Lunar habitat concept employing the space shuttle external tank

The space shuttle external tank, which consists of a liquid oxygen tank, an intertank structure, and a liquid hydrogen tank, is an expendable structure used for approximately 8.5 min during each launch. A concept for outfitting the liquid oxygen tank-intertank unit for a 12-person lunar habitat is described. The concept utilizes existing structures and openings for both man and equipment access without compromising the structural integrity of the tank. Living quarters, instrumentation, environmental control and life support, thermal control, and propulsion systems are installed at Space Station Freedom. The unmanned habitat is then transported to low lunar orbit and autonomously soft landed on the lunar surface. Design studies indicate that this concept is feasible by the year 2000 with concurrent development of a space transfer vehicle and manned cargo lander for crew changeover and resupply.     

Initial ISEE magnetometer results: magnetopause observations

The magnetic field profiles across the magnetopause obtained by the ISEE-1 and -2 spacecraft separated by only a few hundred kilometers are examined for four passes. During one of these passes the magnetosheath field was northward, during one it was slightly southward, and in two it was strongly southward. The velocity of the magnetopause is found to be highly irregular ranging from 4 to over 40 km s^-1 and varying in less time than it takes for a spacecraft to cross the boundary. Thicknesses ranged from 500 to over 1000 km.Clear evidence for reconnection is found in the data when the magnetosheath field is southward. However, this evidence is not in the form of classic rotational discontinuity signatures. Rather, it is in the form of flux transfer events, in which reconnection starts and stops in a matter of minutes or less, resulting in the ripping off of flux tubes from the magnetosphere. Evidence for flux transfer events can be found both in the magnetosheath and the outer magnetosphere due to their alteration of the boundary normal. In particular, their presence at the time of magnetopause crossings invalidates the usual 2-dimensional analysis of magnetopause structure. Not only are these flux transfer events probably the dominant means of reconnection on the magnetopause, but they may also serve as an important source of magnetopause oscillations, and hence of pulsations in the outer magnetosphere. On two days the flux transfer rate was estimated to be of the order of 2 × 10¹² Maxwells per second by the flux transfer events detected at ISEE. Events not detectable at ISEE and continued reconnection after passage of an FTE past ISEE could have resulted in an even greater reconnection rate at these times.     

A technique of shaping the barrel-type parts

In this paper, a new technique for shaping the thin-walled barrel-type parts is presented.     

Two magnetars: SGR 1627–41 and 1E 1547–5408

We describe the results obtained with Target of Opportunity observations of the galactic sources SGR 1627–41 and 1E 1547–5408. These two transients show several similarities supporting the interpretation of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars and Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters as a single class of strongly magnetized neutron stars.     

Coronal mass ejection detection using wavelets,curvelets and ridgelets: Applications for space weather monitoring

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large-scale eruptions of plasma and magnetic field that can produce adverse space weather at Earth and other locations in the Heliosphere. Due to the intrinsic multiscale nature of features in coronagraph images, wavelet and multiscale image processing techniques are well suited to enhancing the visibility of CMEs and suppressing noise. However, wavelets are better suited to identifying point-like features, such as noise or background stars, than to enhancing the visibility of the curved form of a typical CME front. Higher order multiscale techniques, such as ridgelets and curvelets, were therefore explored to characterise the morphology (width, curvature) and kinematics (position, velocity, acceleration) of CMEs. Curvelets in particular were found to be well suited to characterising CME properties in a self-consistent manner. Curvelets are thus likely to be of benefit to autonomous monitoring of CME properties for space weather applications.     

Study of GNSS-measured ionospheric total electron content variations generated by powerful HF-heating

The purpose of this work is to report the experimental evidences for the influence of perturbations in the electron density in the dayside mid-latitude ionosphere, that are caused by high-frequency heating of the F2 layer, on the GNSS signals. The experiments were carried out at the Sura heater (Radio Physical Research Institute, N. Novgorod). During the sessions of ionospheric heating with different time modulations of the radiated power the rays linking the navigational satellites with the ground receiver intersected the heated region. Variations in the total electron content (TEC) were studied; these variations are proportional to the reduced phases of navigational signals. It is shown that with the square-wave modulation of the radiated power (with periods of 1, 6, 10 and 15 min), perturbations with periods of the main modulation of heating and its harmonics appear in the spectrum of TEC variations. Examples are presented of identification of the heating-induced variations in TEC, including determination of the amplitudes and time characteristics of these variations.     

On Relationship of Flow Swirl Parameters and Gas-Dynamic Efficiency of Gas Turbine Engine Interturbine Transition Duct

The paper highlights significance of the interturbine transition duct as part of the high pressure and low pressure turbine spool. The correlations have been suggested allowing us to estimate variation of the average cross section flow swirl while its passing the interturbine transition duct.     

Time-series analysis of GPS measurements for long-span bridge movements using wavelet and model prediction techniques

This study aims at assessing the safety behavior of the Incheon long-span bridge using high rate (10?Hz) geodetic monitoring global positioning system (GPS). The time series of wavelet spectrum analysis is utilized to assess the dynamic behavior of the bridge. The coefficients and model errors of the time series autoregressive-moving average (ARMA) model are used to evaluate the movement performances of the bridge. The results show that: (i) the accuracy of GPS measurements to extract the dynamic behavior of the bridge is 97.27% when compared with the design results. (ii) the behavior of the bridge is within the safety limits of the bridge design with minimum observed changes for the historical GPS measurements in time and frequency domains, the mean deflection of bridge deck is 8.26?mm and frequency changes of bridge is 0.004?Hz compared with the design results. (iii) the time series analysis of the wavelet spectrum and ARMA model coefficients can be used to detect the significant frequency changes and study the rigidity of the bridge performance, respectively; and the both methods are found to be suitable techniques to estimate the performance changes of the GPS measurements in the time and frequency domains during the monitoring time period.     

Soil moisture estimation by using multipolarization SAR image

In the past studies, different soil moisture estimation models were developed for bare soil areas by using remotely-sensed data. However, there are few models that can be used to estimate soil moisture in vegetated areas. Water Cloud Model (WCM) model is a widely used soil moisture estimation model has been developed for vegetated areas. In this study, the WCM model was extended to take soil roughness parameter into consideration. The modeling and its accuracy assessment were done by using multi-polarization Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) images and ground data collected during field Soil Moisture Experiments.