Human interactions during Shuttle/Mir space missions

To improve the interpersonal climate of crewmembers involved with long-duration space missions, it is important to understand the factors affecting their interactions with each other and with members of mission control. This paper will present findings from a recently completed NASA-funded study during the Shuttle/Mir program which evaluated in-group/out-group displacement of negative emotions; changes in tension, cohesion, and leader support over time; and cultural differences. In-flight data were collected from 5 astronauts, 8 cosmonauts, and 42 American and 16 Russian mission control personnel who signed informed consent. Subjects completed a weekly questionnaire that assessed their mood and perception of their work group's interpersonal climate using questions from well-known, standardized measures (Profile of Mood States, Group and Work Environment Scales) and a critical incident log. There was strong evidence for the displacement of tension and dysphoric emotions from crewmembers to mission control personnel and from mission control personnel to management. There was a perceived decrease in commander support during the 2nd half of the missions, and for American crewmembers a novelty effect was found on several subscales during the first few months on-orbit. There were a number of differences between American and Russian responses which suggested that the former were less happy with their interpersonal environment than the latter. Mission control personnel reported more tension and dysphoria than crewmembers, although both groups scored better than other work groups on Earth. Nearly all reported critical incidents came from ground subjects, with Americans and Russians showing important differences in response frequencies.     

Digital Electronics Where We are and Where We are Going

The paper synopsizes the current situation with regard to the nature of the red as well as the blue-grey forces as their capabilities impact future avionics systems. The paper describes today's climate as it relates to the avionics posture of the current and future fighter air forces, congressional desires and budgetary direction. The paper describes the current US Air Force response in the terms of modular systems. The benefits of modular avionics systems are delineated and the impact of software on this new hardware approach are explained. The way to the future is postulated in terms of the threat versus force posturing and the impact on both today's and future weapons systems. The paper concludes with several recommendations which, while they will somewhat alter traditional industrial relationships, will also address the future avionics needs of the US Armed Force.     

State-Space Models of Gravity Disturbance Gradients

State-space models of gravity disturbance gradients are needed to design the Kalman filters used for gradiometer-aided inertial navigation. However, the physics of the gravity field guarantee that many of the cross-spectral densities of gravity disturbance gradients are nonrational. A procedure is demonstrated for fitting gravity disturbance correlation functions with finite-dimensional state-space models.     

Optimal below Threshold Delay Estimation for Radio Signals

Time delay estimation of a random signal observed at twospatially separated sites is a problem of considerable practicalinterest. Radio-frequency (RF) signals pose a difficulty that does notarise while treating sonar or other low frequency signals: the signalprocessing can be performed only on low frequency versions of theobserved signals. We propose an estimation scheme, based oncomplex envelopes, the mean square error (MSE) of which achievesthe performance predicted by Barankin, Bellini-Tartara, and Weiss-Weinsteinlower bounds. The proposed scheme was tested byextensive computer simulations, and the results are in closeagreement with theory predictions. Moreover, a real-time hardwareimplementation of the algorithm was developed and testedsuccessfully using real RF signals.     

Haemopoietic cell renewal in radiation fields.

Space flight activities are inevitably associated with a chronic exposure of astronauts to a complex mixture of ionising radiation. Although no acute radiation consequences are to be expected as a rule, the possibility of Solar Particle Events (SPE) associated with relatively high doses of radiation (1 or more Gray) cannot be excluded. It is the responsibility of physicians in charge of the health of astronauts to evaluate before, during and after space flight activities the functional status of haemopoietic cell renewal. Chronic low level exposure of dogs indicate that daily gamma-exposure doses below about 2 cGy are tolerated for several years as far as blood cell concentrations are concerned. However, the stem cell pool may be severely affected. The maintenance of sufficient blood cell counts is possible only through increased cell production to compensate for the radiation inflicted excess cell loss. This behaviour of haemopoietic cell renewal during chronic low level exposure can be simulated by bioengineering models of granulocytopoiesis. It is possible to define a "turbulence region" for cell loss rates, below which an prolonged adaptation to increased radiation fields can be expected to be tolerated. On the basis of these experimental results, it is recommended to develop new biological indicators to monitor haemopoietic cell renewal at the level of the stem cell pool using blood stem cells in addition to the determination of cytokine concentrations in the serum (and other novel approaches). To prepare for unexpected haemopoietic effects during prolonged space missions, research should be increased to modify the radiation sensitivity of haemopoietic stem cells (for instance by the application of certain regulatory molecules). In addition, a "blood stem cell bank" might be established for the autologous storage of stem cells and for use in space activities keeping them in a radiation protected container.     

