The Future of Public–Private Partnerships in Satellite Communications

Around 50 leaders and experts from space industry, governmental and financial institutions participated in an ESA conference on “The Future of Public–Private Partnerships in Satellite Communications” in Vienna in March 2009. An increasing portion of commercial and institutional space projects are operated under the provisions of service contracts, with public–private partnerships (PPPs) becoming a significant source of financing for space programmes. The conference was based on a study initiated by ESA and performed by Euroconsult, Milbank and ESPI, outlining the main perspectives of modern PPP models in the European satellite communications sector.     

Optimal solar sail trajectory approximation with finite Fourier series

The heliocentric transfer of a solar sail-based spacecraft is usually studied from an optimal perspective, by looking for the control law that minimizes the total flight time. The optimal control problem can be solved either with an indirect approach, whose solution is difficult to obtain due to its sensitivity to an initial guess of the costates, or with a direct method, which requires a good estimate of a feasible (guess) trajectory. This work presents a procedure to generate an approximate optimal trajectory through a finite Fourier series. The minimum time problem is solved using a nonlinear programming solver, in which the optimization parameters are the coefficients of the Fourier series and the positions of the spacecraft along the initial and target orbits. Suitable constraints are enforced on the direction and magnitude of the sail propulsive acceleration vector in order to obtain feasible solutions. A comparison with the numerical results from an indirect approach shows that the proposed method provides a good approximation of the optimal trajectory with a small computational effort.     

Analysis of the Boeing 747-100 using CEASIOM

One of the requirements for the SimSAC project was to use existing aircraft to act as benchmarks for comparison with CEASIOM generated models. Within this paper, results are given for one of these examples, the Boeing 747-100. This aircraft was selected because a complete dataset exists in the open domain, which can be used to validate SimSAC generated data. The purpose of this paper is to both give confidence in, and to demonstrate the capabilities of, the CEASIOM environment when used for preliminary aircraft and control system design. CEASIOM is the result of the integration of a set of sophisticated tools by the European Union funded, Framework 6 SimSAC program. The first part of this paper presents a comparison of the aerodynamic results for each of the solvers available within CEASIOM together with data from the 747-100 model published by NASA. The resulting nonlinear model is then trimmed and analysed using the Flight Control System Designer Toolkit (FCSDT) module. In the final section of the paper a state-feedback controller is designed within CEASIOM in order to modify the longitudinal dynamics of the aircraft. The open and closed loop models are subsequently evaluated with selected failed aerodynamic surfaces and for the case of a single failed engine. Through these results, the CEASIOM software suite is shown to be able to generate excellent quality adaptive-fidelity aerodynamic data. This data is contained within a full nonlinear aircraft model to which linear analysis and control system design can be easily applied.     

Experimental data and analysis of the October 2003 Forbush decrease

On October 28, 2003 an Earthward-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) was observed from SOHO/LASCO imagery in conjunction with an X17 solar flare. The CME, traveling at nearly 2000 km/s, impacted the Earth on October 29, 2003 causing ground-based particle detectors to register a counting rate drop known as a Forbush decrease. The CME was not only responsible for affecting the rate of cosmic rays, but also caused anisotropies in their direction of incidence. Data from Project GRAND, an array of proportional wire chambers which detects secondary muons, are presented during the time of this Forbush decrease.     

l1-based calibration of POD-Galerkin models of two-dimensional unsteady flows

This paper discusses a physics-informed methodology aimed at reconstructing efficiently the fluid state of a system. Herein, the generation of an accurate reduced order model of two-dimensional unsteady flows from data leverages on sparsity-promoting statistical learning techniques. The cornerstone of the approach is l₁ regularised regression, resulting in sparsely-connected models where only the important quadratic interactions between modes are retained. The original dynamical behaviour is reproduced at low computational costs, as few quadratic interactions need to be evaluated. The approach has two key features. First, interactions are selected systematically as a solution of a convex optimisation problem and no a priori assumptions on the physics of the flow are required. Second, the presence of a regularisation term improves the predictive performance of the original model, generally affected by noise and poor data quality. Test cases are for two-dimensional lid-driven cavity flows, at three values of the Reynolds number for which the motion is chaotic and energy interactions are scattered across the spectrum. It is found that: (A) the sparsification generates models maintaining the original accuracy level but with a lower number of active coefficients; this becomes more pronounced for increasing Reynolds numbers suggesting that extension of these techniques to real-life flow configurations is possible; (B) sparse models maintain a good temporal stability for predictions. The methodology is ready for more complex applications without modifications of the underlying theory, and the integration into a cyber-physical model is feasible.     

