Enhanced operations efficiency by using the unified synoptic system

The unified synoptic system (USS) was developed by ESA for replacing the existing Columbus display solutions and to unify the display system used on-board and on-ground. USS provides enhanced flight operations efficiency and reduced effort for product preparation, qualification and maintenance for synoptic displays. Additional to its use for Columbus it is installed at JAXA and NASA to support requirements definition and review of NASA generated ISS displays. Due to its advanced capabilities, which go beyond existing known solutions, it has been made available to be reused for future spacecraft EGSEs and control centres (e.g. exploration missions, satellites) as well. Use of synoptic display is mostly guided by operational procedures which are in electronic format. However, till now the full operational benefit has not yet been realized. Procedure viewers and synoptic display systems are completely separate entities. Direct interaction of procedure viewers with synoptic display systems or underlying system control software is not supported at all. Therefore astronauts, flight controllers and operators still have to carry out a lot of mundane activities when executing operational procedures. The USS based procedural display viewer provides the user with a coherent, task oriented user interface for using synoptic displays and executing procedures in an efficient manner.     

The Influence of Geometrical and Nongeometrical Features on the Use of the Lexical Concepts NEAR and FAR in English and Finnish

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of geometrical and nongeometrical features on the use of the lexical concepts NEAR and FAR in English and Finnish. Participants' acceptability ratings for these concepts demonstrate that a bar in between a Figure and a Ground acts as a scale-setting object but not as a distance enhancing barrier, shows that the influence of the geometrical feature Figure–Ground distance exceeds the influence of several nongeometrical features, but most of all reveals that language specific lexical properties associated with NEAR and FAR predict language dependent effects for functional relatedness in interaction with Figure–Ground distance and bar presence.     

Cowpeas and pinto beans: Performance and yields of candidate space crops in the laboratory biosphere closed ecological system

An experiment utilizing cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata L.), pinto beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and Apogee ultra-dwarf wheat (Triticum sativa L.) was conducted in the soil-based closed ecological facility, Laboratory Biosphere, from February to May 2005. The lighting regime was 13 h light/11 h dark at a light intensity of 960 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹, 45 mol m⁻² day⁻¹ supplied by high-pressure sodium lamps. The pinto beans and cowpeas were grown at two different planting densities. Pinto bean production was 341.5 g dry seed m⁻² (5.42 g m⁻² day⁻¹) and 579.5 dry seed m⁻² (9.20 g m⁻² day⁻¹) at planted densities of 32.5 plants m⁻² and 37.5 plants m⁻², respectively. Cowpea yielded 187.9 g dry seed m⁻² (2.21 g m⁻² day⁻¹) and 348.8 dry seed m⁻² (4.10 g m⁻² day⁻¹) at planted densities of 20.8 plants m⁻² and 27.7 plants m⁻², respectively. The crop was grown at elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, with levels ranging from 300–3000 ppm daily during the majority of the crop cycle. During early stages (first 10 days) of the crop, CO₂ was allowed to rise to 7860 ppm while soil respiration dominated, and then was brought down by plant photosynthesis. CO₂ was injected 27 times during days 29–71 to replenish CO₂ used by the crop during photosynthesis. Temperature regime was 24–28 °C day/deg 20–24 °C night. Pinto bean matured and was harvested 20 days earlier than is typical for this variety, while the cowpea, which had trouble establishing, took 25 days more for harvest than typical for this variety. Productivity and atmospheric dynamic results of these studies contribute toward the design of an envisioned ground-based test bed prototype Mars base.     

The Influence of the 11-year Solar Cycle on the Stratosphere Below 30 km: a Review

The NCEP/NCAR re-analyses of the global data as high as 10hPa have made it possible to examine the influence of the 11-year sunspot cycle on the lower stratosphere over the entire globe. Previously, the signal of the solar cycle had been detected in the temperatures and heights of the stratosphere at 30hPa and below on the Northern Hemisphere by means of a data set from the Freie Universität Berlin. The global re-analyses show that the signal exists on the Southern Hemisphere too, and that it is almost a mirror image of that on the Northern Hemisphere. The largest temperature correlations with the solar cycle move from one summer hemisphere to the other, and the largest height correlations move poleward within each hemisphere from winter to summer.The correlations are weakest over the whole globe in the northern winter. If, however, one divides the data into the winters when the equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation was easterly or westerly, the arctic correlations become positive and large in the west years, but insignificantly small over the rest of the earth. The correlations in the east years are negative in the Arctic but positive in the subtropics and tropics on both hemispheres.The difference between the east and west years in January-February can be ascribed to the fact that the dominant stratospheric teleconnection and the solar influence work in the same direction in the east years but oppose each other in the west years.NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Time profile of cosmic radiation exposure during the EXPOSE-E mission: the R3DE instrument

The aim of this paper is to present the time profile of cosmic radiation exposure obtained by the Radiation Risk Radiometer-Dosimeter during the EXPOSE-E mission in the European Technology Exposure Facility on the International Space Station's Columbus module. Another aim is to make the obtained results available to other EXPOSE-E teams for use in their data analysis. Radiation Risk Radiometer-Dosimeter is a low-mass and small-dimension automatic device that measures solar radiation in four channels and cosmic ionizing radiation as well. The main results of the present study include the following: (1) three different radiation sources were detected and quantified-galactic cosmic rays (GCR), energetic protons from the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region of the inner radiation belt, and energetic electrons from the outer radiation belt (ORB); (2) the highest daily averaged absorbed dose rate of 426 μGy d(-1) came from SAA protons; (3) GCR delivered a much smaller daily absorbed dose rate of 91.1 μGy d(-1), and the ORB source delivered only 8.6 μGy d(-1). The analysis of the UV and temperature data is a subject of another article (Schuster et al., 2012 ).     

Identification and characterization of science-rich landing sites for lunar lander missions using integrated remote sensing observations

Despite more than 52 years of lunar exploration, a wide range of first-order scientific questions remain about the Moon’s formation, temporal evolution, and current surface and interior properties. Addressing many of these questions requires obtaining new in situ analyses or return of lunar surface or shallow subsurface samples, and hence rely on the selection of optimal landing sites. Here, we present an approach to optimize science-rich lunar landing site selection studies based on the integration of remote sensing observations. Currently available remote sensing data, as well as features of interest published in the recent literature, were integrated in a Geographic Information System. This numerical database contains geographic information about all these findings, which can be consulted and used to simultaneously display multiple features and parameters of interest. To illustrate our approach, we identified the optimal landing sites to address the two top priorities (or goals) relative to Concept 3 of the National Research Council of the National Academies (2007), namely to ‘Determine the extent and composition of the primary feldspathic crust, (ur)KREEP layer, and other products of differentiation’ and to ‘Inventory the variety, age, distribution and origin of lunar rock types’. We review site requirements and propose possible landing sites for both these goals. We identified 29 sites that best fulfill both these goals and compare them with the landing sites of planned future lunar lander missions. Finally, we detail two of these science-rich sites (Aristarchus and Theophilus craters) which are particularly accessible through their location on the nearside.