The MESSENGER Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer

A Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) instrument has been developed as part of the science payload for NASA’s Discovery Program mission to the planet Mercury. Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) launched successfully in 2004 and will journey more than six years before entering Mercury orbit to begin a one-year investigation. The GRNS instrument forms part of the geochemistry investigation and will yield maps of the elemental composition of the planet surface. Major elements include H, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, K, and Th. The Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) portion detects gamma-ray emissions in the 0.1- to 10-MeV energy range and achieves an energy resolution of 3.5 keV full-width at half-maximum for ⁶⁰Co (1332 keV). It is the first interplanetary use of a mechanically cooled Ge detector. Special construction techniques provide the necessary thermal isolation to maintain the sensor’s encapsulated detector at cryogenic temperatures (90 K) despite the intense thermal environment. Given the mission constraints, the GRS sensor is necessarily body-mounted to the spacecraft, but the outer housing is equipped with an anticoincidence shield to reduce the background from charged particles. The Neutron Spectrometer (NS) sensor consists of a sandwich of three scintillation detectors working in concert to measure the flux of ejected neutrons in three energy ranges from thermal to ∼7 MeV. The NS is particularly sensitive to H content and will help resolve the composition of Mercury’s polar deposits. This paper provides an overview of the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer and describes its science and measurement objectives, the design and operation of the instrument, the ground calibration effort, and a look at some early in-flight data.     

The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the SWIFT Midex Mission

he burst alert telescope (BAT) is one of three instruments on the Swift MIDEX spacecraft to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The BAT first detects the GRB and localizes the burst direction to an accuracy of 1–4 arcmin within 20 s after the start of the event. The GRB trigger initiates an autonomous spacecraft slew to point the two narrow field-of-view (FOV) instruments at the burst location within 20–70 s so to make follow-up X-ray and optical observations. The BAT is a wide-FOV, coded-aperture instrument with a CdZnTe detector plane. The detector plane is composed of 32,768 pieces of CdZnTe (4×4×2 mm), and the coded-aperture mask is composed of ∼52,000 pieces of lead (5×5×1 mm) with a 1-m separation between mask and detector plane. The BAT operates over the 15–150 keV energy range with ∼7 keV resolution, a sensitivity of ∼10⁻⁸ erg s⁻¹ cm⁻², and a 1.4 sr (half-coded) FOV. We expect to detect > 100 GRBs/year for a 2-year mission. The BAT also performs an all-sky hard X-ray survey with a sensitivity of ∼2 m Crab (systematic limit) and it serves as a hard X-ray transient monitor.     

Spatial data quality capture through inductive learning

The relatively weak uptake of spatial error handling capabilities bycommercial GIS companies and users can in part be attributed to therelatively low availability and high costs of spatial data qualityinformation. Based on the well established artificial intelligencetechnique of induction, this paper charts the development of anautomated quality capture tool. By learning from example, the tool makesvery efficient use of scarce spatial data quality information, sohelping to minimise the cost and maximise availability of data quality.The example application of the tool to a telecommunications legacy datacapture project indicates the practicality and potential value of theapproach.     

Observed Aspects of Reconnection in Solar Eruptions

The observed magnetic field configuration and signatures of reconnection in the large solar magnetic eruptions that make major flares and coronal mass ejections and in the much smaller magnetic eruptions that make X-ray jets are illustrated with cartoons and representative observed eruptions. The main reconnection signatures considered are the imaged bright emission from the heated plasma on reconnected field lines. In any of these eruptions, large or small, the magnetic field that drives the eruption and/or that drives the buildup to the eruption is initially a closed bipolar arcade. From the form and configuration of the magnetic field in and around the driving arcade and from the development of the reconnection signatures in coordination with the eruption, we infer that (1) at the onset of reconnection the reconnection current sheet is small compared to the driving arcade, and (2) the current sheet can grow to the size of the driving arcade only after reconnection starts and the unleashed erupting field dynamically forces the current sheet to grow much larger, building it up faster than the reconnection can tear it down. We conjecture that the fundamental reason the quasi-static pre-eruption field is prohibited from having a large current sheet is that the magnetic pressure is much greater than the plasma pressure in the chromosphere and low corona in eruptive solar magnetic fields.     