Impact of Distance Determinations on Galactic Structure. II. Old Tracers

Here we review the efforts of a number of recent results that use old tracers to understand the build up of the Galaxy. Details that lead directly to using these old tracers to measure distances are discussed. We concentrate on the following: (1) the structure and evolution of the Galactic bulge and inner Galaxy constrained from the dynamics of individual stars residing therein; (2) the spatial structure of the old Galactic bulge through photometric observations of RR Lyrae-type stars; (3) the three-dimensional structure, stellar density, mass, chemical composition, and age of the Milky Way bulge as traced by its old stellar populations; (4) an overview of RR Lyrae stars known in the ultra-faint dwarfs and their relation to the Galactic halo; and (5) different approaches for estimating absolute and relative cluster ages.     

Analysis of conventional and asymmetric aircraft configurations using CEASIOM

One of the main drivers behind the SimSAC project and the CEASIOM software is to bring stability analysis and control system design earlier into the aircraft conceptual design process. Within this paper two very different aircraft are considered, a conventional T-tail based on the existing EA500 Very Light Jet and the second, a novel Z-wing configuration known as the GAV or general aviation vehicle. The first aircraft serves as a baseline comparison for the second, and the cruise case is considered as a benchmark for identifying potential drag reductions and aircraft stability characteristics. CEASIOM, the Computerised Environment for Aircraft Synthesis and Integrated Optimisation Methods, is used to generate aerodynamic data sets for both aircraft, create trim conditions and the associated linear models for classical stability analysis. The open-loop Z-wing configuration is shown to display both highly unstable and coupled modes before a multivariable Stability Augmentation System (SAS) is applied both to decouple and stabilise the aircraft. Within this paper, these two aircraft provide a test case with which to demonstrate the capabilities of the CEASIOM environment and the tools which have been developed during the SimSAC project. This new software suite is shown to allow conceptual development of unconventional novel configurations from mass properties through adaptive-fidelity aerodynamics to linear analysis and control system design.     

Link budget and background noise for satellite quantum key distribution

Optical quantum communication exploiting satellites is the most promising field to enable global quantum communication.     

Extension of analytical indicial aerodynamics to generic trapezoidal wings in subsonic flow

Analytical indicial aerodynamic functions are calculated for several trapezoidal wings in subsonic flow, with a Mach number 0.3 Ma 0.7. The formulation herein proposed extends wellknown aerodynamic theories, which are limited to thin aerofoils in incompressible flow, to generic trapezoidal wing planforms. Firstly, a thorough study is executed to assess the accuracy and limitation of analytical predictions, using unsteady results from two state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics solvers as cross-validated benchmarks. Indicial functions are calculated for a step change in the angle of attack and for a sharp-edge gust, each for four wing configurations and three Mach numbers. Then, analytical and computational indicial responses are used to predict dynamic derivatives and the maximum lift coefficient following an encounter with a one-minus-cosine gust. It is found that the analytical results are in excellent agreement with the computational results for all test cases. In particular, the deviation of the analytical results from the computational results is within the scatter or uncertainty in the data arising from using two computational fluid dynamics solvers. This indicates the usefulness of the developed analytical theories.     

The PRISMA payload optomechanical design, a high performance instrument for a new hyperspectral mission

PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) hyperspectral instrument is an advanced hyperspectral sensor including a panchromatic camera at medium resolution. The instrument is the focus of the new Earth observation mission that a consortium of Italian companies has started developing under contract of Italian Space Agency. Key features of the instrument are the very high requirement for signal-to-noise and the high quality of data that have to be provided. To meet these demanding figures the optical system has been based on a high transmittance optical system, including a single mirror telescope and two prism spectrometers based on an innovative concept to minimize number of optical elements, while high performance detectors have been chosen for the photon detection. To provide the required data quality for the entire mission lifetime an accurate calibration unit (radiometric and spectral) will be included in the instrument optomechanical assembly. The thermo-mechanical design of the instrument is based on innovative concepts, considering that the use of prism spectrometers implies a tight control of temperature variations to guarantee the stability of all instrument features once in orbit. The presented paper describes the concepts and design principle of the optomechanical assembly of the instrument, at the present status of development.