Meteors do not break exogenous organic molecules into high yields of diatomics

Meteoroids that dominate the Earth's extraterrestrial mass influx (50-300 microm size range) may have contributed a unique blend of exogenous organic molecules at the time of the origin of life. Such meteoroids are so large that most of their mass is ablated in the Earth's atmosphere. In the process, organic molecules are decomposed and chemically altered to molecules differently from those delivered to the Earth's surface by smaller (<50 microm) micrometeorites and larger (>10 cm) meteorites. The question addressed here is whether the organic matter in these meteoroids is fully decomposed into atoms or diatomic compounds during ablation. If not, then the ablation products made available for prebiotic organic chemistry, and perhaps early biology, might have retained some memory of their astrophysical nature. To test this hypothesis we searched for CN emission in meteor spectra in an airborne experiment during the 2001 Leonid meteor storm. We found that the meteor's light-emitting air plasma, which included products of meteor ablation, contained less than 1 CN molecule for every 30 meteoric iron atoms. This contrasts sharply with the nitrogen/iron ratio of 1:1.2 in the solid matter of comet 1P/Halley. Unless the nitrogen content or the abundance of complex organic matter in the Leonid parent body, comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, differs from that in comet 1P/Halley, it appears that very little of that organic nitrogen decomposes into CN molecules during meteor ablation in the rarefied flow conditions that characterize the atmospheric entry of meteoroids approximately 50 microm-10 cm in size. We propose that the organics of such meteoroids survive instead as larger compounds.     

CRYOGENIC TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE ELECTRIC THRUSTERS

This paper analyzes superconducting (SC) coils technology to improve satellite electric propulsion. SC magnets can generate very high magnetic fields with extremely low ohmic losses, low electric power and PCU weight. Moreover, the weight of SC magnet coils is quite low compared with conventional or permanent magnets capable of producing the same field strength. For instance, to obtain a 0.4 T magnetic field strength, typical of applied field magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters (AF-MPD), based on the Lorentz force, and with thrust in the range of 1 N, this paper shows that only a 40 g coil SC weight is needed, whereas an equivalent field copper winding would weigh about 36 kg. Using SC technology it is shown that the limited magnetic induction provided by a permanent magnet may be raised and also that it is possible to obtain high magnetic fields (of order of several Tesla) with fewer turns, drastically reducing coil volume, weight and complexity compared to conventional winding.

Superconductivity at low temperature (LTSC) requires liquid helium at 4.2 K to produce very high current densities: the thermal analysis in this paper shows that, depending on satellite and thruster, high temperature superconductors (HTSC) wires are sometimes better than LTSC because these can support lower current densities but with a critical superconductivity temperature higher than for LHe, requiring LN₂ at 77 K, easier to maintain during the whole mission.

Finally, this paper shows that implementing SC cryogenic technology on a satellite can be achieved with current active coolers technology.     

Performance prediction and flowfield analysis of rotors in hover, using a coupled Euler/boundary layer method

The performance prediction of helicopter in hover is of key importance for manufacturers because hover is a design configuration for the definition of a rotorcraft. A lot of effort has been made for more than 10 years all over the world in order to develop and validate numerical methods based on CFD. An Euler method (WAVES) developed by ONERA and coupled with a boundary layer code (MI3DI) is presented, validated and applied to compute the total performance of rotors with different tip shapes. A new boundary condition for the Euler code has been tested and enables better calculation by eliminating ‘numerical' recirculation. The code has demonstrated its ability to rank two rotors with different planforms in good agreement with experiment. Under industrial requirements new grid strategies have been studied and should allow to reduce CPU time consumption. It is shown that WAVES/MI3DI can be efficiently used in the aerodynamic design process of a new rotor.     

