Object injection in geodesic conditions: In-flight and on-ground testing issues

In absence of forces, any object moves along the straightest possible path in space–time, called geodesic. The presence of a gravity field generates a space–time distortion that reflects on a curvature of the geodesics. Outer space yields a privileged environment to achieve high levels of geodesic purity, thanks to the absence of many non-gravitational force disturbances typical of the Earth, mainly due to the atmosphere, micro-seismic activity, stray electro-magnetic fields, etc. Many experiments in the field of Fundamental Physics, General Relativity and Earth Observation are performed through space missions, in which objects are either set in geodesic conditions or their deviation from a geodesic is measured. In both cases, stray non-gravitational forces acting on them must be reduced to a negligible level.     

Navigating BepiColombo during the weak-stability capture at Mercury

BepiColombo is scheduled for launch in August 2013 and to arrive after a nearly six-year long transfer at Mercury in June 2019. The trajectory has a number of challenging elements: a launch with Soyuz/Fregat into a geostationary transfer orbit, followed by a lunar flyby, long low-thrust arcs and five more planetary flybys (one at the Earth, two at Venus and two at Mercury). At arrival the low thrust arcs reduce the approach velocity so much that BepiColombo passes by the Sun–Mercury Lagrange points L₁ and L₂ and gets weakly captured in a highly eccentric orbit around Mercury in case the orbit insertion manoeuvre would fail.This paper describes the navigation strategy during the final phase. Five trajectory correction manouevres during the last 65 days requiring up to 20 m/s (3σ) are proposed. With this strategy it is possible to navigate BepiColombo safely through the weak-stability boundary of Mercury and to reach the target periherm with a precision of 11 km.     

Iron meteorites can support the growth of acidophilic chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms

Chemolithoautotrophy based on reduced inorganic minerals is considered a primitive energy transduction system. Evidence that a high number of meteorites crashed into the planet during the early period of Earth history led us to test the ability of iron-oxidizing bacteria to grow using iron meteorites as their source of energy. Here we report the growth of two acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, on a piece of the Toluca meteorite as the only source of energy. The alteration of the surface of the exposed piece of meteorite, the solubilization of its oxidized metal constituents, mainly ferric iron, and the formation of goethite precipitates all clearly indicate that iron-meteorite-based chemolithotrophic metabolism is viable.     

High precision orbits for the international GPS service for geodynamics (IGS)

The objectives of the IGS include the regular computation of precise orbits for the GPS satellites, an essential prerequisite for geodetic, geophysical and navigation applications of GPS relying on accuracies at the level of metres to centimetres. This involves the deployment of advanced GPS receivers at a considerable number of globally distributed ground points, including several ESA tracking sites; the largely automated daily retrieval and processing of large amounts of remotely generated data; and regular independent comparisons of solutions computed by the various participating analysis centres, showing for example differences of typically 15 cm in solutions for all orbits in the GPS constellation. The paper reviews the IGS activities being carried out at ESOC in the context of the overall service.     

利用PIV方法测量半浮区液桥热毛细对流的速度场

利用PIV法对硅油液桥热毛细对流的定常速度场进行了实时测量。为了便于测量,液桥上桥端面采取了铜环中嵌透明材料的方法,从液桥的顶部进行观测。当液桥上下桥有温差时,热毛细对流出现;本实验对于不同上下桥的温差,对液桥横剖面内的速度场分别进行了测量,研究外加温差对于流场速度分布的影响;并且在液桥中取了几个典型横截面进行测量,以期对大Pr数液桥的定常速度场有比较全面的定量测量。此外,实验结果也可作为数值模拟计算结果的验证。     

InvesInvestigation of the Effects of Airfoil-probes on the Aerodynamic Performance of an Axial Compressor

In order to investigate the effects of the airfoil-probes on the aerodynamic performance of an axial compressor,a numerical simulation of 3D flow field is performed in a 1.5-stage axial compressor with airfoil-probes installed at the stator leading-edge(LE).The airfoil-probes have a negative influence on the compressor aerodynamic performance at all operating points.A streamwise vortex is induced by the airfoil-probe along both sides of the blade.At the mid-operating point,the vortex is notable along the pressure side and is relatively small along the suction side(SS).At the near-stall point,the vortex is slightly suppressed in the pressure surface(PS),but becomes remarkable in the suction side.A small local-separation is induced by the interactions between the vortex and the end-wall boundary layer in the corner region near the hub.That the positive pitch angle of the airfoil-probe at 6.5% span is about 15° plays an important role in the vortex evolution near the hub,which causes the fact that the airfoil-probe near the hub has the largest effects among the four airfoil-probes.In order to get a further understanding of the vortex evolution in the stator in the numerical simulation,a flow visualization experiment in a water tunnel is performed.The flow visualization results give a deep insight into the evolution of the vortex induced by the airfoil-probe.     

