Understanding Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection Signatures

While interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are understood to be the heliospheric counterparts of CMEs, with signatures undeniably linked to the CME process, the variability of these signatures and questions about mapping to observed CME features raise issues that remain on the cutting edge of ICME research. These issues are discussed in the context of traditional understanding, and recent results using innovative analysis techniques are reviewed.     

Coronal Mass Ejections: Overview of Observations

We survey the subject of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), emphasizing knowledge available prior to about 2003, as a synopsis of the phenomenology and its interpretation.     

Rosina – Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis

The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) will answer important questions posed by the mission’s main objectives. After Giotto, this will be the first time the volatile part of a comet will be analyzed in situ. This is a very important investigation, as comets, in contrast to meteorites, have maintained most of the volatiles of the solar nebula. To accomplish the very demanding objectives through all the different phases of the comet’s activity, ROSINA has unprecedented capabilities including very wide mass range (1 to >300 amu), very high mass resolution (m/Δ m > 3000, i.e. the ability to resolve CO from N₂ and ¹³C from ¹²CH), very wide dynamic range and high sensitivity, as well as the ability to determine cometary gas velocities, and temperature. ROSINA consists of two mass spectrometers for neutrals and primary ions with complementary capabilities and a pressure sensor. To ensure that absolute gas densities can be determined, each mass spectrometer carries a reservoir of a calibrated gas mixture allowing in-flight calibration. Furthermore, identical flight-spares of all three sensors will serve for detailed analysis of all relevant parameters, in particular the sensitivities for complex organic molecules and their fragmentation patterns in our electron bombardment ion sources.     

RPC-ICA: The Ion Composition Analyzer of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium

The Ion Composition Analyzer (ICA) is part of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC). ICA is designed to measure the three-dimensional distribution function of positive ions in order to study the interaction between the solar wind and cometary particles. The instrument has a mass resolution high enough to resolve the major species such as protons, helium, oxygen, molecular ions, and heavy ions characteristic of dusty plasma regions. ICA consists of an electrostatic acceptance angle filter, an electrostatic energy filter, and a magnetic momentum filter. Particles are detected using large diameter (100 mm) microchannel plates and a two-dimensional anode system. ICA has its own processor for data reduction/compression and formatting. The energy range of the instrument is from 25 eV to 40 keV and an angular field-of-view of 360° × 90° is achieved through electrostatic deflection of incoming particles.     

Simulation of launch and re-entry acceleration profiles for testing of shuttle and unmanned microgravity research payloads

Microgravity experiments designed for execution in Get-Away Special canisters, Hitchhiker modules, and Reusable Re-entry Satellites will be subjected to launch and re-entry accelerations. Crew-dependent provisions for preventing acceleration damage to equipment or products will not be available for these payloads during flight; therefore, the effects of launch and re-entry accelerations on all aspects of such payloads must be evaluated prior to flight. A procedure was developed for conveniently simulating the launch and re-entry acceleration profiles of the Space Shuttle (3.3 and 1.7 × g maximum, respectively) and of two versions of NASA's proposed materials research Re-usable Re-entry Satellite (8 × g maximum in one case and 4 × g in the other). By using the 7 m centrifuge of the Gravitational Plant Physiology Laboratory in Philadelphia it was found possible to simulate the time dependence of these 5 different acceleration episodes for payload masses up to 59 kg. A commercial low-cost payload device, the “Materials Dispersion Apparatus” of Instrumentation Technology Associates was tested for (1) integrity of mechanical function, (2) retention of fluid in its compartments, and (3) integrity of products under simulated re-entry g-loads. In particular, the sharp rise from 1 g to maximum g-loading that occurs during re-entry in various unmanned vehicles was successfully simulated, conditions were established for reliable functioning of the MDA, and crystals of 5 proteins suspended in compartments filled with mother liquor were subjected to this acceleration load.     

