Advanced Pulsed Plasma Thrusters and Their Application as a Part of Small Spacecraft Propulsion Systems

The paper presents the research results of the effect of a capacitor energy storage device configuration on the specific characteristics of advanced modern propulsion systems based on the ablative pulsed plasma thrusters (APPT). These thrusters are designed to perform specific tasks within the small spacecrafts with the onboard power capacity up to 200 W.     

前台阶流场的传热实验研究

本文尝试用瞬态实验方法, 在卢德威格风洞实验台上, 对小台阶高度 (H=4.0mm)的前台阶二维流场进行传热实验研究, 测定了当雷诺数为 11800至32200时的流场内热流通量和努谢尔特数的变化规律以及努谢尔特数随雷诺数变化的准则关系式。实验结果是令人满意的。      

Relationship Between Substorm Auroras and Processes in the Near-Earth Magnetotail

Although the auroral substorm has been long regarded as a manifestation of the magnetospheric substorm, a direct relation of active auroras to certain magnetospheric processes is still debatable. To investigate the relationship, we combine the data of the UV imager onboard the Polar satellite with plasma and magnetic field measurements by the Geotail spacecraft. The poleward edge of the auroral bulge, as determined from the images obtained at the LHBL passband, is found to be conjugated with the region where the oppositely directed fast plasma flows observed in the near-Earth plasma sheet during substorms are generated. We conclude that the auroras forming the bulge are due to the near-Earth reconnection process. This implies that the magnetic flux through the auroral bulge is equal to the flux dissipated in the magnetotail during the substorm. Comparison of the magnetic flux through the auroral bulge with the magnetic flux accumulated in the tail lobe during the growth phase shows that these parameters have the comparable values. This is a clear evidence of the loading–unloading scheme of substorm development. It is shown that the area of the auroral bulge developing during substorm is proportional to the total (magnetic plus plasma) pressure decrease in the magnetotail. These findings stress the importance of auroral bulge observations for monitoring of substorm intensity in terms of the magnetic flux and energy dissipation.     

Structure of a two-phase flow of boiling water at low-head adiabatic efflux through the laval nozzle

The critical flow conditions and structural forms of a two-phase flow that is formed during water efflux from the region of moderate and low pressures into a rarefied medium are analyzed. The difference in the structural forms of a flow realized at the low-head efflux from the structure of a flow occurring in the fluid flow with moderate and high initial pressures is established. The critical pressure differential characterizing the establishment of the maximum flowrate is determined and the decisive influence of turbulence on the vapor phase generation and flow conditions of a two-phase medium is shown.     

A Comparative Study of the Influence of the Active Young Sun on the Early Atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars

Because the solar radiation and particle environment plays a major role in all atmospheric processes such as ionization, dissociation, heating of the upper atmospheres, and thermal and non-thermal atmospheric loss processes, the long-time evolution of planetary atmospheres and their water inventories can only be understood within the context of the evolving Sun. We compare the effect of solar induced X-ray and EUV (XUV) heating on the upper atmospheres of Earth, Venus and Mars since the time when the Sun arrived at the Zero-Age-Main-Sequence (ZAMS) about 4.6 Gyr ago. We apply a diffusive-gravitational equilibrium and thermal balance model for studying heating of the early thermospheres by photodissociation and ionization processes, due to exothermic chemical reactions and cooling by IR-radiating molecules like CO₂, NO, OH, etc. Our model simulations result in extended thermospheres for early Earth, Venus and Mars. The exospheric temperatures obtained for all the three planets during this time period lead to diffusion-limited hydrodynamic escape of atomic hydrogen and high Jeans’ escape rates for heavier species like H₂, He, C, N, O, etc. The duration of this blow-off phase for atomic hydrogen depends essentially on the mixing ratios of CO₂, N₂ and H₂O in the atmospheres and could last from ∼100 to several hundred million years. Furthermore, we study the efficiency of various non-thermal atmospheric loss processes on Venus and Mars and investigate the possible protecting effect of the early martian magnetosphere against solar wind induced ion pick up erosion. We find that the early martian magnetic field could decrease the ion-related non-thermal escape rates by a great amount. It is possible that non-magnetized early Mars could have lost its whole atmosphere due to the combined effect of its extended upper atmosphere and a dense solar wind plasma flow of the young Sun during about 200 Myr after the Sun arrived at the ZAMS. Depending on the solar wind parameters, our model simulations for early Venus show that ion pick up by strong solar wind from a non-magnetized planet could erode up to an equivalent amount of ∼250 bar of O⁺ ions during the first several hundred million years. This accumulated loss corresponds to an equivalent mass of ∼1 terrestrial ocean (TO (1 TO ∼1.39×10²⁴ g or expressed as partial pressure, about 265 bar, which corresponds to ∼2900 m average depth)). Finally, we discuss and compare our findings with the results of preceding studies.     

The Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator (GIADA) Experiment for the Rosetta Mission: Design, Performances and First Results

The Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator (GIADA) onboard the ROSETTA mission to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is devoted to study the cometary dust environment. Thanks to the rendezvous configuration of the mission, GIADA will be plunged in the dust environment of the coma and will be able to explore dust flux evolution and grain dynamic properties with position and time. This will represent a unique opportunity to perform measurements on key parameters that no ground-based observation or fly-by mission is able to obtain and that no tail or coma model elaborated so far has been able to properly simulate. The coma and nucleus properties shall be, then, clarified with consequent improvement of models describing inner and outer coma evolution, but also of models about nucleus emission during different phases of its evolution. GIADA shall be capable to measure mass/size of single particles larger than about 15 μm together with momentum in the range 6.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ ÷ 4.0 × 10⁻⁴ kg m s⁻¹ for velocities up to about 300 m s⁻¹. For micron/submicron particles the cumulative mass shall be detected with sensitivity 10⁻¹⁰ g. These performances are suitable to provide a statistically relevant set of data about dust physical and dynamic properties in the dust environment expected for the target comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Pre-flight measurements and post-launch checkouts demonstrate that GIADA is behaving as expected according to the design specifications. The International GIADA Consortium (I, E, UK, F, D, USA).     

Fe/O Ratios in Interplanetary Shock Accelerated Particles

It is widely accepted that diffusive shock acceleration is an important process in the heliosphere, in particular in producing the energetic particles associated with interplanetary shocks driven by coronal mass ejections. In its simplest formulation shock acceleration is expected to accelerate ions with higher mass to charge ratios less efficiently than those with lower mass to charge. Thus it is anticipated that the Fe/O ratio in shock-accelerated ion populations will decrease with increasing energy above some energy. We examine the circumstances of five interplanetary shocks that have been reported to have associated populations in which Fe/O increases with increasing energy. In each event, the situation is complex, with particle contributions from other sources in addition to the shock. Furthermore, we show that the Fe/O ratio in shock-accelerated ions can decrease even when the shock is traveling through an Fe-rich ambient ion population. Thus, although shock acceleration of an Fe-rich suprathermal population has been proposed to explain large Fe-rich solar particle events, we find no support for this proposal in these observations.     

The Origin of Mercury’s Internal Magnetic Field

Mariner 10 measurements proved the existence of a large-scale internal magnetic field on Mercury. The observed field amplitude, however, is too weak to be compatible with typical convective planetary dynamos. The Lorentz force based on an extrapolation of Mariner 10 data to the dynamo region is 10⁻⁴ times smaller than the Coriolis force. This is at odds with the idea that planetary dynamos are thought to work in the so-called magnetostrophic regime, where Coriolis force and Lorentz force should be of comparable magnitude. Recent convective dynamo simulations reviewed here seem to resolve this caveat. We show that the available convective power indeed suffices to drive a magnetostrophic dynamo even when the heat flow though Mercury’s core–mantle boundary is subadiabatic, as suggested by thermal evolution models. Two possible causes are analyzed that could explain why the observations do not reflect a stronger internal field. First, toroidal magnetic fields can be strong but are confined to the conductive core, and second, the observations do not resolve potentially strong small-scale contributions. We review different dynamo simulations that promote either or both effects by (1) strongly driving convection, (2) assuming a particularly small inner core, or (3) assuming a very large inner core. These models still fall somewhat short of explaining the low amplitude of Mariner 10 observations, but the incorporation of an additional effect helps to reach this goal: The subadiabatic heat flow through Mercury’s core–mantle boundary may cause the outer part of the core to be stably stratified, which would largely exclude convective motions in this region. The magnetic field, which is small scale, strong, and very time dependent in the lower convective part of the core, must diffuse through the stagnant layer. Here, the electromagnetic skin effect filters out the more rapidly varying high-order contributions and mainly leaves behind the weaker and slower varying dipole and quadrupole components (Christensen in Nature 444:1056–1058, 2006). Messenger and BepiColombo data will allow us to discriminate between the various models in terms of the magnetic fields spatial structure, its degree of axisymmetry, and its secular variation.     

The Hydrogen Exospheric Density Profile Measured with ASPERA-3/NPD

We have evaluated the Lyman-α limb emission from the exospheric hydrogen of Mars measured by the neutral particle detector of the ASPERA-3 instrument on Mars Express in 2004 at low solar activity (solar activity index = 42, F_10.7=100). We derive estimates for the hydrogen exobase density, n _H = 10¹⁰ m^?3, and for the apparent temperature, T > 600 K. We conclude that the limb emission measurement is dominated by a hydrogen component that is considerably hotter than the bulk temperature at the exobase. The derived values for the exosphere density and temperature are compared with similar measurements done by the Mariner space probes in the 1969. The values found with Mars Express and Mariner data are brought in a broader context of exosphere models including the possibility of having two hydrogen components in the Martian exosphere. The present observation of the Martian hydrogen exosphere is the first one at high altitudes during low solar activity, and shows that for low solar activity exospheric densities are not higher than for high solar activity.