The Noise Model of the SEIS Seismometer of the InSight Mission to Mars

The SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structures) instrument on board the InSight mission to Mars is the critical instrument for determining the interior structure of Mars, the current level of tectonic activity and the meteorite flux. Meeting the performance requirements of the SEIS instrument is vital to successfully achieve these mission objectives. The InSight noise model is a key tool for the InSight mission and SEIS instrument requirement setup. It will also be used for future operation planning. This paper presents the analyses made to build a model of the Martian seismic noise as measured by the SEIS seismometer, around the seismic bandwidth of the instrument (from 0.01 Hz to 1 Hz). It includes the instrument self-noise, but also the environment parameters that impact the measurements. We present the general approach for the model determination, the environment assumptions, and we analyze the major and minor contributors to the noise model.     

CIR Morphology, Turbulence, Discontinuities, and Energetic Particles

Corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the middle heliosphere have distinct morphological features and associated patterns of turbulence and energetic particles. This report summarizes current understanding of those features and patterns, discusses how they can vary from case to case and with distance from the Sun and possible causes of those variations, presents an analytical model of the morphological features found in earlier qualitative models and numerical simulations, and identifies aspects of the features and patterns that have yet to be resolved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Nuclear fragmentation database for GCR transport code development

A critical need for NASA is the ability to accurately model the transport of heavy ions in the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) through matter, including spacecraft walls, equipment racks, etc. Nuclear interactions are of great importance in the GCR transport problem, as they can cause fragmentation of the incoming ion into lighter ions. Since the radiation dose delivered by a particle is proportional to the square of (charge/velocity), fragmentation reduces the dose delivered by incident ions. The other mechanism by which dose can be reduced is ionization energy loss, which can lead to some particles stopping in the shielding. This is the conventional notion of shielding, but it is not applicable to human spaceflight since the particles in the GCR tend to be too energetic to be stopped in the relatively thin shielding that is possible within payload mass constraints. Our group has measured a large number of fragmentation cross sections, intended to be used as input to, or for validation of, NASA’s radiation transport models. A database containing over 200 charge-changing cross sections and over 2000 fragment production cross sections has been compiled. In this report, we examine in detail the contrast between fragment measurements at large acceptance and small acceptance. We use output from the PHITS Monte Carlo code to test our assumptions using as an example ⁴⁰Ar data (and simulated data) at a beam energy of 650 MeV/nucleon. We also present preliminary analysis in which isotopic resolution was attained for beryllium fragments produced by beams of ¹⁰B and ¹¹B. Future work on the experimental data set will focus on extracting and interpreting production cross sections for light fragments.     

Global Imaging of Proton and Electron Aurorae in the far Ultraviolet

The IMAGE spacecraft carries three FUV photon imagers, the Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC) and two channels, SI-12 and SI-13, of the Spectrographic Imager. These provide simultaneous global images, which can be interpreted in terms of the precipitating particle types (protons and electrons) and their energies. IMAGE FUV is the first space-borne global imager that can provide instantaneous global images of the proton precipitation. At times a bright auroral spot, rich in proton precipitation, is observed on the dayside, several degrees poleward of the auroral zone. The spot was identified as the footprint of the merging region of the cusp that is located on lobe field lines when IMF B_z was northward. This identification was based on compelling statistical evidence showing that the appearance and location of the spot is consistent with the IMF B_z and B_y directions. The intensity of the spot is well correlated with the solar wind dynamic pressure and it was found that the direct entry of solar wind particles could account for the intensity of the observed spot without the need for any additional acceleration. Another discovery was the observation of dayside sub-auroral proton arcs. These arcs were observed in the midday to afternoon MLT sector. Conjugate satellite observations showed that these arcs were generated by pure proton precipitation. Nightside auroras and their relationship to substorm phases were studied through single case studies and in a superimposed epoch analysis. It was found that generally there is substantial proton precipitation prior to substorms and the proton intensity only doubles at substorm onset while the electron auroral brightness increases on average by a factor of 5 and sometimes by as much as a factor of 10. Substorm onset occurs in the central region of the pre-existing proton precipitation. Assuming that nightside protons are precipitating from a quasi-stable ring current at its outer regions where the field lines are distorted by neutral sheet currents we can associate the onset location with this region of closed but distorted field lines relatively close to the earth. Our results also show that protons are present in the initial poleward substorm expansion however later they are over taken by the electrons. We also find that the intensity of the substorms as quantified by the intensity of the post onset electron precipitation is correlated with the intensity of the proton precipitation prior to the substorms, highlighting the role of the pre-existing near earth plasma in the production of the next substorm.     

