ARTEMIS计划——欧空局的试用数据中继卫星

“高级中继和技术卫星”(ARTEMIS)是欧洲空间局数据中继和技术卫星(DRTM)计划的一部分,该计划由两个独立部分组成:ARTEMIS和数据中继卫星(DRS)。Artemis工程的主承包商是意大利的ALENIA SPAZIO(ALS),它领导了一个由若干欧洲和加拿大的大型公司组成的工业财团。ALS目前正在制造这颗卫星,预计1998年中作好发射准备(发射时间已推至2000年—译注)。 本文第一部分介绍Artemis卫星的性能和关键特性。Artemis是一颗地球同步卫星,用于数据中继(光、S/K波段载荷)关键技术的开发,还包括高级通信业务(用于移动通信的L波段载荷)的开发。 此外,Artemis还将试验一些能改进欧洲卫星平台的实用化技术(离子推进器,镍—氢电池和精密太阳传感器)。 为承载上述要求很荷刻的载荷,ALS开发了一种卫星平台,能承载600kg以上载荷,提供ZkW的功率。研制过程中特别强调开发一种可重复用于未来航天计划(例如数据中继卫星计划)的平台。卫星设计中密切注意了与多种运载火箭的兼容性,以适应绝大多数发射市场的运载火箭。 第三节介绍该星的开发方法。为使准备制造的各种研制模型最佳化,确保系统成功验证,制造了一系列子设备/装配系统的模型,并经过专门的质量检验测试,包括绝大多数环境试验,旨在降低未来卫星的成本。本文最后一节介绍该计划     

可替代机械陀螺的光纤速率陀螺

光纤陀螺在两个方面正在取代机械陀螺：一是新设计的应用，二是已有的应用陀螺场合。光学陀螺所具有的高可靠性、对重力g的不敏感性和对振动、冲击的容限，使其特别适合于车辆、军事上的应用。基于Sagnac干涉效应，如环形激光陀螺、光纤陀螺的概论已有十十年之久了。它有闭环和开环两种结构，但由于闭环结构成本较高，目前只利用开环光纤陀螺取代机械速率陀螺。我们开发了一系列低成本光纤陀螺，它们基于全光结构，采用椭芯的保偏光纤、方向耦合器和偏振器。开环光纤陀螺是以最小结构的形式构成的。激光光束在光纤敏感相向传输，它们是完全互逆的。早期的形式采用方向耦合器隔离激光光源和光探测器，一个偏振器用来确保一个模式分布，而第二个耦合器作为与光纤环的接入口，在光纤环的一端加上一个压电陶瓷相位调制器以进行调制，以便同步检测干涉仪的输出。光源探测器处的耦合器不属于最小结构中的一部分，它可以通过用光源的反向的探测器取消。目前许多激光光源被用于这样一个探测光输出的探测器，由于陀螺转动信号是调制信号，很容易与恒定的激光输出信号分开。我们这种结构的FOG为简化最小结构（RMC），比较两种开环结构可以看出：两者之间没有明显的区别，但从性质上分，在RMC结构中，激光器工作在接近阈值的点，因而在光谱上比较窄。在光陀螺中希望有一个宽带的光谱，可以避免由于绕环导致的偏振起伏，从而引起偏置的不稳定性。这也就限定了RMC结构在一些高精度的陀螺应用。光纤陀的特性可以通过选择光纤的长度、环的直径和激光功率在一个比较大的范围内调整，以适应不同的应用要求，而不需要改变其结构。光纤陀螺从本性上为宽带的，其输出谱特性可以由简单的模拟滤波器、扩展伺服回路的动态特性加以控制。与简单的机械陀螺相比，这一宽带特性可以扩展为非常低的频率，从而改善定位精度。我们已生产了1000多套这两种结构的光纤陀，本文将提供Allan变化，随温度变化的偏置、刻度因数的线性数据，典型的特性参数如下：也许光纤陀螺应用最大的限制为刻度系数，因为Sagnac干涉仪的灵敏度领先光纤长度乘以直径，并且几何尺寸和在敏感轴垂直平面上投影使光纤陀螺改型应用的困难得以克服。在带宽限制范围内，光纤陀螺可以在众多的系统中应用。     

聚酯砼做桥面板覆面层

由于公路桥面板的长期使用，受到不程度的损坏，更由于不断地使用除冰盐消除冬季的水和雪，氧气、氯化物和水渗入桥面板中造成钢筋的锈蚀，使得损坏更为严重。为了保护桥面板，经研究使用酯－苯乙烯聚合物砼做覆面层，能起到保护桥面板的作用，文章着重介绍了材料的性能和使用。     

Investigation of low-energy proton effects on aptamer performance for astrobiological applications

Biochips are promising instruments for the search for organic molecules in planetary environments. Nucleic acid aptamers are powerful affinity receptors known for their high affinity and specificity, and therefore are of great interest for space biochip development. A wide variety of aptamers have already been selected toward targets of astrobiological interest (from amino acids to microorganisms). We present a first study to test the resistance of these receptors to the constraints of the space environment. The emphasis is on the effect of cosmic rays on the molecular recognition properties of DNA aptamers. Experiments on beam-line facilities have been conducted with 2 MeV protons and fluences much higher than expected for a typical mission to Mars. Our results show that this irradiation process did not affect the performances of DNA aptamers as molecular recognition tools.     

