The effects of proton radiation on UHMWPE material properties for space flight and medical applications

Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) is a polymer widely used as a radiation shielding material in space flight applications and as a bearing material in total joint replacements. As a long chain hydrocarbon based polymer, UHMWPE’s material properties are influenced by radiation exposure, and prior studies show that gamma irradiation is effective for both medical sterilization and increased wear resistance in total joint replacement applications. However, the effects of space flight radiation types and doses on UHMWPE material properties are poorly understood. In this study, three clinically relevant grades of UHMWPE (GUR 1020, GUR 1050, and GUR 1020 blended with Vitamin E) were proton irradiated and tested for differences in material properties. Each of the three types of UHMWPE was irradiated at nominal doses of 0 Gy (control), 5 Gy, 10 Gy, 20 Gy, and 35 Gy. Following irradiation, uniaxial tensile testing and thermal testing using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) were performed. Results show small but significant changes in several material properties between the control (0 Gy) and 35 Gy samples, indicating that proton irradiation could have a effect on the long term performance of UHMWPE in both medical and space flight applications.     

Synergistic use of multitemporal RAMP,ICESat and GPS to construct an accurate DEM of the Larsemann Hills region,Antarctica

An enhanced digital elevation model (DEM) of the Larsemann Hills region, east Antarctica, is constructed synergistically by using highly accurate ground-based GPS measurements, satellite-derived laser altimetry (GLAS/ICESat) and Radarsat Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMPv2) DEM-based point elevation dataset. Our DEM has a vertical accuracy of about 1.5 times better than RAMPv2 DEM and seven times better than GLAS/ICESAT-based DEM. The accuracy is improved by validating the RAMPv2 DEM elevation by supplementing with GLAS/ICESat and DGPS survey data, when compared to that of DEM constructed by using GLAS/ICESat or RAMPv2 alone. With the use of accurate GPS data as ground control points reference elevations, the DEM extracted is much more accurate with least mean RMSE of 34.5 m than that constructed by using a combination of GLAS/ICESat and RAMPv2 as true reference. The newly constructed DEM 7 achieves highest accuracy with the least average elevation difference of 0.27 m calculated using 46 ground reference points. Available DEMs of Antarctic region generated by using radar altimetry and the Antarctic Digital Database indicate elevation variations in the range of 50–100 m, which necessitates the generation of local DEM and its validation by using ground truth. This is our first attempt of fusing multi-temporal, multi-sensor and multi-source elevation data to generate a DEM of any part of Antarctica, in order to address the ice elevation change to infer the ice mass balance. Our approach focuses on the strengths of each elevation data source to produce an accurate DEM.     

From Disks to Planets: The Making of Planets and Their Early Atmospheres. An Introduction