Visual analysis in a deployable antenna experiment [satellite antenna]

To establish a large deployable antenna, monitoring and collimation are essential for reliable and precise deployment. We have developed an analysis method to detect shifts in several images, in which the combination of cross-correlations between images and approximations at subpixel precision enables us to detect shifts in images with a precision of up to 0.01 pixels. The LDREX mission; which was a preliminary experiment for a large deployable antenna, ETS-VIII, was performed in December 2000. During this experiment, anomalies occurred in the antenna, and deployment was aborted. To understand the cause of the anomalies, we used our visual analysis method. Using this analysis, we detected vibrating features in the antenna, which were useful for explaining the anomalies. We outline our visual analysis method and discuss its application in monitoring the deployable antenna.     

Effects of repeated long duration +2Gz load on man's cardiovascular function

Usefulness of a short-arm human centrifuge is expected when it is used in space as a countermeasure against cardiovascular deconditioning, problem of bone-calcium metabolism, etc. However, nothing is solidly established regarding the most desirable program for artificial G application. Accordingly, this study was designed to analytically evaluate the effects of repeated long duration +Gz load on human cardiovascular function. Recently heart rate spectral analysis has been recognized as a powerful tool for quantitatively evaluating parasympathetic and sympathetic activity separately in human. It is reported that power of the high frequency component (HF-p) is mediated selectively by parasympathetic activity and the power ratio of low to high frequency components(LF/HF) is indicative of cardiac sympathetic activity or cardiac sympathovagal balance. Sequence method is developed to examine spontaneous baroreceptor reflex sensitivity (BRS). We studied cardiovascular control function by using these methods in 9 healthy men before and after 7 days of daily repeated 1hour +2Gz load. When compared with the data of pre-G load period, post-G load period, decrease of HR, increases of HF-p and BRS were statistically significant. SBP, DBP and LF/HF tended to decrease, however, these changes were not statistically significant. This results indicate that repeated +2Gz load increases parasympathetic activity and arterial baroreceptor-cardiac reflex sensitivity. In recent years, many investigators suggest that space flight and head-down bedrest leads to impaired baroreceptor-cardiac reflex responses and decrease of parasympathetic activity, which may contribute to orthostatic intolerance. So our results suggest that daily repeated 1hour +2Gz load would be useful in preventing post-flight orthostatic intolerance.     

Helium-3: Status and Prospects

We report on our continuing efforts to determine 3He abundances in H II regions and planetary nebulae. Our detections of 3He in some PNe show that some stars produce large amounts of 3He. However the H II region abundances show no evidence for this production. From our sample of > 40 H II regions, the subsample which should yield the most reliable abundances has 3He/H abundances which scatter between 1-2 × 10-5. There is no trend with either galactocentric distance or metallicity. Even if we do not understand the underlying mechanisms, we see empirically that stars neither produce nor destroy 3He in a major way. We thus suggest that the level of the "3He Plateau" (3He/H = 1.5 _-0.5 ^+1.0 × 10^-5) is a reasonable estimate for the primordial 3He.     

Derating Concerns for Microprocessors Used in Safety-Critical Applications

The use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) microprocessors for safety-critical applications usually implies derating of the device to make it work in harsh environments. We discuss derating concerns for state-of-the-art microprocessors. Issues addressed herein include noise margins due to low voltage levels, multiple power supplies, frequency and current derating concerns, error sources, timing degradation, power-aware architectures, and new advanced microprocessor derating features.