法国MBDA爆震和连续爆震波发动机的研发(英文)

连续爆震波发动机(CDWE)可以弱化一般爆震发动机(PDE)对环境条件的要求,尤其是初始条件要求弱化简化了发动机结构。为了探讨CDWE用于空间发射器的可行性,MBDA与Lavrentiev学院联合进行了一些试验,研究了其工作模式和一些关键点。结果发现:这种发动机在非常小的装置中可提供可观的推力(275daN,条件:直径50mm,长100mm,航空煤油加氧气)。如果采用扩张型喷管,推力还可能增加。在现有尺寸下,插入式或气动锥喷管似乎是最佳设计,在同一流量下,发动机的矢量能力是解决姿态控制的一个方法。热流量非常大,但主要集中在喷射壁面,这一点将有助于在燃烧室内气化喷入的液体燃料。另外,做了初步试验来评估C/SiC复合材料在转动爆震波非常恶劣的机械环境下的性能。在这些研究以外,MBDA还设计了大尺寸地面实验装置来研究使用LH2/LOx混合物的连续爆震波发动机的所有相关问题。作为大尺寸研发的第一步,小尺寸的演示在2010年春季进行。     

重粒子碰撞对霍尔推力器通道等离子体影响数值研究

为了研究重粒子碰撞对霍尔推力器通道等离子体影响,采用PIC/MCC/DSMC混合法对放电通道工作过程进行数值仿真研究。建立放电通道二维数值仿真模型,模型中对重粒子碰撞进行重点考虑。估算了通道内各粒子碰撞下的平均自由程,并针对重粒子碰撞单一变量开展了2个仿真模型计算,并对结果进行了对比分析及验证。结果表明:重粒子碰撞对通道内离子数密度分布影响较大,主要表现为离子数密度分布在电离区更为均匀,离子数密度峰值下降6.9%;离子轴向速度影响较小,出口处离子轴向平均速度下降1.3%。与实验结果对比验证,重粒子碰撞因素使仿真结果与测试值之间误差由9.0%缩小到7.3%。     

The Dawn Spacecraft

The Dawn spacecraft is designed to travel to and operate in orbit around the two largest main belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres. Developed to meet a ten-year life and fully redundant, the spacecraft accommodates an ion propulsion system, including three ion engines and xenon propellant tank, utilizes large solar arrays to power the engines, carries the science instrument payload, and hosts the hardware and software required to successfully collect and transmit the scientific data back to Earth. The launch of the Dawn spacecraft in September 2007 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was the culmination of nearly five years of design, development, integration and testing of this unique system, one of the very few scientific spacecraft to rely on ion propulsion. The Dawn spacecraft arrived at its first destination, Vesta, in July 2011, where it will conduct science operations for twelve months before departing for Ceres.     

A liquid propulsion panorama

Liquid-propellant rocket engines are widely used all over the world, thanks to their high performances, in particular high thrust-to-weight ratio. The present paper presents a general panorama of liquid propulsion as a contribution of the IAF Advanced Propulsion Prospective Group.After a brief history of its past development in the different parts of the world, the current status of liquid propulsion, the currently observed trends, the possible areas of future improvement and a summarized road map of future developments are presented. The road map includes a summary of the liquid propulsion status presented in the “Year in review 2007” of Aerospace America.Although liquid propulsion is often seen as a mature technology with few areas of potential improvement, the requirements of an active commercial market and a renewed interest for space exploration has led to the development of a family of new engines, with more design margins, simpler to use and to produce associated with a wide variety of thrust and life requirements.     

On the Radial Evolution of Alfvénic Turbulence in the Solar Wind

The observations at different solar distances and latitudes, collected in the past three decades, and the results obtained from more and more sophisticated numerical simulations allowed us to reach a good understanding on many aspects of the complex phenomenon of solar wind turbulence. Moreover, new interesting insights in the theory of turbulence have been obtained, in the past decade, from the point of view that considers a turbulent flow as a complex system, where chaotic behavior and well-established scaling laws coexist. This review aims to provide a quick overview on the state of art in this research field with particular focus on local generation mechanisms.     

Unbiased acceleration measurements with an electrostatic accelerometer on a rotating platform

The Gravity Advanced Package is an instrument composed of an electrostatic accelerometer called MicroSTAR and a rotating platform called Bias Rejection System. It aims at measuring with no bias the non-gravitational acceleration of a spacecraft. It is envisioned to be embarked on an interplanetary spacecraft as a tool to test the laws of gravitation.