International cooperation - how to proceed

As part of a project exploring ways that international cooperation can maximize the benefits of space activities in the new political climate of the 1990s, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has been organizing expert workshops on the subject. The latest of these, held in December 1994, focused on five areas: global space systems services; human and robotic exploration; space transportation; solar power to Earth; and international peacekeeping. It is only in the last few years that recommendations on the latter topic could realistically have been put forward and, as a prelude to our presentation of the Executive Summary of the report produced by AIAA, two of the 60-plus participants drawn from 15 countries, Robert Fuhrmann and Jürgen Wild, discuss the implications of this new found openness over international security and analyse the background to its genesis.     

The prospects for enhanced international polar-orbiting satellite cooperation

With robust polar satellite missions demonstrated and/or operational in the USA, Europe, Japan, China, Russia, India, and Brazil, and with other nations also likely to develop such capability, this paper examines the prospects for as well as the potential challenges to closer and perhaps more formal international polar satellite cooperation. In suggesting that now is the time to explore the development of a coordinated polar observing system, the present paper identifies potential contributors, assesses the relevance of existing space-based Earth observation international coordination mechanisms, and considers three potential models for a future system.     

High acceleration, high performance solid state accelerometerdevelopment

This paper presents current accomplishments in the development of a high performance, high g, tactical accelerometer for use in the Advanced Kinetic Energy Missile (AdKEM) development program being conducted by the US Army Missile Command. The design goals of the accelerometer are to provide strapdown tactical navigation quality acceleration information throughout a 20 g soft launch phase, 1200 g boost phase, and low-g coast phase environment. The accelerometers must be able to provide acceleration measurements accurate enough to provide a navigational accuracy of 0.5 meter CEP at 500 meters. This translates to an accelerometer capable of measuring a 1200 g acceleration with a resolution of 1 milli-g. The AdKEM missile accelerometer and gyro outputs are used for control stability and midcourse guidance. The successful demonstration of this device offers a myriad of opportunities in both the commercial and military arenas. The operational environment and performance characteristics of the AdKEM accelerometer are presented. Crystalline quartz vibrating beam technology has been chosen for this accelerometer application to take advantage of solid state device characteristics. A solid state device with inherently digital output characteristics is desirable for strapdown navigation applications because of interface circuitry simplification, potential lower cost, inherent stability and longer storage life     

Deployment Mechanisms on the Fast Satellite: Magnetometer,Radial Wire,and Axial Booms

The Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) satellite was launched by a Pegasus XL on August 21, 1996. This was the second launch in the NASA SMall EXplorer (SMEX) program. Early in the mission planning the decision was made to have the University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (UCB-SSL) mechanical engineering staff provide all of the spacecraft appendages, in order to meet the short development schedule, and to insure compatibility. This paper describes the design development, testing and on-orbit deployment of these boom systems: the 2 m carbon fiber magnetometer booms, the 58 m tip to tip spin-plane wire booms, and the 7 m dipole axial stiff booms.     

Instrumentation for X-ray astronomy

Less than five decades ago, the first X-ray observations of the sky were made using simple devices such as film and geiger counters with crude collimators. These instruments were carried aloft by sounding rockets and made observations lasting only a few minutes at most. Today, orbiting observatories, utilizing high-resolution CCDs at the focus of arc sec optics, have lifetimes measured in years. To maintain the pace of discovery in X-ray astronomy, detectors must continue to evolve into devices of ever increasing sensitivity and sophistication. Further progress depends upon a host of technologies: grazing incidence optics, proportional counters, semiconductors, calorimeters, etc. In this article we present a brief qualitative overview of these technologies and of the principles behind them, as well as some examples of how they are employed in scientific missions for X-ray observations at energies up to 100 keV.     

Supernova explosions — The role of a Rayleigh-Taylor instability

A two dimensional hydrodynamic study indicates that convectively unstable gradients which develop during core collapse and bounce give rise to large scale core overturn. It is also shown that the concomitant release of neutrini can deposit large amounts of energy and momentum in the infalling envelope and give rise to a powerful supernova explosion.     

Satellite observations of type III solar radio bursts at low frequencies

Type III solar radio bursts have been observed from 10 MHz to 10 kHz by satellite experiments above the terrestrial plasmasphere. Solar radio emission in this frequency range results from excitation of the interplanetary plasma by energetic particles propagating outward along open field lines over distances from 5 R to at least 1 AU from the Sun. This review summarizes the morphology, characteristics and analysis of individual as well as storms of bursts. Substantial evidence is available to show that the radio emission is observed at the second harmonic instead of the fundamental of the plasma frequency. This brings the density scale derived by radio observations into better agreement with direct solar wind density measurements at 1 AU and relaxes the requirement for type III propagation along large density-enhanced regions. This density scale with the measured direction of arrival of the radio burst allows the trajectory of the exciter path to be determined from 10 R to 1 AU. Thus, for example, the dynamics and gross structure of the interplanetary magnetic field can be investigated by this method. Burst rise times are interpreted in terms of exciter length and dispersion while decay times refer to the radiation damping process. The combination of radio observations at the lower frequencies and in-situ measurements on non-relativistic electrons at 1 AU provide data on the energy range and efficiency of the wave-particle interactions responsible for the radio emission.     

Power Electronics in Space: A Review and Projection

Power electronics has emerged as a distinct field of electrical engineering in recent years. This emergence is closely linked with the development of power control and conversion equipment for space application over the last 20 years. Development of switched-mode power conversion techniques has been the dominant activity in this field, spurred by both the improvements in solid-state power devices and the needs of space systems for light weight, highly efficient techniques for dc power regulation. This history is reviewed and projections are made in the four key areas of circuit fundamentals, components, circuit practice, and applications.