CELSS nutrition system utilizing snails

At the 40th IAF Congress in Malaga, a nutrition system for a lunar base CELSS was presented. A lunar base with a total of eight crew members was envisaged. In this paper, four species of plants--rice, soybean, lettuce and strawberry--were introduced to the system. These plants were sufficient to satisfy fundamental nutritional needs of the crew members. The supply of nutrition from plants and the human nutritional requirements could almost be balanced. Our study revealed that the necessary plant cultivation area per crew member would be nearly 40 m3 in the lunar base. The sources of nutrition considered in the study were energy, sugar, fat, amino acids, inorganic salt and vitamins; however, calcium, vitamin B2, vitamin A and sodium were found to be lacking. Therefore, a subsystem to supply these elements is of considerable value. In this paper, we report on a study for breeding snails and utilizing meat as food. Nutrients supplied from snails are shown to compensate for the above mentioned lacking elements. We evaluate the snail breeder and the associated food supply system as a subsystem of closed ecological life support system.     

Leg venous hemodynamics and leg volumes during a 42 day -6 degrees head-down bedrest

Seven healthy subjects were submitted to a 42-day head down bedrest, where leg venous compliance (venous distensibity index VDI) and leg volumes were assessed by mercury strain gauge plethysmography with venous occlusion and optoelectronic plethysmography, respectively. Plethysmographic and volometric measurements were made, before, during (at days 1, 4, 7, 14, 21, 26, 34 and 41), and after bedrest (days 1, 4, 7, 11 and 30 of the recovery period). Results showed a continuous decrease in leg volumes throughout bedrest, when VDI increased until day 26 of bedrest, and then decreased afterwards. The recovery period was characterized by a rapid return of VDI to prebedrest levels while leg volumes progressively normalised. These results showed that leg venous compliance changes are not always dependant upon skeletal muscle changes, and that factors other than size of muscle compartment are able to determine increases in leg venous compliance during long-term bedrest.     

Spatial orientation during locomotion [correction of locomation] following space flight

To investigate changes in spatial orientation ability and walking performance following space flight, 7 astronaut subjects were asked pre- and post-flight to perform a goal directed locomotion paradigm which consisted of walking a triangular path with and without vision. This new paradigm, involving inputs from different sensory systems, allows quantification of several critical parameters, like orientation performance, walking velocities and postural stability, in a natural walking task. The paper presented here mainly focusses on spatial orientation performance quantified by the errors in walking the previously seen path without vision. Errors in length and reaching the corners did not change significantly from pre- to post-flight, while absolute angular errors slightly increased post-flight. The significant decrease in walking velocity and a change in head-trunk coordination while walking around the corners of the path observed post-flight may suggest that during re-adaptation to gravity the mechanisms which are necessary to perform the task have to be re-accomplished.     

Influence of graviceptives cues at different level of visual information processing: the effect of prolonged weightlessness

We evaluated the influence of prolonged weightlessness on the performance of visual tasks in the course of the Russian-French missions ANTARES, Post-ANTARES and ALTAIR aboard the MIR station. Eight cosmonauts were subjects in two experiments executed pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight sessions.

In the first experiment, cosmonauts performed a task of symmetry detection in 2-D polygons. The results indicate that this detection is locked in a head retinal reference frame rather than in an environmentally defined one as meridional orientations of symmetry axis (vertical and horizontal) elicited faster response times than oblique ones. However, in weightlessness the saliency of a retinally vertical axis of symmetry is no longer significantly different from an horizontal axis. In the second experiment, cosmonauts performed a mental rotation task in which they judged whether two 3-D objects presented in different orientations were identical. Performance on this task is basically identical in weightlessness and normal gravity.     

Lower body negative pressure (LBNP) as a countermeasure for long term spaceflight

The article presents the current status of lower body negative pressure (LBNP) as a countermeasure for preventing orthostatic intolerance after space flight or bed rest. Devices discussed include the Chibis vacuum suit, the Anthrorack device, a collapsible device, and an inflatable device. Two bed rest studies examined the effect of LBNP and exercise on orthostatic tolerance; plasma volume; vasopressin, plasma renin activity, and catecholamines; and side effects.     

细水雾灭火技术在载人航天器上应用前景

为进一步探索未来大型载人航天器安全、可靠的灭火方法,对现有国内外载人航天器的灭火剂和灭火方法进行综述,并从微重力条件下火灾燃烧特点、细水雾灭火机理和国外微重力条件下细水雾灭火研究状况三方面进行初步分析和总结。分析结果表明,细水雾是一种安全、高效、环保的灭火技术,在载人航天器上具有较好的应用前景。     

中国飞机维修业职业培训

众所周知,中国的航空运输业正呈现飞速发展之势.中国民用航空总局(CAAC)给出的数据显示,今后5年中国的航空公司将引进650架飞机.今后20年,为满足不断扩张的机队对维修服务的需求,以及承接越来越多来自其他国家的飞机维修和大修业务,如客改货项目,整个民航业将需要至少24万名受过专业培训的维修人员,而现实是目前拥有的有飞机维修资质的人员离需求相去甚远,维修人员的严重短缺将对维修人员的培训提出严峻挑战.     

大厚度铝合金飞行器结构的焊接

介绍了采用熔化极脉冲氦弧焊工艺焊接大厚度铝合金燃料箱的优越性。     

未来的固定翼技术

在美国国防部新技术综合发展方案中,固定翼飞行器技术的发展几乎和旋翼飞行器的技术发展是同步进行的,只是在某些不同的领域,分别起着不同的带头作用。很显然,这两种飞行器的技术发展方案同时也受益于其他一些领域的技术发展。这两种飞行器技术协调发展的本身也是一个综合和并行发展的过程。目前,美国已为固定翼飞机制定了     

四川振动座谈会在绵阳召开

四川省力学学会、西南结构力学研究所、四川省振动工程学会(筹)于1987年11月4日至7日在绵阳市联合召开了“四川省振动工程学术交流座谈会”。出席代表86人,他们来自中央部属(在川)、省、市20多单位。代表都是在力学、数学、机械、航空、核工程、电子、冶金、化工、电力、建筑、石油、地震等各领域从事振动工程、研究、教学、应用的