The Huygens Probe and mission design

The mission of the Huygens Probe is to enter into the Titan atmosphere and to descend in a controlled manner to the surface such that scientific measurements can be taken and transmitted to earth via the Orbiter. The entry is the most challenging phase of the mission. The deceleration is achieved by an aeroshell. Thermal protection against entry heat fluxes is achieved by an ablator rejecting heat mainly by radiation. The descent profile in terms of descent velocity, spin rate and attitude stability is designed to allow imaging, sampling and measurements at the various atmospheric layers within the overall time and energy constraints. The Huygens system has to operate in an autonomous and fault tolerant manner, as no ground control and failure recovery during the descent phase is feasible. This autonomy and fault tolerance is the main driver for the chosen architecture of the on-board system.     

Did life exist on Mars? Search for organic and inorganic signatures, one of the goals for “SAM” (sample analysis at Mars)

Observation of Mars shows signs of a past Earth-like climate, and, in that case, there is no objection to the possible development of life, in the underground or at the surface, as in the terrestrial primitive biosphere. Sample analysis at Mars (SAM) is an experiment which may be proposed for atmospheric, ground and underground in situ measurements. One of its goals is to bring direct or indirect information on the possibility for life to have developed on Mars, and to detect traces of past or present biological activity. With this aim, it focuses on the detection of organic molecules: volatile organics are extracted from the sample by simple heating, whereas refractory molecules are made analyzable (i.e. volatile), using derivatization technique or fragmentation by pyrolysis. Gaseous mixtures thus obtained are analyzed by gas chromatography associated to mass spectrometry. Beyond organics, carbonates and other salts are associated to the dense and moist atmosphere necessary to the development of life, and might have formed and accumulated in some places on Mars. They represent another target for SAM. Heating of the samples allows the analysis of structural gases of these minerals (CO₂ from carbonates, etc.), enabling to identify them. We also show, in this paper, that it may be possible to discriminate between abiotic minerals, and minerals (shells, etc.) created by living organisms.     

Large light X-ray optics: basic ideas and concepts

One of the main guidelines for future X-ray astronomy projects like, e.g., XEUS (ESA) and Generation-X (NASA) is to utilize grazing-incidence focusing optics with extremely large telescopes (several tens of m² at 1 keV), with a dramatic increase in collecting area of about two order of magnitude compared to the current X-ray telescopes. In order to avoid the problem of the source's confusion limit at low fluxes, the angular resolution required for these optics should be superb (a few arcsec at most). The enormous mirror dimensions together with the high imaging performances give rise to a number of manufacturing problems. It is basically impossible to realize so large mirrors from closed Wolter I shells which benefit from high mechanical stiffness. Instead the mirrors need to be formed as rectangular segments and a series of them will be assembled in a petal. Taking into account the realistic load capabilities of space launchers, to be able to put in orbit so large mirror modules the mass/geometric-area ratio of the optics should be very small. Finally, with a so large optics mass it would be very difficult to provide the electric power for an optics thermal active control, able to maintain the mirrors at the usual temperature of 20 °C. Therefore, very likely, the optics will instead operate in extreme thermal conditions, with the mirror temperature oscillating between −30 and −40 °C, that tends to exclude the epoxy replication approach (the mismatch between the CTE of the substrate and that of the resin would cause prohibitively large deformations of the mirror surface profiles). From these considerations light weight materials with high thermal–mechanical properties such as glass or ceramics become attractive to realize the mirrors of future Xray telescopes. In this paper, we will discuss a segments manufacturing method based on Borofloat^TM glass. A series of finite element analysis concerning different aspects of the production, testing and integration of the optics are also presented as well.     

Shape and motion estimate of LEO debris using light curves

We have derived a tri-axial ellipsoidal model of an LEO object, a Cosmos 2082 rocket body, including its rotational axis direction, rotation period, precession, and a compositional parameter, using only light curve data from an optical telescope. The brightness of the object was monitored for two days and least-squares fitting was used to determine these values. The derived axial ratios are 100:18:18, the coordinates of the rotational axis direction on the celestial sphere are R.A. = 305.8° and Dec. = 2.6°, and its observed average rotation period is 41 s. When precession is considered, its amplitude and precession period are 30.5° and 29.4 min. These results show that optical light curve data are sufficient to determine the shapes and the motions of LEO objects.