Design and implementation of the flight dynamics system for COMS satellite mission operations

The first Korean multi-mission geostationary Earth orbit satellite, Communications, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) was launched by an Ariane 5 launch vehicle in June 26, 2010. The COMS satellite has three payloads including Ka-band communications, Geostationary Ocean Color Imager, and Meteorological Imager. Although the COMS spacecraft bus is based on the Astrium Eurostar 3000 series, it has only one solar array to the south panel because all of the imaging sensors are located on the north panel. In order to maintain the spacecraft attitude with 5 wheels and 7 thrusters, COMS should perform twice a day wheel off-loading thruster firing operations, which affect on the satellite orbit. COMS flight dynamics system provides the general on-station functions such as orbit determination, orbit prediction, event prediction, station-keeping maneuver planning, station-relocation maneuver planning, and fuel accounting. All orbit related functions in flight dynamics system consider the orbital perturbations due to wheel off-loading operations. There are some specific flight dynamics functions to operate the spacecraft bus such as wheel off-loading management, oscillator updating management, and on-station attitude reacquisition management. In this paper, the design and implementation of the COMS flight dynamics system is presented. An object oriented analysis and design methodology is applied to the flight dynamics system design. Programming language C# within Microsoft .NET framework is used for the implementation of COMS flight dynamics system on Windows based personal computer.     

Adaptive controller design for a linear motor control system

Three different adaptive controllers for a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) position-control system are proposed. The proposed controllers include: a backstepping adaptive controller, a self-tuning adaptive controller, and a model reference adaptive controller. The detailed systematic controller design procedures are discussed. A PC-based position control system is implemented. Several experimental results including transient responses, load disturbance responses, and tracking responses of square-wave, sinusoidal-wave, and triangular-wave commands are discussed and compared. The proposed system has a good robustness performance even though the inertia of the system is increased to 10 times. The experimental results validate the theoretical analysis.     

Registration of space objects: ESA member states’ practice

The registration of space objects is indispensable for the orderly administration of outer space. Most states recognize this and comply with the instruments—the Registration Convention and the UN General Assembly Resolution—set up to permit registration, but they display different approaches to and interpretations of the concept of registration. This article examines the registration practices of various European Space Agency (ESA) member states and of ESA itself. It finds that, despite varied policies, the system seems to be working well. However, there has been a worrying rise in non-registrations over the past few years, perhaps linked to the growth in the number of, especially commercial, entities engaging in space activities.     

Lessons learned from the York University Rover Team (YURT) at the University Rover Challenge 2008–2009

In this paper, we explore the lessons learned from the work of the York University Rover Team (YURT), which designed, built, and operated two prototype rovers for the University Rover Challenge (URC) in 2008 and 2009, placing third in the first year, and winning first place in the second year. We outline the competition, the team, and briefly describe the York University space engineering program. Both of the rovers are described with evaluations of each major component and the resulting design changes. A general trend toward design modularity, purpose-driven customizations, and better critical thinking in the design process is evident as the team gains experience. Also, the value of this project as an educational medium is evaluated with respect to traditional classroom learning. Participating students from a wide range of disciplines gained real-world experience in both “hard” engineering skills such as mechanical and electronic design, fabrication, and testing, and “soft” skills such as project management, system-level thinking, creative problem solving, and interpersonal skills. Lessons learned from this include the necessity of good financial management, the importance of marketing and outreach, the use of short and simple development steps, and the need for comprehensive contingency planning. We conclude that the URC provided an inter-disciplinary, cooperative educational environment, and that student engineering projects such as this can provide “soft” skills through experiential education that are normally difficult to teach in the classroom.     

Intelligent Transportation Systems in Transitional and Developing Countries

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are state-of-the-art approaches based on information, communication and satellite technologies in mitigating traffic congestion, enhancing safety, and improving quality of environment. ITS are being used in many industrialized and emerging economies for the last two decades to facilitate traffic managers in tackling surface mobility problems. In the case of many developing countries, policy makers and practitioners have neglected this "non-conventional" approach on the pretext inter alia, "technological sophistication," cost and institutional ill-preparedness. This aims to underscore the importance and relevance of ITS for developing countries as a complementary tool in the 21^st century. In so doing, the intention is to bestow some fresh thinking into the transport debate that will serve as a catalyst for resolving mobility problems in developing countries still dwelling on conventional options.     

Nonlinear autopilot for high maneuverability of bank-to-turnmissiles

This paper presents a novel approach to autopilot design for highly maneuvering bank-to-turn (BTT) missiles. In the design and performance analysis of the proposed nonlinear autopilot, all nonlinearities of missile dynamics including the coupling between roll, yaw, and pitch channels as well as the asymmetric structure of missile body are taken into full account. It is shown that through a kind of feedback linearization technique along with a singular perturbation-like technique, the input/output (I/O) dynamic characteristics of pitch, yaw, and roll channels are made linear, decoupled, and independent of flight conditions such as air density and missile velocity. In particular, the proposed autopilot controllers can provide excellent set-point tracking performance for roll and pitch channels while keeping the side-slip angle negligible. The generality and practicality of our approach are demonstrated through mathematical analysis and various simulation results using an ILAAT missile     

Two-phase forward converter using an integrated magnetic component

An interleaved two-phase forward converter using an integrated magnetic component is proposed for telecommunication and computer applications. The integrated magnetic component consists of two step-down transformers and two output-filtering inductors on a single magnetic core. The z-parameter (gyrator) model and the equivalent-circuit model of the integrated magnetic component are presented. The circuit operation and design criteria of the proposed converter are described. All theoretical analyses are verified by simulated and experimental results.     

2020年MRO需求分布预测

据《航空周刊2020年机队及维修市场预测》,2020年商用飞机、军用飞机、公务机和民用直升机的维修市场总价值为1843亿美元,其中仅商用飞机和军用飞机维修业务就达1658亿美元。但是,预测显示商用飞机产生9120万飞行小时,军用飞机仅产生990万飞行小时,因此军用飞机的飞行小时成本要高得多。而且预计军机维修支出中外场维修占49%,位居首位,其次是零部件、机体和发动机维修。     

A review of global satellite-derived snow products

Snow cover over the Northern Hemisphere plays a crucial role in the Earth’s hydrology and surface energy balance, and modulates feedbacks that control variations of global climate. While many of these variations are associated with exchanges of energy and mass between the land surface and the atmosphere, other expected changes are likely to propagate downstream and affect oceanic processes in coastal zones. For example, a large component of the freshwater flux into the Arctic Ocean comes from snow melt. The timing and magnitude of this flux affects biological and thermodynamic processes in the Arctic Ocean, and potentially across the globe through their impact on North Atlantic Deep Water formation.