The Solar Dynamo

It is generally accepted that the strong toroidal magnetic fields that emerge through the solar surface in sunspots and active regions are formed by the action of differential rotation on a poloidal field, and then stored in or near the tachocline at the base of the Sun’s convection zone. The problem is how to explain the generation of a reversed poloidal field from this toroidal flux—a process that can be parametrised in terms of an α-effect related to some form of turbulent helicity. Here we first outline the principal patterns that have to be explained: the 11-year activity cycle, the 22-year magnetic cycle and the longer term modulation of cyclic activity, associated with grand maxima and minima. Then we summarise what has been learnt from helioseismology about the Sun’s internal structure and rotation that may be relevant to our subject. The ingredients of mean-field dynamo models are differential rotation, meridional circulation, turbulent diffusion, flux pumping and the α-effect: in various combinations they can reproduce the principal features that are observed. To proceed further, it is necessary to rely on large-scale computation and we summarise the current state of play.     

Physical Causes of Solar Activity

The magnetic fields that dominate the structure of the Sun's atmosphere are controlled by processes in the solar interior, which cannot be directly observed. Magnetic activity is found in all stars with deep convective envelopes: young and rapidly rotating stars are very active but cyclic activity only appears in slow rotators. The Sun's 11-year activity cycle corresponds to a 22-year magnetic cycle, since the sunspot fields (which are antisymmetric about the equator) reverse at each minimum. The record of magnetic activity is aperiodic and is interrupted by episodes of reduced activity, such as the Maunder Minimum in the seventeenth century, when sunspots almost completely disappeared. The proxy record from cosmogenic isotopes shows that similar grand minima recur at intervals of around 200 yr. The Sun's large-scale field is generated by dynamo action rather than by an oscillator. Systematic magnetic cycles are apparently produced by a dynamo located in a region of weak convective overshoot at the base of the convection zone, where there are strong radial gradients in the angular velocity . The crucial parameter (the dynamo number) increases with increasing and kinematic (linear) theory shows that dynamo action can set in at an oscillatory (Hopf) bifurcation that is probably subcritical. Although it has been demonstrated that the whole process works in a self-consistent model, most calculations have relied on mean-field dynamo theory. This approach is physically plausible but can only be justified under conditions that do not apply in the Sun. Still, mean-field dynamos do reproduce the butterfly diagram and other key features of the solar cycle. An alternative approach is to study generic behaviour in low-order models, which exhibit two forms of modulation, associated with symmetry-breaking and with reduced activity. Comparison with observed behaviour suggests that modulation of the solar cycle is indeed chaotic, i.e. deterministically rather than stochastically driven.     

New ideas for affordable space missions

In September 1995, NASA-Goddard held a workshop on low-cost access to space for science missions. The workshop provided briefings on balloons, sounding rockets, Shuttle payloads, and low-cost free-flyer concepts, to provide options of getting experiments into space. This report is the result of a panel session organized with the aim of generating new ideas beyond those presented in the workshop. In addition to the authors, Orlando Figueroa and Paul Ondrus of NASA-Goddard and Richard Zwirnbaum of Computer Sciences Corp. participated in the discussions. The ideas presented do not necessarily reflect the current thinking of NASA managers. Although the panel discussion was focused on the kinds of science missions usually funded by NASA, most of the ideas that were generated are relevant to military and commercial missions as well.     

Analysis of upgraded GPS internal Kalman filter

GPS receivers with provisions for inertial navigation system (INS) aiding are designed with internal Kalman filters that model generic INSs and process the basic GPS pseudorange and deltarange (range-rate) data to produce an output of inertially-smoothed, “GPS-derived” position and velocity. These Kalman filters model only the basic nine INS errors (position, velocity, and tilt) and do not model any INS gyro or accelerometer errors. It was found that a significant performance improvement could be achieved under conditions of degraded GPS satellite availability by augmenting this type of filter with the six INS gyro and accelerometer bias errors. It is, therefore, recommended that serious consideration be given to incorporating these states into the design of the GPS internal Kalman filter