Book reviews

Space Science Reviews -     

Principles for pioneers

The US National Commission on Space has recently issued its report, Pioneering the Space Frontier. As the US Founding Fathers laid down the basic principles which are the foundation of US society, the Commission has articulated certain basic principles which reflect the fundamental values of the American people. These principles lay the basis for the Commission's vision of space exploration and settlement and its benefits for the USA and all of humankind.     

Spectroscopy in Utrecht: A Brief History

In the first half of the 20th century, Leonard Ornstein turned the Physics Laboratory of Utrecht University into a center for testing the nascent quantum mechanics through accurate measurements of line intensities in flame spectra. The microphotometer of instrument builder Willem Moll was the key to this success. Marcel Minneart used this instrument to study stellar spectra at the Utrecht Astronomical Institute, and in particular for the Photometric Atlas of the Solar Spectrum. When the opportunity came in the 1960s to build instruments for research from space, it was natural that Kees de Jager opted for spectroscopy, in X-ray observations of the Sun. The expertise developed in this program allowed the Space Research Organisation of the Netherlands to be a principal player in the development of X-ray spectrographs on the Einstein, EXOSAT, Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites.     

The Urey instrument: an advanced in situ organic and oxidant detector for Mars exploration

The Urey organic and oxidant detector consists of a suite of instruments designed to search for several classes of organic molecules in the martian regolith and ascertain whether these compounds were produced by biotic or abiotic processes using chirality measurements. These experiments will also determine the chemical stability of organic molecules within the host regolith based on the presence and chemical reactivity of surface and atmospheric oxidants. Urey has been selected for the Pasteur payload on the European Space Agency's (ESA's) upcoming 2013 ExoMars rover mission. The diverse and effective capabilities of Urey make it an integral part of the payload and will help to achieve a large portion of the mission's primary scientific objective: "to search for signs of past and present life on Mars." This instrument is named in honor of Harold Urey for his seminal contributions to the fields of cosmochemistry and the origin of life.     

Subsurface Water Oceans on Icy Satellites: Chemical Composition and Exchange Processes

The state of knowledge about the structure and composition of icy satellite interiors has been significantly extended by combining direct measurements from spacecraft, laboratory experiments, and theoretical modeling. The existence of potentially habitable liquid water reservoirs on icy satellites is dependent on the radiogenic heating of the rock component, additional contributions such as the dissipation of tidal energy, the efficiency of heat transfer to the surface, and the presence of substances that deplete the freezing point of liquid water. This review summarizes the chemical evolution of subsurface liquid water oceans, taking into account a number of chemical processes occuring in aqueous environments and partly related to material exchange with the deep interior. Of interest are processes occuring at the transitions from the liquid water layer to the ice layers above and below, involving the possible formation of clathrate hydrates and high-pressure ices on large icy satellites. In contrast, water-rock exchange is important for the chemical evolution of the liquid water layer if the latter is in contact with ocean floor rock on small satellites. The composition of oceanic floor deposits depends on ambient physical conditions and ocean chemistry, and their evolutions through time. In turn, physical properties of the ocean floor affect the circulation of oceanic water and related thermal effects due to tidally-induced porous flow and aqueous alteration of ocean floor rock.     

Effects of ice accretions on aircraft aerodynamics

This article is a systematic and comprehensive review, correlation, and assessment of test results available in the public domain which address the aerodynamic performance and control degradations caused by various types of ice accretions on the lifting surfaces of fixed wing aircraft. To help put the various test results in perspective, overviews are provided first of the important factors and limitations involved in computational and experimental icing simulation techniques, as well as key aerodynamic testing simulation variables and governing flow physics issues. Following these are the actual reviews, assessments, and correlations of a large number of experimental measurements of various forms of mostly simulated in-flight and ground ice accretions, augmented where appropriate by similar measurements for other analogous forms of surface contamination and/or disruptions. In-flight icing categories reviewed include the initial and inter-cycle ice accretions inherent in the use of de-icing systems which are of particular concern because of widespread misconceptions about the thickness of such accretions which can be allowed before any serious consequences occur, and the runback/ridge ice accretions typically associated with larger-than-normal water droplet encounters which are of major concern because of the possible potential for catastrophic reductions in aerodynamic effectiveness. The other in-flight ice accretion category considered includes the more familiar large rime and glaze ice accretions, including ice shapes with rather grotesque features, where the concern is that, in spite of all the research conducted to date, the upper limit of penalties possible has probably not been defined. Lastly, the effects of various possible ground frost/ice accretions are considered. The concern with some of these is that for some types of configurations, all of the normally available operating margins to stall at takeoff may be erased if these accretions are not adequately removed prior to takeoff. Throughout this review, important voids in the available database are highlighted, as are instances where previous lessons learned have tended to be overlooked.     

On uncertainties in carbon flux modelling and remotely sensed data assimilation: The Brasschaat pixel case

Uncertainty on carbon fluxes is determined by the uncertainties of ecosystem model structure, data and model parameter uncertainties and the temporal and spatial inaccuracy of the input data retrieval. The objective of this paper is to understand the error propagation and uncertainty of evaporative fraction (EF), soil moisture content (SMC) and water limited net ecosystem productivity (NEP). In this respect, C-Fix and spaceborne remote sensing are used for the ‘Brasschaat’ pixel. A simple model based on error theory and a Monte-Carlo approach are used. Different error scenarios are implemented to assess input uncertainty on EF, SMC and NEP as estimated with C-Fix.     

Protostellar Winds and Chondritic Meteorites

We discuss the interaction between the magnetosphere of a young star and its surrounding accretion disk. We consider how an X-wind can be driven magnetocentrifugally from the inner edge of the disk where accreting gas is diverted onto stellar field lines either to flow onto the Sun or to be flung outwards with the wind. The X-wind satisfies many observational tests concerning optical jets, Herbig-Haro objects, and molecular outflows. Connections may exist between primitive solar system materials and X-winds. Chondrules and calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) experienced short melting events uncharacteristic of the asteroid belt where meteorites originate. The inner edge of the solar nebula has the shortest orbital timescale available to the system, a few days. Protosolar flares introduce another timescale, tens of minutes to hours. CAIs may form when solids are lifted from shaded portions of the disk close to the Sun and are exposed to its intense light for a day or so before they are flung by the X-wind to much larger distances. Chondrules were melted, perhaps many times, by flares at larger distances from the Sun before being launched and annealed, but not remelted, in the X-wind. Aerodynamic sorting explains the narrow range of sizes with which CAIs and chondrules are found in chondritic meteorites. Flare-generated cosmic-rays may induce spallation reactions that produce some of the short-lived radioactivities associated with primitive solar system rocks. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Lee Hartmann,Accretion Processes in Star Formation

Space Science Reviews -