Implications of an Engineering Manpower Shortage

Many competent sources have been predicting an increasing shortage of graduate engineers to perform needed research and development work in the United States. Consequently, many industrialists, educators, and government officials have been advocating an increased enrollment of students in the engineering curriculum in college in a greater effort to produce more engineers. This paper examines the assumptions behind the projected manpower shortage, and proposes some rather unique and occasionally radical alternatives to the solution of a manpower deficit. The paper, and the solutions, may produce violent controversy, but at least the material is not the usual dull rehash so often seen of late.     

Comments on Stabilization of a Satellite

An expression is derived for the cost resultingfrom the stabilization of a satellite using aspecific optimal control (SOC). An exampleis given in which the optimal and SOC yieldvirtually identical costs.     

Thrust modulation of solid propellant rockets by a fluidic vortex valve with secondary combustion

An analytical model for calculation of the thrust and pressure modulation of a solid propellant rocket by means of a fluidic vortex valve with secondary combustion has been developed. Thrust control by the vortex valve method was found superior to the axial injection of control flow. Addition of oxygen in the injected flow improves the energetic performance of the system as well as the thrust modulation capability. Experiments have been conducted using a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen as the injection gas. The two main parameters investigated in a series of experiments were the oxygen percentage in the injection gas and the ratio between the mass flow rates of the control gas and the solid propellant combustion products. The results show an increase of thrust by a factor of 2 for a 25% addition in mass flow rate by secondary injection at optimal conditions.     

Possible physical properties of the flow in the vicinity of the heliopause

An interface between the fully ionized hydrogen plasma of the solar wind (SW) and the partially ionized hydrogen gas flow of the local interstellar medium (LISM) is formed as a region where there is a strong interaction between these two flows. The interface is bounded by the solar wind termination shock (TS) and the LISM bow shock (BS) and is separated on two regions by the heliopause (HP) separating the solar wind and charged component of the LISM (plasma component below). The BS is formed due to the deceleration of the supersonic LISM flow relative to the solar system. Regions of the interface between the TS and HP and between the HP and BS were in literature named as the inner and outer heliosheaths, respectively. An investigation of the structure and physical properties of the heliosheath is at present especially interested due to the fact that Voyager-1 and Voyager-2 have crossed the TS in December 2004 (Burlaga, L.F., Ness, N.F., Acuna, M.Y., et al. Crossing the termination shock into the the heliosheath. Magnetic fields. Science 309, 2027–2029, 2005; Fisk, L.A. Journey into the unknown beyond. Science 309, 2016–2017, 2005; Decker, R.B., Krimigis, S.M., Roelof, E.C., et al. Voyager 1 in the foreshock, termination shock and heliosheath. Science 309, 2020–2024, 2005; Stone, E.C., Cummings, A.C., McDonald, F.B., et al. Voyager 1 explores the termination shock region and the heliosheath beyond. Science 309, 2017–2020, 2005) and in September 2007 (Jokipii, J.R. A shock for Voyager 2. Nature 454, 38–39, 2008; Gurnett, D.A., Kurth, W.S. Intense plasma waves at and near the solar wind termination shock. Nature 454, 78–80, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07023; Wang, L., Lin, R.P., Larson, D.E., Luhmann, J.G. Domination of heliosheath pressure by shock-accelerated pickup ions from observations of neutral atoms. Nature 454, 81–83, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07068.14; Burlaga, L.F., Ness, N.F., Acuna, M.H., et al. Magnetic fields at the solar wind termination shock. Nature 454, 75–77, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07029; Richardson, J.D., Kasper, J.C., Wang, C., et al. Cool heliosheath plasma and deceleration of the upstream solar wind at the termination shock. Nature 454, 63–66, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07024; Stone, E.C., Cummings, A.C., McDonald, F.B., et al. An asymmetric solar wind termination shock. Nature 454, 71–74, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07022; Decker, R.B., Krimigis, S.M., Roelof, E.C., et al. Mediation of the solar wind termination shock by non-thermal ions. Nature 454, 67–70, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature 07030), respectively, and entered to the inner heliosheath.     

Preliminary calibration results of VEGA 1 and 2 SIGMA-3 gas chromatograph

SIGMA - 3 gas chromatograph on board VEGA 1 and 2 landing probes has been operated successfully in the 60 - 50 km altitude range, providing several in - situ chemical analysis of the gas and the aerosols of Venus cloud layers. Post flight calibration required to derive atmospheric abundancies from gas chromatograms were carried out using the SIGMA - 3 spare model. A Venus atmospheric aerosol simulation chamber was used in which sulfuric acid droplets were generated. Preliminary results of these calibration experiments indicate that the concentration of sulfuric acid in the upper part of the clouds ( 60 to 55 km) is about 1 mg/m³ and suggest that an additional constituant must be present in noticeable amount in the aerosols. From these experiments the mixing ratio upper limits of SO₂ is 100 ppmV and of H₂S and COS is few 10 ppmV.     

