Broadband light source for fiber-optic measurement system in spaceborne applications

Measuring temperatures, mechanical loads and derived quantities precisely and reliably play an important role in spaceflight. With spacecraft becoming increasingly complex, upscaling of present telemetry techniques can become cumbersome. Additionally, there are entirely new sensory requirements, resulting from emerging technologies such as smart structures, active vibration damping and composite material health monitoring. It has been demonstrated in preceding studies that these measurements can be advantageously and efficiently carried out by means of fiber-optic systems. The most prominent fiber-optic strain and temperature sensor is the fiber Bragg grating. Typically, multiple fiber Bragg gratings are used to translate entire temperature and strain fields into an optical wavelength information. For the interrogation of these sensors, a broadband or scanning light source is required. Additional requirements with respect to the light source are high intensity and unpolarized illumination of the gratings. These constraints can be met by a light source that is based on amplified spontaneous emission in a rare-earth-doped fiber. In the presented work, a compact light source, adapted for measurement applications and targeted towards space applications, has been developed. The design of this light source is presented, as well as its implementation. The light source has been designed and tested for selected core aspects of space robustness and the results of these tests are summarized.     

Spatial Thinking Across the College Curriculum: A Report on a Specialist Meeting

This report presents findings from a specialist meeting of spatially-minded researchers and administrators from education and industry to consider prospects for introducing courses and curricula on spatial thinking in higher education. More than 40 participants explored the rationale for expanding student exposure to concepts, tools, and applications of spatial reasoning across a range of science, engineering, and humanities disciplines. The focus was on what we know and what we need to know to make the case for space, underscoring basic research on what is meant by spatial thinking and on variations in the spatial reasoning skills required in different domains of knowledge. The need for rigorous assessments of learning outcomes associated with different approaches to teaching spatial thinking was emphasized.     

Constraints on the FIP Mechanisms from Solar Wind Abundance Data

In the slow solar wind, elements with (first) ionisation potential (FIP) between ∼10 eV and 22 eV are depleted by a factor of about 4 relative to their abundances in the Outer Convective Zone (OCZ), and helium (FIP = 24.5 eV) is further depleted by a factor of ∼1.8. This depletion, called the FIP effect, is much less pronounced in the high speed streams coming out of coronal holes. The systematics of element depletion suggests that the FIP effect is produced at a temperature ∼104 K and that it is controlled by the time of ionisation at the solar surface. At the boundary of the polar coronal holes, the transition from a strong to a weak FIP effect is relatively sharp and coincides with the change in coronal electron temperature, indicating a profound change in coronal as well as chromospheric properties at this boundary. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On the Measurements of D/H in QSO Absorption Systems Closing in on the primordial abundance of deuterium

We present our measurements of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H) in QSO absorption systems, which give D/H = 3.40 ± 0.25 × 10-5 based on analysis of four independent systems. We discuss the properties of two systems which provide the strongest constraints on D/H. We outline the systematic effects involved in measurements of D/H and introduce a sophisticated method of analysis which properly accounts for these effects.     

Solar Models with Non-Standard Chemical Composition

The OPAL monochromatic opacity tables are used to evaluate the impact of a non-standard chemical composition on solar models. A calibrated solar model with consistent diffusion including the effect of radiative forces and ionization on drift velocities is presented. It is shown that surface abundances are predicted to change slightly more than in traditional solar models where these refinements are not included. All elements included in the model settle at similar rates which is reflected in the relative variation in surface abundances ranging from 7.5% for calcium to 8.8% for argon. The structural difference between the consistent model and the traditional model is small, with a maximum effect of 0.3% for the isothermal sound speed at the base of the convection zone. The settling of CNO is only marginally affected. Opacity profiles have also been calculated with varying abundances for volatile elements, for which the abundances are poorly known, and other selected elements. It is shown that if one allows a 10% variation of these elements individually one can expect a peak Rosseland mean opacity variation of 3% for oxygen, a little less 2% for Si and Ne, and around 1% for Mg and S in the radiative zone. Other light metals and volatile elements have no significant impact on the opacity. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Bearings-only tracking for maneuvering sources

Classical bearings-only target-motion analysis (TMA) is restricted to sources with constant motion parameters (usually position and velocity). However, most interesting sources have maneuvering abilities, thus degrading the performance of classical TMA. In the passive sonar context a long-time source-observer encounter is realistic, so the source maneuver possibilities may be important in regard to the source and array baseline. This advocates for the consideration and modeling of the whole source trajectory including source maneuver uncertainty. With that aim, a convenient framework is the hidden Markov model (HMM). A basic idea consists of a two-levels discretization of the state-space. The probabilities of position transition are deduced from the probabilities of velocity transitions which, themselves, are directly related to the source maneuvering capability. The source state sequence estimation is achieved by means of classical dynamic programming (DP). This approach does not require any prior information relative to the source maneuvers. However, the probabilistic nature of the source trajectory confers a major role to the optimization of the observer maneuvers. This problem is then solved by using the general framework of the Markov decision process (MDP)     

“We can lick gravity,but…”: What trajectory for space in Australia?

In 2008 the Australian Senate Economics Committee held an inquiry into the state of Australia's space science and industry sector. One of the most important problems identified by the committee was that Australia lacked both a space agency and a national space policy in order to formulate a whole-of-government approach to space issues. This article briefly discusses Australia's historical political lacuna in relation to space before considering how space issues fit within broader contemporary policy frameworks at both the domestic and international levels. Using some of the findings from the inquiry, the author then addresses some core issues that the Australian government should consider when constructing a national space policy.     

Sedimenting particles and swimming micro-organisms in a rotating fluid.

Experiments and calculations on the trajectories of micron-sized spheres, suspended in a fluid that fills a dosed container which rotates about an axis perpendicular to g, relate to the planning and interpretation of clinostat experiments. For low Reynolds number motion, the orbits are nearly circular, the radius being inversely proportional to the rotation rate. The swimming direction of micro-organisms can be affected by light, gravity, vorticity etc. The trajectories of algae swimming in steadily rotating environments have been observed and compared with theoretical predictions for ideal gyrotactic micro-organisms, thus providing some insights into the mechanisms of gravitaxis, gyrotaxis and the behaviour of the cells.