Missions to Mercury

Mercury is a very difficult planet to observe from the Earth, and space missions that target Mercury are essential for a comprehensive understanding of the planet. At the same time, it is also difficult to orbit because it is deep inside the Sun’s gravitational well. Only one mission has visited Mercury; that was Mariner 10 in the 1970s. This paper provides a brief history of Mariner 10 and the numerous imaginative but unsuccessful mission proposals since the 1970s for another Mercury mission. In the late 1990s, two missions—MESSENGER and BepiColombo—received the go-ahead; MESSENGER is on its way to its first encounter with Mercury in January 2008. The history, scientific objectives, mission designs, and payloads of both these missions are described in detail.     

车身逆向设计中点云多视拼合技术

针对整车车身点云空间尺寸较大,数据量庞大,还原精度要求高等特点,提出基于骨架点的点云拼合算法,算法的基本思想是构造整车模型的骨架点和分块点云的mark点,由全等三角形法则搜索骨架点与mark点的映射关系,应用加速迭代的改进ICP(Iterative Closest Point)算法拼合整车点云.某厂轻卡整车点云的拼合实例证明,该算法拼合精度高,运算速度快,是拼合整车点云行之有效的方法.      

环路热管地面实验平台的热设计

文章旨在建立环路热管的地面实验平台,模拟环路热管在太空轨道运行的热环境。首先建立了地面实验舱的物理模型,对其如何实现在地面模拟太空中该环路热管的热环境进行了热分析计算,其次确定了满足环路热管轨道运行最冷工况和最热工况下的实验舱的壁面温度,最后对实现该轨道环境所需要的壁面绝热材料、制冷剂、制冷设备进行了选择,初步完成了实验平台的热设计。计算结果表明,在同时考虑舱内对流和辐射换热的条件下,要实现空间热边界条件,实验舱内舱的壁温要保证在-62.1~-10.9℃之间变化。     

The Heliospheric Magnetic Field at Solar Maximum: Ulysses Observations

At solar maximum, the large-scale structure of the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) reflects the complexity of the Sun's coronal magnetic fields. The corona is characterised by mostly closed magnetic structures and short-lived, small coronal holes. The axis of the Sun's dipole field is close to the solar equator; there are also important contributions from the higher order terms. This complex and variable coronal magnetic configuration leads to a much increased variability in the HMF on all time scales, at all latitudes. The transition from solar minimum to solar maximum conditions, as reflected in the HMF, is described, as observed by Ulysses during its passage to high southern heliolatitudes. The magnetic signatures associated with the interaction regions generated by short-lived fast solar wind streams are presented, together with the highly disordered period in mid-1999 when there was a considerable reorganisation in coronal structures. The magnetic sector structure at high heliolatitudes shows, from mid-1999, a recognisable two-sector structure, corresponding to a highly inclined Heliospheric Current Sheet. A preliminary investigation of the radial component of the magnetic field indicates that it remains, on average, constant as a function of heliolatitude. Intervals of highly Alfvénic fluctuations in the rarefaction regions trailing the interaction regions have been, even if intermittently, identified even close to solar maximum. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Fundamental (f) oscillations in a magnetically coupled solar interior-atmosphere system – An analytical approach

Solar fundamental (f) acoustic mode oscillations are investigated analytically in a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. The model consists of three layers in planar geometry, representing the solar interior, the magnetic atmosphere, and a transitional layer sandwiched between them. Since we focus on the fundamental mode here, we assume the plasma is incompressible. A horizontal, canopy-like, magnetic field is introduced to the atmosphere, in which degenerated slow MHD waves can exist. The global (f-mode) oscillations can couple to local atmospheric Alfvén waves, resulting, e.g., in a frequency shift of the oscillations. The dispersion relation of the global oscillation mode is derived, and is solved analytically for the thin-transitional layer approximation and for the weak-field approximation. Analytical formulae are also provided for the frequency shifts due to the presence of a thin transitional layer and a weak atmospheric magnetic field. The analytical results generally indicate that, compared to the fundamental value (), the mode frequency is reduced by the presence of an atmosphere by a few per cent. A thin transitional layer reduces the eigen-frequencies further by about an additional hundred microhertz. Finally, a weak atmospheric magnetic field can slightly, by a few percent, increase the frequency of the eigen-mode. Stronger magnetic fields, however, can increase the f-mode frequency by even up to ten per cent, which cannot be seen in observed data. The presence of a magnetic atmosphere in the three-layer model also introduces non-permitted propagation windows in the frequency spectrum; here, f-mode oscillations cannot exist with certain values of the harmonic degree. The eigen-frequencies can be sensitive to the background physical parameters, such as an atmospheric density scale-height or the rate of the plasma density drop at the photosphere. Such information, if ever observed with high-resolution instrumentation and inverted, could help to gain further insight into solar magnetic structures by means of solar magneto-seismology, and could provide further insight into the role of magnetism in solar oscillations.     

滑橇甲板助飞的力学机理分析

针对飞机在滑橇甲板上起飞的特点,基于力多边形的变化过程,以及甲板形状对飞机俯仰转动的作用,分析了飞机性能和品质与甲板参数的适配关系,说明了飞机在低速离舰初期迎角建立的力学机理.迎角的建立综合3个方面的效果:曲面甲板提供正向俯仰角速度,使迎角增加;前轮离舰释放载荷、后轮尚未离舰的过程中,甲板支反力提供低头力矩,使离舰初期俯仰角速度减小;离舰初期升力不能平衡重力,加速度指向前下方,轨迹向下弯曲,速度下偏使迎角增加.对航母/舰载机/起落架多体动力学系统进行数值仿真,结果表明分析合理.