Towards a Unified View of Inhomogeneous Stellar Winds in Isolated Supergiant Stars and Supergiant High Mass X-Ray Binaries

Massive stars, at least \(\sim10\) times more massive than the Sun, have two key properties that make them the main drivers of evolution of star clusters, galaxies, and the Universe as a whole. On the one hand, the outer layers of massive stars are so hot that they produce most of the ionizing ultraviolet radiation of galaxies; in fact, the first massive stars helped to re-ionize the Universe after its Dark Ages. Another important property of massive stars are the strong stellar winds and outflows they produce. This mass loss, and finally the explosion of a massive star as a supernova or a gamma-ray burst, provide a significant input of mechanical and radiative energy into the interstellar space. These two properties together make massive stars one of the most important cosmic engines: they trigger the star formation and enrich the interstellar medium with heavy elements, that ultimately leads to formation of Earth-like rocky planets and the development of complex life. The study of massive star winds is thus a truly multidisciplinary field and has a wide impact on different areas of astronomy.In recent years observational and theoretical evidences have been growing that these winds are not smooth and homogeneous as previously assumed, but rather populated by dense “clumps”. The presence of these structures dramatically affects the mass loss rates derived from the study of stellar winds. Clump properties in isolated stars are nowadays inferred mostly through indirect methods (i.e., spectroscopic observations of line profiles in various wavelength regimes, and their analysis based on tailored, inhomogeneous wind models). The limited characterization of the clump physical properties (mass, size) obtained so far have led to large uncertainties in the mass loss rates from massive stars. Such uncertainties limit our understanding of the role of massive star winds in galactic and cosmic evolution.Supergiant high mass X-ray binaries (SgXBs) are among the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. A large number of them consist of a neutron star accreting from the wind of a massive companion and producing a powerful X-ray source. The characteristics of the stellar wind together with the complex interactions between the compact object and the donor star determine the observed X-ray output from all these systems. Consequently, the use of SgXBs for studies of massive stars is only possible when the physics of the stellar winds, the compact objects, and accretion mechanisms are combined together and confronted with observations.This detailed review summarises the current knowledge on the theory and observations of winds from massive stars, as well as on observations and accretion processes in wind-fed high mass X-ray binaries. The aim is to combine in the near future all available theoretical diagnostics and observational measurements to achieve a unified picture of massive star winds in isolated objects and in binary systems.     

Effect of Stitching on Plain and Open-hole Strength of CFRP Laminates

 Experimental and analytical investigation is conducted to explore the effects of stitching on plain (without hole) and open-hole compressive and tensile strength of uniweave T300/QY9512 laminates under different environmental conditions (20 篊/dry and wet, 150 篊/dry and wet). Strength performance of stitched composite laminates is also studied using finite element analysis (FEA) model and compared with the experimental results to validate the model. It is found that under similar environmental conditions, the open-hole compressive strength of stitched laminate is decreased and open-hole tensile strength increased as compared to the unstitched laminates. Predicted tensile and compressive strengths are found to be in a good agreement with the test results and the relative error in all cases is less than 15%.     

REMS: The Environmental Sensor Suite for the Mars Science Laboratory Rover

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) will investigate environmental factors directly tied to current habitability at the Martian surface during the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Three major habitability factors are addressed by REMS: the thermal environment, ultraviolet irradiation, and water cycling. The thermal environment is determined by a mixture of processes, chief amongst these being the meteorological. Accordingly, the REMS sensors have been designed to record air and ground temperatures, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed in the horizontal and vertical directions, as well as ultraviolet radiation in different bands. These sensors are distributed over the rover in four places: two booms located on the MSL Remote Sensing Mast, the ultraviolet sensor on the rover deck, and the pressure sensor inside the rover body. Typical daily REMS observations will collect 180 minutes of data from all sensors simultaneously (arranged in 5 minute hourly samples plus 60 additional minutes taken at times to be decided during the course of the mission). REMS will add significantly to the environmental record collected by prior missions through the range of simultaneous observations including water vapor; the ability to take measurements routinely through the night; the intended minimum of one Martian year of observations; and the first measurement of surface UV irradiation. In this paper, we describe the scientific potential of REMS measurements and describe in detail the sensors that constitute REMS and the calibration procedures.     

Static Frame Model Validation with Small Samples Solution Using Improved Kernel Density Estimation and Confidence Level Method

An improved method using kernel density estimation (KDE) and confidence level is presented for model validation with small samples. Decision making is a challenging problem because of input uncertainty and only small samples can be used due to the high costs of experimental measurements. However, model validation provides more confidence for decision makers when improving prediction accuracy at the same time. The confidence level method is introduced and the optimum sample variance is determined using a new method in kernel density estimation to increase the credibility of model validation. As a numerical example, the static frame model validation challenge problem presented by Sandia National Laboratories has been chosen. The optimum bandwidth is selected in kernel density estimation in order to build the probability model based on the calibration data. The model assessment is achieved using validation and accreditation experimental data respectively based on the probability model. Finally, the target structure prediction is performed using validated model, which are consistent with the results obtained by other researchers. The results demonstrate that the method using the improved confidence level and kernel density estimation is an effective approach to solve the model validation problem with small samples.