The O/OREOS mission: first science data from the Space Environment Survivability of Living Organisms (SESLO) payload

We report the first telemetered spaceflight science results from the orbiting Space Environment Survivability of Living Organisms (SESLO) experiment, executed by one of the two 10?cm cube-format payloads aboard the 5.5?kg Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses (O/OREOS) free-flying nanosatellite. The O/OREOS spacecraft was launched successfully to a 72° inclination, 650?km Earth orbit on 19 November 2010. This satellite provides access to the radiation environment of space in relatively weak regions of Earth's protective magnetosphere as it passes close to the north and south magnetic poles; the total dose rate is about 15 times that in the orbit of the International Space Station. The SESLO experiment measures the long-term survival, germination, and growth responses, including metabolic activity, of Bacillus subtilis spores exposed to the microgravity, ionizing radiation, and heavy-ion bombardment of its high-inclination orbit. Six microwells containing wild-type (168) and six more containing radiation-sensitive mutant (WN1087) strains of dried B. subtilis spores were rehydrated with nutrient medium after 14 days in space to allow the spores to germinate and grow. Similarly, the same distribution of organisms in a different set of microwells was rehydrated with nutrient medium after 97 days in space. The nutrient medium included the redox dye Alamar blue, which changes color in response to cellular metabolic activity. Three-color transmitted intensity measurements of all microwells were telemetered to Earth within days of each of the 48?h growth experiments. We report here on the evaluation and interpretation of these spaceflight data in comparison to delayed-synchronous laboratory ground control experiments.     

Validity and Sensitivity of a Brief Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT-B) to Total and Partial Sleep Deprivation

The Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) objectively assesses fatigue-related changes in alertness associated with sleep loss, extended wakefulness, circadian misalignment, and time on task. The standard 10-min PVT is often considered impractical in applied contexts. To address this limitation, we developed a modified brief 3-min version of the PVT (PVT-B). The PVT-B was validated in controlled laboratory studies with 74 healthy subjects (34 female, aged 22-45 years) that participated either in a total sleep deprivation (TSD) study involving 33 hours awake (N=31 subjects) or in a partial sleep deprivation (PSD) protocol involving 5 consecutive nights of 4 hours time in bed (N=43 subjects). PVT and PVT-B were performed regularly during wakefulness. Effect sizes of 5 key PVT outcomes were larger for TSD than PSD and larger for PVT than for PVT-B for all outcomes. Effect size was largest for response speed (reciprocal response time) for both the PVT-B and the PVT in both TSD and PSD. According to Cohen's criteria, effect sizes for the PVT-B were still large (TSD) or medium to large (PSD, except for fastest 10% RT). Compared to the 70% decrease in test duration the 22.7% (range 6.9%-67.8%) average decrease in effect size was deemed an acceptable trade-off between duration and sensitivity. Overall, PVT-B performance had faster response times, more false starts and fewer lapses than PVT performance (all p<0.01). After reducing the lapse threshold from 500 ms to 355 ms for PVT-B, mixed model ANOVAs indicated no differential sensitivity to sleep loss between PVT-B and PVT for all outcome variables (all P>0.15) but the fastest 10% response times during PSD (P<0.001), and effect sizes increased from 1.38 to 1.49 (TSD) and 0.65 to 0.76 (PSD), respectively. In conclusion, PVT-B tracked standard 10-min PVT performance throughout both TSD and PSD, and yielded medium to large effect sizes. PVT-B may be a useful tool for assessing behavioral alertness in settings where the duration of the 10-min PVT is considered impractical, although further validation in applied settings is needed.     

微型机械音叉陀螺的测试结果

德雷珠实验室与洛克威尔公司正联合采用微加工技术开发一种机动车上用的体积小、成本低的单晶体音叉陀螺。这种陀螺坚固耐用，本身具有平衡性，且容易生产。     

运用数字信号处理技术的转动速率检测和补偿

光纤陀螺研制的头十年重点主要放在光学元件的性能上；现在越来越多的注意力已转移到生产、装配过程，在恶劣环境下的性能，以及很重要的成本上。受温度、噪声和其他因素影响的模拟电路被较复杂的数字线路板所取代，原因是数字线路板有较高的性能、较小的空间和较低的成本。线路板还能进行温度效应的补偿并能满足用户的特殊要求，例如除角度速率外，还要求对角速率进行积分求得角度。