Solar and Solar-Wind Composition Results from the Genesis Mission

The Genesis mission returned samples of solar wind to Earth in September 2004 for ground-based analyses of solar-wind composition, particularly for isotope ratios. Substrates, consisting mostly of high-purity semiconductor materials, were exposed to the solar wind at L1 from December 2001 to April 2004. In addition to a bulk sample of the solar wind, separate samples of coronal hole (CH), interstream (IS), and coronal mass ejection material were obtained. Although many substrates were broken upon landing due to the failure to deploy the parachute, a number of results have been obtained, and most of the primary science objectives will likely be met. These objectives include He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe isotope ratios in the bulk solar wind and in different solar-wind regimes, and ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ¹⁸O/¹⁷O/¹⁶O to high precision. The greatest successes to date have been with the noble gases. Light noble gases from bulk solar wind and separate solar-wind regime samples have now been analyzed. Helium results show clear evidence of isotopic fractionation between CH and IS samples, consistent with simplistic Coulomb drag theory predictions of fractionation between the photosphere and different solar-wind regimes, though fractionation by wave heating is also a possible explanation. Neon results from closed system stepped etching of bulk metallic glass have revealed the nature of isotopic fractionation as a function of depth, which in lunar samples have for years deceptively suggested the presence of an additional, energetic component in solar wind trapped in lunar grains and meteorites. Isotope ratios of the heavy noble gases, nitrogen, and oxygen are in the process of being measured.     

Transient fast reconnection in dynamic current sheets with anomalous resistivity

Two-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic simulations of current sheet dynamics under the influence of multiple anomalous resistivity areas and slight asymmetries are presented. Following induced tearing and multiple coalescence, a plasmoid is formed and accelerated. Dominant X-points drive the dynamical evolution and lead to transient occurrence of a Petschek-like reconnection geometry. The dependence of current density extrema, plasmoid bulk velocity and maximum reconnection rate on the Lundquist number is examined.     

False alarm control using Doppler estimation

A technique which uses maximum-likelihood estimates (MLEs) of target Doppler and target amplitude is developed for rejecting clutter residues. Multiple estimates are made and consistency checks are applied to the estimates. Simulation results indicate that for large clutter-to-noise ratios (C/N⩾55 dB) the probability of false alarm from clutter residues is reduced from 1.0 to below 0.01     

Relationship between the fluxes of relativistic electrons at geosynchronous orbit and the level of ULF activity on the Earth’s surface and in the solar wind during the 23rd solar activity cycle

We present the results of a cross-correlation analysis made on the basis of Spearman’s rank correlation method. The quantities to correlate are daily values of the fluence of energetic electrons at a geosynchronous orbit, intensities of ground and interplanetary ultra-low-frequency (ULF) oscillations in the Pc5 range, and parameters of the solar wind. The period under analysis is the 23rd cycle of solar activity, 1996–2006. Daily (from 6 h to 18 h of LT) magnetic data at two diametrically opposite observatories of the Intermagnet network are taken as ground-based measurements. The fluxes of electrons with energies higher than 2 MeV were measured by the geosynchronous GOES satellites. The data of magnetometers and plasma instruments installed on ACE and WIND spacecraft were used for analysis of the solar wind parameters and of the oscillations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Some results elucidating the role played by interplanetary ULF waves in the processes of generation of magneospheric oscillations and acceleration of energetic electrons are obtained. Among them are (i) high and stable correlation of ground ULF oscillations with waves in the solar wind; (ii) closer link of mean daily amplitudes of both interplanetary and ground oscillations with ‘tomorrow’ values of the solar wind velocity than with current values; and (iii) correlation of the intensity of ULF waves in the solar wind, normalized to the IMF magnitude, with fluxes of relativistic electrons in the magnetosphere.     

Simple solutions for hyperbolic and related position fixes

Navigation fixed from range differences to three stations and an additional piece of information are investigated. It is shown that if the additional information is the navigator altitude, or the range difference to a fourth station, the computation of the navigation fix is reduced to finding the roots of a quadratic. If the additional information is the range to another station, or that the navigator is on the Earth ellipsoid, the fix can be obtained by solving a quartic. By emphasizing the underlying geometric interpretations, these fixes and their simple solutions are made clear. The derivations also show that the same solution algorithms are applicable if the basic navigation measurements are range sums instead of range differences