Optimal Earth’s reentry disposal of the Galileo constellation

Nowadays there is international consensus that space activities must be managed to minimize debris generation and risk. The paper presents a method for the end-of-life (EoL) disposal of spacecraft in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). The problem is formulated as a multiobjective optimisation one, which is solved with an evolutionary algorithm. An impulsive manoeuvre is optimised to reenter the spacecraft in Earth’s atmosphere within 100?years. Pareto optimal solutions are obtained using the manoeuvre $\mathrm{\Delta }v$ and the time-to-reentry as objective functions to be minimised. To explore at the best the search space a semi-analytical orbit propagator, which can propagate an orbit for 100?years in few seconds, is adopted. An in-depth analysis of the results is carried out to understand the conditions leading to a fast reentry with minimum propellant. For this aim a new way of representing the disposal solutions is introduced. With a single 2D plot we are able to fully describe the time evolution of all the relevant orbital parameters as well as identify the conditions that enables the eccentricity build-up. The EoL disposal of the Galileo constellation is used as test case.     

Did life exist on Mars? Search for organic and inorganic signatures, one of the goals for “SAM” (sample analysis at Mars)

Observation of Mars shows signs of a past Earth-like climate, and, in that case, there is no objection to the possible development of life, in the underground or at the surface, as in the terrestrial primitive biosphere. Sample analysis at Mars (SAM) is an experiment which may be proposed for atmospheric, ground and underground in situ measurements. One of its goals is to bring direct or indirect information on the possibility for life to have developed on Mars, and to detect traces of past or present biological activity. With this aim, it focuses on the detection of organic molecules: volatile organics are extracted from the sample by simple heating, whereas refractory molecules are made analyzable (i.e. volatile), using derivatization technique or fragmentation by pyrolysis. Gaseous mixtures thus obtained are analyzed by gas chromatography associated to mass spectrometry. Beyond organics, carbonates and other salts are associated to the dense and moist atmosphere necessary to the development of life, and might have formed and accumulated in some places on Mars. They represent another target for SAM. Heating of the samples allows the analysis of structural gases of these minerals (CO₂ from carbonates, etc.), enabling to identify them. We also show, in this paper, that it may be possible to discriminate between abiotic minerals, and minerals (shells, etc.) created by living organisms.     

Solar maximum mission experiment: Early results of the hard X-ray imaging experiment

We have selected four widely different flares from the early period of operations of the Hard X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (HXIS) on SMM to illustrate the characteristic imaging properties of this experiment. For the small flare of April 4, 1980, we demonstrate the instrument's capability for locating a compact source. In the weak, but extensive, flare of April 6 we show how well the instrument can display spatial structure, and also the low level of the instrument background. In the 1B flare of April 7 we are able to locate positions of the X-ray emission in the soft and hard channels, and estimate the positional variations of the emission patches. Finally, in the IN flare of April 10, which produced the strongest hard X-ray burst we have seen so far, we repeat some of the studies made for the April 7 event, and also demonstrate the capability of the HXIS instrument to study the development, with high time resolution, of individual 8″ × 8″ elements of the flare.     

Statistical analysis of the total electron content observed at 23°S in the Brazilian sector

The vertical total electron content (VTEC) time series obtained at São José dos Campos (23.2°S, 45.9°W), Brazil, were statistically analyzed to study the low latitude ionosphere in the Brazilian sector during the year of 2006 (a period of low solar activity). Statistical analysis showed that Probability Density Functions (PDFs) and kurtosis have an intermittent behavior on small-scales (periods from minutes to one day) and presence of two functions on large-scales (periods from 3 to 30 days). The skewness result suggests the presence of some kind of waves due to the action of tropospheric sources (lower atmospheric origin). Results obtained by wavelet transform show strong oscillations with scale-sizes between 3 and 30 days, possibly associated with the planetary oscillations. According to these statistical and wavelet analyses we conjecture that there exist two important factors regarding the ionospheric effects: one factor is due to turbulent states found in small scales and the other factor consists in a more or less deterministic state provided by planetary waves (3–16 days or full solar rotation (27–28 days)). Further, these strong oscillations were also noted in multifractal analysis. We found a decrease of multifractality degree of the same scale-sizes.     