用于直升机振动控制的主动调谐式吸振器研究

振动问题是直升机设计中的难题,会导致机体结构疲劳、舒适性降低和高噪声等问题。通常的单桨叶控制方案由于受压电驱动器机电性能的限制而难以实现。智能弹簧是一种采用单桨叶控制原理的主动调谐式吸振器,它通过压电驱动器自适应控制桨叶根部的结构阻抗,达到振动控制目的。建立了智能弹簧的简化模型,对其谐波响应控制特性进行研究;采用频率分析和数字信号合成技术产生参考信号,在DSP平台上设计自适应陷波算法对智能弹簧驱动器组件进行控制;模拟和风洞实验结果均表明智能弹簧能够在较宽频率范围内对桨叶的谐波响应进行有效控制,验证了通过主动阻抗控制实现直升机桨叶振动控制的可行性。     

Origin, Internal Structure and Evolution of 4 Vesta

Asteroid 4 Vesta is the only preserved intact example of a large, differentiated protoplanet like those believed to be the building blocks of terrestrial planet accretion. Vesta accreted rapidly from the solar nebula in the inner asteroid belt and likely melted due to heat released due to the decay of ²⁶Al. Analyses of meteorites from the howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) suite, which have been both spectroscopically and dynamically linked to Vesta, lead to a model of the asteroid with a basaltic crust that overlies a depleted peridotitic mantle and an iron core. Vesta??s crust may become more mafic with depth and might have been intruded by plutons arising from mantle melting. Constraints on the asteroid??s moments of inertia from the long-wavelength gravity field, pole position and rotation, informed by bulk composition estimates, allow tradeoffs between mantle density and core size; cores of up to half the planetary radius can be consistent with plausible mantle compositions. The asteroid??s present surface is expected to consist of widespread volcanic terrain, modified extensively by impacts that exposed the underlying crust or possibly the mantle. Hemispheric heterogeneity has been observed by poorly resolved imaging of the surface that suggests the possibility of a physiographic dichotomy as occurs on other terrestrial planets. Vesta might have had an early magma ocean but details of the early thermal structure are far from clear owing to model uncertainties and paradoxical observations from the HEDs. Petrological analysis of the eucrites coupled with thermal evolution modeling recognizes two possible mechanisms of silicate-metal differentiation leading to the formation of the basaltic achondrites: equilibrium partial melting or crystallization of residual liquid from the cooling magma ocean. A firmer understanding the plethora of complex physical and chemical processes that contribute to melting and crystallization will ultimately be required to distinguish among these possibilities. The most prominent physiographic feature on Vesta is the massive south polar basin, whose formation likely re-oriented the body axis of the asteroid??s rotation. The large impact represents the likely major mechanism of ejection of fragments that became the HEDs. Observations from the Dawn mission hold the promise of revolutionizing our understanding of 4 Vesta, and by extension, the nature of collisional, melting and differentiation processes in the nascent solar system.     

An Introduction to the Pre-CME Corona

Coronal mass ejections provide a gateway to understanding the physics of energy release and conversion in the solar corona. While it is generally accepted that the energy required to power a CME is contained in the pre-eruption coronal magnetic field, the pre-CME state of that field and the conditions leading up to the release of the magnetic energy are still not entirely clear. Recent studies point to various phenomena which are common to many, if not all, CME events, suggesting that there may be identifiable characteristics of the pre-CME corona which signal the impending eruption. However, determining whether these phenomena are necessary or even sufficient has yet to be achieved. In this paper we attempt to summarize the state of the solar corona and its evolution in the build up to a CME.     

Real-time solution of nonlinear potential flow equations for lifting rotors

Analysis of rotorcraft dynamics requires solution of the rotor induced flow field.Often,the appropriate model to be used for induced flow is nonlinear potential flow theory(which is the basis of vortex-lattice methods).These nonlinear potential flow equations sometimes must be solved in real time––such as for real-time flight simulation,when observers are needed for controllers,or in preliminary design computations.In this paper,the major effects of nonlinearities on induced flow are studied for lifting rotors in low-speed flight and hover.The approach is to use a nonlinear statespace model of the induced flow based on a Galerkin treatment of the potential flow equations.     

Modeling satellite drag coefficients with response surfaces

Satellite drag coefficients are a major source of uncertainty in predicting the drag force on satellites in low Earth orbit. Among other things, accurately predicting the orbit requires detailed knowledge of the satellite drag coefficient. Computational methods are an important tool in computing the drag coefficient but are too intensive for real-time and predictive applications. Therefore, analytic or empirical models that can accurately predict drag coefficients are desired. This work uses response surfaces to model drag coefficients. The response surface methodology is validated by developing a response surface model for the drag coefficient of a sphere where the closed-form solution is known. The response surface model performs well in predicting the drag coefficient of a sphere with a root mean square percentage error less than 0.3% over the entire parameter space. For more complex geometries, such as the GRACE satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the International Space Station, the model errors are only slightly larger at about 0.9%, 0.6%, and 1.0%, respectively.