Preliminary data of the thermal regime and circulation in the upper mesosphere and mesopause

Circulation and thermal structure for the 90–95 km region is described on the basis of the joint analysis of direct and indirect sounding data. Mean season charts of the 0.001 mb surface were compiled using data from meteor trials, ionospheric drifts, rocket launchings and data of the rotational temperature of hydroxyl emission.     

Some aspects of the application of the bunch of MPD engines

In the present work, the asymptotic dependence of the reservation multiplicity on the failure danger diminution coefficient in both cases of reservation replacement and continually acting reserver is investigated. The comparison of the method of reservation for different multiplicities with the method of diminution of the failure intensity, related to the mean performance time shows that the decrease of the failure intensity of the plazma engine is the most rational. Nevertheless, there is a value of the time flight for which even a simple duplication is better than arbitrarily large, though finite, failure intensity decrease of the engine. The reliability of coupled MOD-thrusters is verified experimentally. The specific character of the thruster V-I curves and, in particular, their increase in the pubricrcrisis region, yield normally working couples, conformly to many types of feed sources with weakly decreasing of constant V-I characteristics. The parallel connection of a second thruster is shown to double the customed current and, as a consequence the thruster intermediary regimes of the thruster and the dynamics of switching on and by breaking the electric line and stopping the propellant rate flow are investigated.     

Telerobotics: problems and research needs

With major emphasis on simulation, a university laboratory telerobotics facility permits problems to be approached by groups of graduate students. Helmet-mounded displays provide realism; the slaving of the display to the human operator's viewpoint gives a sense of `telepresence' that may be useful for prolonged tasks. Using top-down 3-D model control of distant images allows distant images to be reduced to a few parameters to update the model used for display to the human operator in a preview model to circumvent, in part, the communication delay. Also, the model can be used as a format for supervisory control and permit short-term local autonomous operations. Image processing algorithms can be made simpler and faster without trying to construct sensible images from the bottom. Control studies of telerobots lead to preferential manual control modes and, in this university environment, to basic paradigms for human motion and thence, perhaps, to redesign of robotic control, trajectory path planning, and rehabilitation prosthetics. Speculation as to future industrial drives for this telerobotic field suggests efficient roles for government agencies such as NASA     

International trends in Stirling engine technology development:ISEC 1982-8

A brief survey is presented of trends in work reported at four International Stirling Engine Conferences held during the 1980s. The discussion covers international participation, publication sources and types, engine types, specialized engines, sponsoring institutions and observed trends     

A noise insensitive solution to an ambiguity problem in spectralestimation

The instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) receiver is capable of measuring the center frequency of single frequency pulses over a wide range (bandwidth) of center frequencies. Because of various constraints, the frequency resolution requirement results in long correlator delay times that reduce the single correlator bandwidth. A large bandwidth can be achieved only if two or more correlators are used. The problem of estimating frequency is then reduced to the simultaneous congruence problem of number theory. A design procedure is presented for solving the congruence problem for a given amount of noise protection, a stated frequency resolution, a minimum bandwidth, and a fixed level of precision (bits) in the IFM receiver     

Strapdown inertial measurement units for motion compensation forsynthetic aperture radars

It is shown that synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) motion can be compensated by using an antenna-mounted strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) as the motion sensing system, but sensor and system errors affect SAR image quality. A strapdown IMU consists of three accelerator channels and three gyro channels. Strapdown IMU errors include gyro-scale and accelerometer-scale factor and bias errors, velocity error, platform tilt, and errors induced by limited inertial sensor bandwidth. The effects of these errors on the SAR image quality are presented in terms of the SAR impulse response. IMU errors that cause low-frequency phase errors (less than one cycle per array time) are categorized in terms of quadratic and cubic phase errors. IMU errors that cause high-frequency phase errors (greater than one cycle per array time) are categorized in terms of the integrated sidelobe ratio and peak sidelobe ratio. A motion compensation system conceptualization is described wherein a strapdown IMU is attached to an antenna and transfer-aligns to the aircraft's master navigator     

Confirmation of gravisensitivity in the slime mold physarum polycephalum under near weightlessness

We have investigated Physarum polycephalum, a unicellular organism with no special gravity receptors, on its ability to react to gravity. The first experiments were 0 g-simulation experiments on the fast-rotating clinostat conducted with plasmodial strands of this acellular slime mold. In these earth-bound experiments the observed parameters were periodicity of the contractions and dilatations of the strand's ectoplasm as well as the periodicity and velocity of the striking cytoplasmic (endoplasmic) shuttle streaming. During 0 g-simulation these parameters showed significant changes indicating the existence of a gravisensitivity of the slime mold.

The Space-Shuttle experiment (ESA-Biorack in D 1-Mission) should demonstrate the validity of the 0 g-simulation on the fast-rotating clinostat. The experiment was designed in a way enabling the registration of the same parameters as on the clinostat (using the light microscope in combination with a photo diode and a cinecamera). Only one of the two planned measurement sessions was fully successful and provided us with data confirming the results gained on the fast-rotating clinostat: The slime mold showed under real near weightlessness in the D 1-Space Shuttle Mission a transient frequency increase in its contraction rhythmicity and a (steady) increase in the streaming velocity of its endoplasm.     

Numerical simulation of reconnection in an emerging magnetic flux region

The resistive MHD equations are numerically solved in two dimensions for an initial-boundary-value problem which simulates reconnection between an emerging magnetic flux region and an overlying coronal magnetic field. The solution involves both ideal-MHD and resistive-MHD processes, and the solution shows an evolution which is remarkably suggestive of the preflare, impulsive, and main phases of the flare-cycle.     

MTI Processing and Weibull-Distributed Ground Clutter

It is shown that the Weibull-distributed ground clutter obeys a Weibull distribution after processing by the double canceler moving target indicator (MTI).     

Effects of prolonged exposure to space flight factors for 175 days on lettuce seeds

We have studied the effects of prolonged (up to 175 days) exposure of $\text{Lactuca sativa}$ seeds to space flight factors, including primary cosmic radiation heavy ions. The data obtained evidence a significant fourfold increase ofs pontaneous mutagenesis in seeds both with regard to the total number of aberrant cells as well as the formation of single cells with multiple aberrations. Comparison of the present experiment with earlier works shows that the frequency of such aberrations increases with the duration of the flight.