The brief history of experimental research of cosmic ray variations in Yakutia

Some unknown historical facts of cosmic ray studies in the north-east of the former Soviet Union related to the Yakutsk scientific group are reported for the benefit of the international scientific community. It focuses on the founders of Yu.G. Shafer Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Aeronomy of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. A chronology of measurements of cosmic ray intensity variations since 1949 in Yakutia (Sakha Republic; NE Siberia) is given. In particular, for the first time the data of the first solar cosmic ray event registered at Yakutsk (GLE04), with a small ionization chamber S-2 (volume: 20 L) are presented. Moreover, the data of the large ionization chamber ASK-1 (volume: 950 L) for the 1953–2003 period useful for specialists in the field of cosmic ray variations are also shown.     

Time variations of cosmic-ray helium isotopes with BESS-Polar I

The Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer (BESS) is configured with a solenoidal superconducting magnet and a suite of precision particle detectors, including time-of-flight hodoscopes based on plastic scintillators, a silica-aerogel Cherenkov detector, and a high resolution tracking system with a central jet-type drift chamber. The charges of incident particles are determined from energy losses in the scintillators. Their magnetic rigidities (momentum/charge) are measured by reconstructing each particle trajectory in the magnetic field, and their velocities are obtained by using the time-of-flight system. Together, these measurements can accurately identify helium isotopes among the incoming cosmic-ray helium nuclei up to energies in the GeV per nucleon region. The BESS-Polar I instrument flew for 8.5 days over Antarctica from December 13th to December 21st, 2004. Its long-duration flight and large geometric acceptance allow the time variations of isotopic fluxes to be studied for the first time. The time variations of helium isotope fluxes are presented here for rigidities from 1.2 to 2.5 GV and results are compared to previously reported proton data and neutron monitor data.     

Pseudotransfer Function to Characterize a Hard Limiter

Results are reported on the attempt to define a pseudotransfer funtion of a circuit composed of a 2-pulse canceler and hard limiter.     

HORACE: A compact cold atom clock for Galileo

HORACE (HOrloge à Refroidissement d’Atomes en Cellule = clock based on atoms cooled from vapour cell) is a compact cold caesium atom clock developed in SYRTE at Paris Observatory. This clock can operate both on ground and in microgravity environment. Design of HORACE is based on isotropic light cooling, allowing performing the whole clock sequence (cooling, atomic preparation, Ramsey interrogation and detection) at the same place. Compared to more conventional cold atom clocks such as atomic fountains, the use of isotropic light cooling simplifies both the optical part of the setup and the detection sequence, and leads to a drastic size reduction of the physics package. Very good short-term performances have been demonstrated at SYRTE since relative frequency instability of 2.2 × 10⁻¹³ τ^−1/2 has been obtained. Optimization of the long term stability is still under progress and current results show relative frequency instability around 3 × 10⁻¹⁵ in 10⁴ s of integration. With these performances, HORACE appears as a good candidate both for Galileo’s ground segment clock and for onboard Galileo clock.     

Magnetic Field Amplification in Galaxy Clusters and Its Simulation

We review the present theoretical and numerical understanding of magnetic field amplification in cosmic large-scale structure, on length scales of galaxy clusters and beyond. Structure formation drives compression and turbulence, which amplify tiny magnetic seed fields to the microGauss values that are observed in the intracluster medium. This process is intimately connected to the properties of turbulence and the microphysics of the intra-cluster medium. Additional roles are played by merger induced shocks that sweep through the intra-cluster medium and motions induced by sloshing cool cores. The accurate simulation of magnetic field amplification in clusters still poses a serious challenge for simulations of cosmological structure formation. We review the current literature on cosmological simulations that include magnetic fields and outline theoretical as well as numerical challenges.