US-allied participation in the SDI research programme

Senator Lugar argues that a better European appreciation of the SDI is essential to try to define the roles of the US allies in the programme. A number of guidelines for allied participation should be applied, covering mode of participation, areas for participation, responsibilities under treaty provisions, technology transfer and security safeguards. Bilateral agreements are viewed as the mode for proceeding, but it is incumbent on the US government to outline the next steps it evisages to come to grips with the political considerations that will influence allied calculations on whether and under what circumstances to participate in SDI research.     

Editorial: Cognitive Semantics and Spatio-Temporal Ontologies

How do people describe the location of a target object to another? This task requires a reference object or frame and terms of reference. Traditional linguistic analyses have loosely organized perspectives around people, objects, or environments as reference objects, using reference terms based on a viewpoint or the intrinsic sides of an object, such as left, right, front, and back or based on the environment, such as north, south, east, and west. In actual communication, social, spatial, and cognitive factors may also affect perspective choice. We examine those factors by varying the spatial information (landmarks and cardinal directions), the communication task (relative cognitive burden to speakers and addressees), and the culture of participants (American and Japanese). Speakers used addressees' perspectives more when addressees had the greater cognitive burden. They also used landmarks and cardinal directions when they were available, especially to avoid difficult discriminations like left/right. Some cases appearing to be perspective taking can be interpreted as using a person as a landmark. Finally, terms like near indicating close proximity were preferred to far and to terms requiring projection of directions. Globally, perspective choices of American and Japanese samples were strikingly similar; that is, Japanese did not select addressees' perspectives more than Americans. The traditional linguistic analyses need to be enhanced to account for effects of cognitive, situational, and social factors.     

Bubble detector characterization for space radiation

In light of the importance of the neutron contribution to the dose equivalent received by space workers in the near-Earth radiation environment, there is an increasing need for a personal dosimeter that is passive in nature and able to respond to this neutron field in real time. Recent Canadian technology has led to the development of a bubble detector, which is sensitive to neutrons, but insensitive to low linear energy transfer (LET) radiation. By changing the composition of the bubble detector fluid (or “superheat”), the detectors can be fabricated to respond to different types of radiation. This paper describes a preliminary ground-based research effort to better characterize the bubble detectors of different compositions at various charged-particle accelerator facilities, which are capable of simulating the space radiation field.     

Nondestructive testing of honeycomb structures by computerized,thermographic systems

Complex honeycomb space structures (i.e. antennas, solar panels, etc.) must be inspected and accurately tested before flight.The thermography can be employed with success for the detection of the position of defects (delaminations, noneffective bondings, cracks, etc.) and for the evaluation of their size and geometry in all the cases in which the defect acts as a thermal resistance due to the low conductivity of the air filling the defect volume.The basic idea is to create in the specimen a heat flow distribution that is altered by the presence of the defect.The surface temperature distribution is then measured by means of a thermograph and is correlated with the presence of the defect.A numerical analysis and preliminary experiments have been carried out which show the feasibility of the method as applied to honeycomb structures.     

A parametric study of space transfer/upper propulsion stages

For Space Transportation System (i.e. Space Shuttle) launched satellites destined for a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), there is a need for cost-effective, versatile propulsion systems to provide the perigee burn, i.e. to boost the satellite from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Surveys of commercial spacecraft activities and future GEO satellite requirements indicate that a spacecraft propulsion system that will provide the perigee burn for a broad range of future commercial satellites would have an excellent market potential.Parametric studies to investigate and define attractive perigee-burn upper propulsion systems (i.e. an Upper Propulsion Stage, or a UPS) are presented. The feasibility and payload capacilities that could be provided by a UPS assembled from essentially off-the-shelf components and subsystems, and the benefits that could be achieved by using major subsystems specifically tailored for the application are presented. The results indicate that attractive UPS configurations can be defined using either off-the-shelf or optimized major subsystems.     

COSAC onboard Rosetta: a bioastronomy experiment for the short-period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The COSAC (Cometary Sampling and Composition Experiment) onboard the Rosetta mission is a combined gas chromatograph (GC)-mass spectrometer (MS). It is situated on Philae, the lander of the mission, which is intended to land on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko. The purpose of the experiment is to analyze the volatile fraction of soil samples retrieved by a drill. For investigation, the samples will be pyrolysed, and the emanating gases fed into a GC, into an MS, or the combination of both. In the first part of this paper, the bioastronomical relevance of such measurements is outlined. In the second part the details of the hardware and its performance are described.     

