The USSR and satellite communications : Competition and cooperation

This article examines the USSR's satellite communications provision in the international arena. The author first outlines the Intercosmos programme, collaboration between the USSR and France and India, and maritime satellite communications. He then discusses in detail the INTERSPUTNIK system, and Soviet international coverage and competitiveness in television. In conclusion, the complex interaction and overlap between cooperation and competition in space is explained.     

Electrodeless ultraviolet communications system

The Laser Communications Laboratory (LCL) of the Wright Laboratory Avionics Directorate is heavily involved in designing optical communications systems covering the full optical spectrum to meet our current and future military communications requirements. This paper summarizes the in-house designed and built solar blind ultraviolet communications system used in the LCL to investigate non-line-of-sight data and voice links. It also summarizes some of the previous DoD work accomplished to exploit free space communications via ultraviolet radiation. In addition, safety factors peculiar to ultraviolet radiation in a closed cockpit environment are addressed. An evaluation of the current electrodeless ultraviolet communications system and a synopsis of planned future projects to improve the system are included in the paper     

Organic chemistry in Titan's atmosphere: new data from laboratory simulations at low temperature.

Many experiments have already been carried out to simulate organic chemistry on Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn. They can provide fruitful information on the nature of minor organic constituents likely to be present in Titan's atmosphere, both in gas and aerosol phases. Indeed, all the organic compounds but one already detected in Titan's atmosphere have been identified in simulation experiments. The exception, C4N2, as well as other compounds expected in Titan from theoretical modeling, such as other N-organics, and polyynes, first of all C6H2, have never been detected in experimental simulation thus far. All these compounds are thermally unstable, and the temperature conditions used during the simulation experiments were not appropriate. We have recently started a new program of simulation experiments with temperature conditions close to that of Titan's environment. It also uses dedicated analytical techniques and procedures compatible with the analysis of organics only stable at low temperatures, as well solid products of low stability in the presence of O2 and H2O. Spark discharge of N2-CH4 gas mixtures was carried out at low temperature in the range 100-150 K. Products were analysed by FTIR, GC and GC-MS techniques. GC-peaks were identified by their mass spectrum, and, in most cases, by comparison of the retention time and mass spectrum with standard ones. We report here the first detection in Titan simulation experiments of C6H2 and HC5N. Their abundance is a few percent relative to C4H2 and HC3N, respectively. Preliminary data on the solid products indicate an elemental composition corresponding to (H11C11N)n. These results open new prospects in the modeling of Titan's haze making.     

An application of embedology to spatio-temporal pattern recognition

The theory of embedded time series is shown applicable for determining a reasonable lower bound on the length of test sequence required for accurate classification of moving objects. Sequentially recorded feature vectors of a moving object form a training trajectory in feature space. Each of the sequences of feature vector components is a time series, and under certain conditions, each of these time series has approximately the same fractal dimension. The embedding theorem may be applied to this fractal dimension to establish a sufficient number of observations to determine the feature space trajectory of the object. It is argued that this number is a reasonable lower bound on test sequence length for use in object classification. Experiments with data corresponding to five military vehicles (observed following a projected Lorenz trajectory on a viewing sphere) show that this bound is indeed adequate     

Space radiation quality factor investigations with “NAUSICAA”-device on board the “MIR” space station

The estimation of radiation quality factor in space flights is a serious problem of space dosimetry. The solution of this problem is based on LET-spectra measurements. The “NAUSICAA”-device installed on the “MIR” station has a detector with a large geometric factor, that gives the possibility of measuring LET-spectra with sufficient statistic in relatively short time interval and hence the corresponding Q. LET-spectra are accumulated through 24 hour periods and equivalent dose (H), absorbed dose (D), quality factor and flux (F) are measured every 10 minutes. The obtained data permit the estimate of the diurnal Q and Q in South Atlantic Anomaly. These values vary in the range of 1.4 – 2.2. The analysis of these values including their comparison with the calculated results is given in this paper.     

Built-in test maturation concepts using test program set andrelational database technologies

Continual improvement of avionic built-in test (BIT) is critical to mission readiness and capability. This paper discusses how test program set (TPS) and relational database (RDB) technologies can be used for this purpose. Important aspects for continually improving avionic BIT and TPS operation are discussed     

Efficient solution and performance analysis of 3-D positionestimation by trilateration

A new exact, explicit, and computationally efficient solution for three-dimensional (3-D) position estimation based on range measurements from three stations is proposed. The simple polynomial-type form of the new algorithm facilitates the performance analysis. Formulae are provided for both the variance and the bias of the position estimates. The systematic error is a joint effect of both the measurement noise and the system nonlinearity and its magnitude cannot be ignored if highly accurate localization is required. Performance evaluation results are presented for various conditions     

Planetary Protection Policy (U.S.A.).

Through existing treaty obligations of the United States, NASA is committed to exploring space while avoiding biological contamination of the planets, and to the protection of the Earth against harm from materials returned from space. Because of the similarities between Mars and Earth, plans for the exploration of Mars evoke discussions of these Planetary Protection issues. US Planetary Protection Policy will be focused on the preservation of these goals in an arena that will change with the growth of scientific knowledge about the martian environment. Early opportunities to gain the appropriate data will be used to guide later policy implementation. Because human presence on Mars will result in the end of Earth's separation from the martian environment, it is expected that precursor robotic missions will address critical planetary protection concerns before humans arrive.     

An Application of Kalman Filtering and Time Averaging to Inertial Guidance Evaluation

A method is developed for estimating circular error probable values and circular error probable rate values of an inertial navigation system using the concepts of Kalman filtering and time averaging.