The concept of selecting the main parameters of a lightweight airplane with regard to the requirements of the contemporary Russian market

The basic principles of selecting some design parameters of a lightweight airplane for the contemporary Russian market are presented. Recommendations for selecting these parameters with the service requirements specified are given based on the study performed.     

Integration test project of CEEF--a test bed for Closed Ecological Life Support Systems.

CEEF (Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities) were installed at Rokkasho village in northern Japan, for the purpose of clarifying life-support mechanisms in a completely closed space, such as a Lunar or Mars base. An integration test using the Closed Plantation Experiment Facility and Closed Animal Breeding & Habitation Experiment Facility is needed before conducting an entire closed experiment including plants, animals and humans. These integration tests are planned to be conducted step by step from fiscal 2001 to 2008.     

Determination of parameters of rotational motion of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Monitor-E</Emphasis> spacecraft from the telemetry data on solar batteries’ current

The Monitor-E spacecraft executed uncontrolled flight due to emergency situation, no telemetry information on parameters of the spacecraft’s attitude motion being available. So, the problem arose to determine the spacecraft’s rotational motion from the accessible indirect information—the electric current provided by solar batteries. In this paper the integrated statistical technique is described, that allows one to solve this problem. The values of current, obtained over the time interval some tens of minutes long, have been processed simultaneously by the least squares method using the integration of the equations of spacecraft’s rotational motion. As a result of processing, the initial conditions of motion were estimated, and the spacecraft’s moments of inertia were updated, as well as the angles, specifying solar batteries position in the spacecraft-fixed coordinate system. The results of processing of 12 data sets are presented, which allowed us to reconstruct the actual rotational motion of the spacecraft.     

Trickle water and feeding system in plant culture and light-dark cycle effects on plant growth.

Rockwool, as an inert medium covered or bagged with polyethylene film, can be effectively used for plant culture in space station. The most important machine is the pump adjusting the dripping rate in the feeding system. Hydro-aeroponics may be adaptable to a space laboratory. The shortening of the light-dark cycles inhibits plant growth and induces an abnormal morphogenesis. A photoperiod of 12-hr-dark may be needed for plant growth.     

Prototype design and testing of a Venus long duration,high altitude balloon

This paper describes the design, fabrication and testing of a full scale prototype balloon intended for long duration flight in the upper atmosphere of Venus. The balloon is 5.5 m in diameter and is designed to carry a 45 kg payload at an altitude of 55 km. The balloon material is a 180 g/m² multi-component laminate comprised of the following layers bonded together from outside to inside: aluminized Teflon film, aluminized Mylar film, Vectran fabric and a polyurethane coating. This construction provides the required balloon functional characteristics of low gas permeability, sulfuric acid resistance and high strength for superpressure operation. The design burst superpressure is 39,200 Pa which is predicted to be 3.3 times the worst case value expected during flight at the highest solar irradiance in the mission profile. The prototype is constructed from 16 gores with bi-taped seams employing a sulfuric acid resistant adhesive on the outside. Material coupon tests were performed to evaluate the optical and mechanical characteristics of the laminate. These were followed by full prototype tests for inflation, leakage and sulfuric acid tolerance. The results confirmed the suitability of this balloon design for use at Venus in a long duration mission. The various data are presented and the implications for mission design and operation are discussed.     

Solar modulation model with reentrant particles

We developed a one dimensional model of particle transport in the heliosphere. As opposite to widely used models, we apply a method where a quasi-particle is traced back in time. The model gives us the possibility to work on the possible existence of reentrant particles in the heliosphere that can be hardly solved by the traditional forward tracking method. Particles escape from the heliosphere and may reenter back. We estimate how these particles affect the modulation process in the heliosphere. Presented here are the results for different values of particles mean free path in the interstellar space and for different interstellar magnetic field values.     

On the electrodynamics of counter stream in pulsar’s inner annular cap region

The electric properties of pulsar’s inner annular gap are explored in this paper. Under two main assumptions, (1) the pulsar is alive, (2) the total charge of pulsar should not vary with time, the condition for the acceleration of negative particle in the annular region is derived. The acceleration condition is j₋ ? 0.5j₊, i.e., the current carried by negative particles is greater than or equal to 0.5 times of the current carried by positive particles. This condition holds even when the backward flow of positive particles exists in the annular region. It is noted that the outflow of negative particles offers good opportunities to understand the current closure problem of pulsar as well as wide radiation beam of pulsar observed at high energy band.     

Amplitude modulation of VLF emission and absorption of cosmic noise by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pc</Emphasis>5 geomagnetic pulsations in the period of geomagnetic storms on October 30–31, 2003

Modulation of the VLF emission and riometric absorption by Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations is studied in the period of strong geomagnetic disturbances on October 30–31, 2003. Some conclusions about the regime of pitch-angular diffusion into the loss cone are made. The better coincidence of VLF emission modulation with geomagnetic pulsations in other longitude sectors is explained by the global character of excitation of the pulsations and by damping of their amplitudes at the meridian of observation of the VLF emission, which is associated with intensification of auroral electrojets.Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 6, 2004, pp. 632–639.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Solovyev, Mullayarov, Baishev, Barkova, Samsonov.