecosystems passes through tundra, boreal forest, and temperate ecosystems where moisture determines the presence of desert, grassland, or forest. This model suggests a sequence for the introduction of ecosystems to Mars and the communities to search for potential colonizing species for Mars.     

航天器贮箱内液体晃动阻尼研究(一):理论分析

在理想流假设及线性化的自由表面边界条件的基础上,对刚性容器中液体小幅晃动进行了流体相似律的研究。得到了晃动的固有频率及各部分阻尼随特征长度、特征运动粘性系数以及特征重力加速的变化关系。此外还分析了壁面阻尼,受污染的自由液面阻尼以及液体的内部阻尼这几部分晃动阻尼的相对关系,以及它们随各个特征参量的变化情况。分析发现各部分的晃动阻尼比取决于一个无量纲参数,内部阻尼所占的比例随着运动粘性系数的增大、特征尺寸的减小、特征重力加速度的减少而增大,因此在某些情况下内部阻尼不可忽略。     

Meditations on the new space vision: the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars

The Vision for Space Exploration invokes activities on the Moon in preparation for exploration of Mars and also directs International Space Station (ISS) research toward the same goal. Lunar missions will emphasize development of capability and concomitant reduction of risk for future exploration of Mars. Earlier papers identified three critical issues related to the so-called NASA Mars Design Reference Mission (MDRM) to be addressed in the lunar context: (a) safety, health, and performance of the human crew; (b) various modalities of mission operations ranging surface activities to logistics, planning, and navigation; and (c) reliability and maintainability of systems in the planetary environment. In simple terms, lunar expeditions build a résumé that demonstrates the ability to design, construct, and operate an enterprise such as the MDRM with an expectation of mission success. We can evolve from Apollo-like missions to ones that resemble the complexity and duration of the MDRM. Investment in lunar resource utilization technologies falls naturally into the Vision. NASA must construct an exit strategy from the Moon in the third decade. With a mandate for continuing exploration, it cannot assume responsibility for long-term operation of lunar assets. Therefore, NASA must enter into a partnership with some other entity--governmental, international, or commercial--that can responsibly carry on lunar development past the exploration phase.     

Effects of stand-off bursts on rubble-pile targets: Evaluation of a hazardous asteroid mitigation strategy

We explore the aftereffects of stand-off burst mitigation on kilometer-scale rubble pile asteroids. We use a simple model of X-ray energy deposition to calculate the impulse transferred to the target, in particular to burst-facing blocks on the target surface. The impulse allows us to estimate an initial velocity field for the blocks on the outer side of the target facing the burst. We model the dynamics using an N-body polyhedron program built on the Open Dynamics Engine, a “physics engine” that integrates the dynamical equations for objects of general shapes and includes collision detection, friction, and dissipation.We tested several different models for target objects: rubble piles with different mass distributions, a “brick-pile” made of closely fitting blocks and zero void space, and a non-spherical “contact binary” rubble pile. Objects were bound together by self-gravity and friction/inelastic restitution with no other cohesive forces. Our fiducial cases involved objects of m=3.5×10¹² kg (corresponding to a radius of 0.7 km for the bulk object), an X-ray yield of 1 megaton, and stand-off burst distances of R=0.8–2.5 km from the target center of mass.Kilometer-scale rubble piles are robust to stand-off bursts of a yield ($Y\sim 1$ megaton) that would be sufficient to provide an effective velocity change ($\mathrm{\Delta }v\sim 0.05\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$). Disaggregation involving some tens of percent of the target mass happens immediately after the impulse; the bulk of the object re-accretes on a few gravitational timescales, and the final deflected target contains over 95% (typically, 98–99%) of the original mass. Off-center components of the mitigation impulse and the target mass distribution cause a small amount of induced spin and off-axis components of velocity change. The off-axis velocity component amounts to an angular deviation of $\sim$ 0.05–0.1 radians from the nominal impulse vector, which may be important for mitigation planning.     

Between a celestial body and a spacecraft: Making the space elevator a success

The space elevator will operate in near-Earth space, under the attraction of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. It will have to avoid collisions with active satellites, with space debris and with meteoroids, not counting other minor adverse phenomena. The exceedingly long cable cannot be a passive and limp body. It must be an active part of the elevator, withstanding lunisolar and other perturbations threatening its stability. The cable must have sensors and thrusters at appropriate locations along the cable. Sensors would serve for detection of objects on a collision course and thrusters for station-keeping and for initiating evasive manoeuvres. Adaptive control must be used for that purpose. Extensive series of numerical simulations will have to be performed to ascertain that the elevator is stable and that possible oscillations do not interfere with the main function of the elevator.     

Hydrothermal simulation experiments as a tool for studies of the origin of life on Earth and other terrestrial planets: a review

The potential of life's origin in submarine hydrothermal systems has been evaluated by a number of investigators by conducting high temperature-high pressure experiments involving organic compounds. In the majority of these experiments little attention has been paid to the importance of constraining important parameters, such as the pH and the redox state of the system. This is particularly revealed in the apparent difficulties in interpreting experimental data from hydrothermal organic synthesis and stability studies. However, in those cases where common mineral assemblages have been used in an attempt to buffer the pH and redox conditions to geologically and geochemically realistic values, theoretical and experimental data seem to converge. The use of mineral buffer assemblages provides a convenient way by which to constrain the experimental conditions. Studies at high temperatures and pressure in the laboratory have revealed a number of reactions that proceed rapidly in hydrothermal fluids, including the Strecker synthesis of amino acids. In other cases, the verification of postulated abiotic reaction mechanisms has not been possible, at least for large molecules such as large fatty acids and hydrocarbons. This includes the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction. High temperature-high pressure experimental methods have been developed and used successfully for a long time in, for example, mineral solubility studies under hydrothermal conditions. By taking advantage of this experimental experience new and, at times, unexpected directions can be taken in bioorganic geochemistry, one being, for instance, primitive two-dimensional information coding. This article critically reviews some of the organic synthesis and stability experiments that have been conducted under simulated submarine hydrothermal conditions. We also discuss some of the theoretical and practical considerations that apply to hydrothermal laboratory studies of organic molecules related to the origin of life on Earth and probably also to the other terrestrial planets.     

航天器贮箱内液体晃动阻尼研究(二):数值计算

针对航天器贮箱中燃料晃动阻尼进行估算.在液体晃动阻尼理论研究的基础上,考虑了容器壁面、液体内部以及受污染的自由液面处产生的耗散,建立了一套计算刚性容器中液体小幅晃动阻尼的有限元计算方案,并将计算值与实验值以及经验公式值进行了比较.结果发现大部分情况下的实验值落在两种极端情况的计算值之间,此外如果将液面污染的Stokes边界层阻尼以一定的加权因子引入,可以获得与由实验数据拟合的经验公式一致的结果.