This paper is an introduction to volume 56 of the Space Science Series of ISSI, “From disks to planets—the making of planets and their proto-atmospheres”, a key subject in our quest for the origins and evolutionary paths of planets, and for the causes of their diversity. Indeed, as exoplanet discoveries progressively accumulated and their characterization made spectacular progress, it became evident that the diversity of observed exoplanets can in no way be reduced to the two classes of planets that we are used to identify in the solar system, namely terrestrial planets and gas or ice giants: the exoplanet reality is just much broader. This fact is no doubt the result of the exceptional diversity of the evolutionary paths linking planetary systems as a whole as well as individual exoplanets and their proto-atmospheres to their parent circumstellar disks: this diversity and its causes are exactly what this paper explores. For each of the main phases of the formation and evolution of planetary systems and of individual planets, we summarize what we believe we understand and what are the important open questions needing further in-depth examination, and offer some suggestions on ways towards solutions.We start with the formation mechanisms of circumstellar disks, with their gas and disk components in which chemical composition plays a very important role in planet formation. We summarize how dust accretion within the disk generates planet cores, while gas accretion on these cores can lead to the diversity of their fluid envelopes. The temporal evolution of the parent disk itself, and its final dissipation, put strong constraints on how and how far planetary formation can proceed. The radiation output of the central star also plays an important role in this whole story. This early phase of planet evolution, from disk formation to dissipation, is characterized by a co-evolution of the disk and its daughter planets. During this co-evolution, planets and their protoatmospheres not only grow, but they also migrate radially as a result of their interaction with the disk, thus moving progressively from their distance of formation to their final location. The formation of planetary fluid envelopes (proto-atmospheres and oceans), is an essential product of this planet formation scenario which strongly constrains their possible evolution towards habitability. We discuss the effects of the initial conditions in the disk, of the location, size and mass of the planetary core, of the disk lifetime and of the radiation output and activity of the central star, on the formation of these envelopes and on their relative extensions with respect to the planet core. Overall, a fraction of the planets retain the primary proto-atmosphere they initially accreted from the gas disk. For those which lose it in this early evolution, outgassing of volatiles from the planetary core and mantle, together with some contributions of volatiles from colliding bodies, give them a chance to form a “secondary” atmosphere, like that of our own Earth.When the disk finally dissipates, usually before 10 Million years of age, it leaves us with the combination of a planetary system and a debris disk, each with a specific radial distribution with respect to their parent star(s). Whereas the dynamics of protoplanetary disks is dominated by gas-solid dynamical coupling, debris disks are dominated by gravitational dynamics acting on diverse families of planetesimals. Solid-body collisions between them and giant impacts on young planetary surfaces generate a new population of gas and dust in those disks. Synergies between solar system and exoplanet studies are particularly fruitful and need to be stimulated even more, because they give access to different and complementary components of debris disks: whereas the different families of planetesimals can be extensively studied in the solar system, they remain unobserved in exoplanet systems. But, in those systems, long-wavelength telescopic observations of dust provide a wealth of indirect information about the unobserved population of planetesimals. Promising progress is being currently made to observe the gas component as well, using millimetre and sub-millimetre giant radio interferometers.Within planetary systems themselves, individual planets are the assembly of a solid body and a fluid envelope, including their planetary atmosphere when there is one. Their characteristics range from terrestrial planets through sub-Neptunes and Neptunes and to gas giants, each type covering most of the orbital distances probed by present-day techniques. With the continuous progress in detection and characterization techniques and the advent of major providers of new data like the Kepler mission, the architecture of these planetary systems can be studied more and more accurately in a statistically meaningful sense and compared to the one of our own solar system, which does not appear to be an exceptional case. Finally, our understanding of exoplanets atmospheres has made spectacular advances recently using the occultation spectroscopy techniques implemented on the currently operating space and ground-based observing facilities.The powerful new observing facilities planned for the near and more distant future will make it possible to address many of the most challenging current questions of the science of exoplanets and their systems. There is little doubt that, using this new generation of facilities, we will be able to reconstruct more and more accurately the complex evolutionary paths which link stellar genesis to the possible emergence of habitable worlds.     

GPS monitoring of vertical seafloor motion at Platform Harvest

We describe results from two decades of monitoring vertical seafloor motion at the Harvest oil platform, NASA’s prime verification site for the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason series of reference altimeter missions. Using continuous GPS observations, we refine estimates of the platform subsidence—due most likely to fluid withdrawal linked to oil production—and describe the impact on estimates of stability for the altimeter measurement systems. The cumulative seafloor subsidence over 20 yrs is approximately 10 cm, but the rate does not appear constant. The apparent non-linear nature of the vertical motion, coupled with long-period GPS errors, implies that the quality of the seafloor motion estimates is not uniform over the 20-yr period. For the Jason-1 era (2002–2009), competing estimates for the subsidence show agreement to better than 1 mm yr⁻¹. Longer durations of data are needed before the seafloor motion estimates for the Jason-2 era (2008–present) can approach this level of accuracy.     

The use of model-based test requirements throughout the productlife cycle

Test requirements, which are generally collected in multiple disparate formats throughout the life cycle of an electronic product, could be used in various applications that reduce test and development cycle times and increase the confidence in the final test program. Unfortunately, test requirements are seldom captured in a consistent format that may be processed by a computer, thus eliminating the possibility of using such requirements in an engineering application. Additionally, such an approach disallows test requirements captured in one segment of the product life cycle to be reused in subsequent life cycle stages. This paper describes a model-based methodology, specifically the Test Requirements Model (TeRM), which can be shown to facilitate the transfer of test-related product information between various stages of the life cycle. This transportability, in conjunction with an exchange format that can be processed by a computer, permits test requirement information to support value-added applications in the engineering process throughout the life cycle of a product     

The high-LET radiation component measured during the EUROMIR-94 mission.

Stacks of CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors were mounted inside the MIR-station during the EUROMIR-94-mission. We present LET-spectra determined separately for long range cosmic ray heavy ions and for short range target fragments produced in nuclear interactions of cosmic rays and measured charge distributions for relativistic and stopping particles.     

Pade approximations to matched filter amplitude probabilityfunctions

Performance analysis of echolocation systems requires the probability density function (pdf) or survival function of a matched filter output. A method is presented to derive approximations to these functions using a Pade approximation to their associated characteristic function (CF). The method is based on the Hankel transform. It allows computation of detection probabilities when the matched filter responses to clutter and a target are separately known. Several numerical examples are presented     

Source processes in the high-latitude ionosphere

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