Investigation of CME properties using the data of SDO and PROBA2 spacecraft

Formation and motion (at the initial stage) of six limb CMEs detected in the period June 2010 to June 2011 are investigated using the high-resolution data of the PROBA2 and SDO spacecraft combined with the data of SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs. It is demonstrated that several loop-like structures of enhanced brightness originate in the region of CME formation, and they move one after another with, as a rule, different velocities. These loop-like structures in the final analysis form the frontal structure of CME. Time dependences of the velocity and acceleration of the ejection’s front are obtained for all CMEs under consideration. A conclusion is drawn about possible existence of two classes of CMEs depending on their velocity time profiles. Ejections, whose velocity after reaching its maximum sharply drops by a value of more than 100 km/s and then goes over into a regime of slow change, belong to the first class. Another class of CMEs is formed by ejections whose velocity changes slowly immediately after reaching the maximum. It is demonstrated that the CME’s angular dimension increases at the initial stage of ejection motion up to a factor of 3 with a time scale of doubling the angular size value within the limits 3.5–11 min since the moment of the first measurement of this parameter of an ejection. For three CMEs it is shown that at the initial stage of their motion for a certain time interval they are stronger expanded than grow in the longitude direction.     

Study of radiation conditions onboard the International space station by means of the Liulin-5 dosimeter

For estimating radiation risk in space flights it is necessary to determine radiation dose obtained by critical organs of a human body. For this purpose the experiments with human body models are carried out onboard spacecraft. These models represent phantoms equipped with passive and active radiation detectors which measure dose distributions at places of location of critical organs. The dosimetric Liulin-5 telescope is manufactured with using three silicon detectors for studying radiation conditions in the spherical tissue-equivalent phantom on the Russian segment of the International space station (ISS). The purpose of the experiment with Liulin-5 instrument is to study dynamics of the dose rate and particle flux in the phantom, as well as variations of radiation conditions on the ISS over long time intervals depending on a phase of the solar activity cycle, orbital parameters, and presence of solar energetic particles. The Liulin-5 dosimeter measures simultaneously the dose rate and fluxes of charged particles at three depths in the radial channel of the phantom, as well as the linear energy transfer. The paper presents the results of measurements of dose rate and particle fluxes caused by various radiation field components on the ISS during the period from June 2007 till December 2009.     

Thermal resistance in satellite mounting plates due to conductive heat transfer

The thermal resistance due to conductive heat transfer between two heat generating boxes mounted symmetrically on a thin mounting plate, one side of which is subjected to a constant heat flux and the opposite side is convectively cooled, is considered. The other two sides are maintained at constant temperature. A numerical solution for the temperature field is obtained and the heat transfer between the boxes is found by integrating between the critical heat flow lines. Various nondimensional parameters are identified and their influence on the thermal resistance is studied.     

Effect of fluid and salt supplements in preventing the development of "osteopenia" in hypokinetic rats

It has been suggested that a daily intake of fluid and salt supplements may be used to prevent bone demineralization in human subjects after prolonged exposure to hypokinesia (diminished muscular activity). Thus, the objective of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of fluid and salt supplementation in the prevention of development of osteoporosis in 64 Wistar rats with an initial body weight of 339-345 g, after exposure to 90 days of hypokinesia. They divided into 4 equal groups: the first group of rats placed under ordinary vivarium conditions and served as vivarium control; the second group were also placed under ordinary vivarium conditions but received daily fluid and salt supplements; the third group were subjected to pure hypokinesia, i.e. without the use of any preventive measures; and the fourth group were submitted to hypokinesia and received daily fluid and salt supplements. For the simulation of the hypokinetic effect the experimental group of rats were kept in small, individual, wooden cages. Through the experimental period the second and fourth group of rats received 8 ml/100 g body wt water and 5 ml 100 g body wt NaCl daily. By the end of the experimental period the animals were decapitated and the spongy matter of tibia and vertebrae of the rats were examined for changes referable to osteoporosis. It was found that the daily intake of fluid and salt supplements caused an increase in the volume density of primary spongiosa of bones. It was concluded that a daily intake of fluid and salt supplements may be used to prevent the development of osteoporosis in rats subjected to prolonged motor activity restriction.