The spontaneous development of biology from chemistry

Biology arose as a spontaneous development from the chemistry of the early Earth by Free Energy-driven processes that occurred in common environments involving significant populations of systems. Molecular imprinting to matrices is capable of catalysis of polymer formation and reproduction that, in association with self-assembled membranes, could lead to proto-enzymes, proto-ribosomes, and proto-cells. Proto-cells would evolve via processes analogous to Darwinian natural selection. These hypotheses are testable by controlled laboratory experiments. What we call "life" is the sum of properties of such highly evolved systems.     

A mission template for exploration and damage mitigation of potential hazard of Near Earth Asteroids

The Apophis Exploratory and Mitigation Platform (AEMP) concept was developed as a prototype mission to explore and potentially deflect the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) 99942 Apophis. Deflection of the asteroid from the potential 2036 impact will be achieved using a gravity tractor technique, while a permanent deflection, eliminating future threats, will be imparted using a novel albedo manipulation technique. This mission will serve as an archetypal template for future missions to small NEAs and could be adapted to mitigate the threat of collision with other potential Earth-crossing objects.     

Precipitating Protons and Their Role in Ionization of the Polar Ionosphere

Spatial distributions of the electron density in the latitude range 60°–90° N were calculated on the basis of a physical model of the E and lower Fregions of the high-latitude ionosphere using statistical models of auroral proton and electron precipitation. It is shown that precipitating protons can play the key role in the ionization of the Eregion in the dusk and midnight sectors of the auroral oval. However, quantitative estimates of the contribution of protons to the ionization depend on the used statistical models of electron precipitation. Comparison of the electron density profiles calculated for two incoherent scatter radars, EISCAT (Tromsö) and ESR (Svalbard), for simultaneous precipitation of electrons and protons and for electron precipitation only show that the influence of protons is the most significant in the dusk sector over the EISCAT radar and in the midnight sector over the ESR radar. The results presented indicate the need to take protons into account when radar data are used to derive precipitating electron spectra.     

The challenges and opportunities of a commercial human spaceflight mission to the ISS

ESA astronauts' ISS flight opportunities are considered as a vital source to meet the utilisation, operation and political objectives that Europe has established for participating in the International Space Station programme. Recent internal ESA assessments have demonstrated that a rate of three flights per year for European Astronauts should be maintained as a minimum objective. The current flight rate is lower than this. In order to improve this situation, in the context of the activation of the ESA ISS Commercialisation programme, ESA is developing the conditions for the establishment of commercially based human spaceflights with the financial support of both ESA and the private sector or, in the future, only the latter. ESA is working in a Partnership with the space industry to facilitate the implementation of such projects and support customers with a range of end-to-end commercial services. The opportunities and challenges of a "commercial human spaceflight", involving a member of the European Astronaut Corps, or a privately employed flight participant, are discussed here.     

ESA developments in life support technology: achievements and future priorities.

Following an enthusiastic start in 1985, ESA's life support technology development programme was re-assessed in the mid- to late-1990s to reflect the strong reduction in European manned space ambitions which occurred at that time. Further development was essentially restricted to activities that could constitute ISS upgrades or enhancements, or support ISS utilisation/operations, together with a single, limited, activity (MELISSA) aimed at bioregenerative life support, in the continuing hope that there might be "life after Station". The paper describes the current status of these activities and summarises the main priorities for future development that were identified at the April 1999 Workshop on Advanced Life Support.     

Growth and development of cultured carrot cells and embryos under spaceflight conditions

Morphogenetically competent proembryonic cells and well-developed somatic embryos of carrot at two levels of organization were exposed for 18.5 days to a hypogravity environment aboard the Soviet Biosatellite Cosmos 1129. It was confirmed that cultured totipotent cells of carrot can give rise to embryos with well-developed roots and minimally developed shoots. It was also shown that the space hypogravity environment could support the further growth of already-organized, later somatic embryonic stages and give rise to fully developed embryo-plantlets with roots and shoots.     

Gravity and perceptual stability during translational head movement on earth and in microgravity

We measured the amount of visual movement judged consistent with translational head movement under normal and microgravity conditions. Subjects wore a virtual reality helmet in which the ratio of the movement of the world to the movement of the head (visual gain) was variable. Using the method of adjustment under normal gravity 10 subjects adjusted the visual gain until the visual world appeared stable during head movements that were either parallel or orthogonal to gravity. Using the method of constant stimuli under normal gravity, seven subjects moved their heads and judged whether the virtual world appeared to move “with” or “against” their movement for several visual gains. One subject repeated the constant stimuli judgements in microgravity during parabolic flight. The accuracy of judgements appeared unaffected by the direction or absence of gravity. Only the variability appeared affected by the absence of gravity. These results are discussed in relation to discomfort during head movements in microgravity.     

Generating requirements for complex embedded systems using State Analysis

It has become clear that spacecraft system complexity is reaching a threshold where customary methods of control are no longer affordable or sufficiently reliable. At the heart of this problem are the conventional approaches to systems and software engineering based on subsystem-level functional decomposition, which fail to scale in the tangled web of interactions typically encountered in complex spacecraft designs. Furthermore, there is a fundamental gap between the requirements on software specified by systems engineers and the implementation of these requirements by software engineers. Software engineers must perform the translation of requirements into software code, hoping to accurately capture the systems engineer's understanding of the system behavior, which is not always explicitly specified. This gap opens up the possibility for misinterpretation of the systems engineer's intent, potentially leading to software errors. This problem is addressed by a systems engineering methodology called State Analysis, which provides a process for capturing system and software requirements in the form of explicit models. This paper describes how requirements for complex aerospace systems can be developed using State Analysis, using representative spacecraft examples.     

Effect of variable thermal properties of the solid phase on composite solid propellant combustion

Effects of variable thermal properties (specific heat and thermal conductivity) of the solid phase on the combustion of composite solid propellants are studied analytically. Both steady and unsteady burning are considered. It is shown that the effects of variable thermal properties are small and can be accounted for by choosing proper average values of specific heat and thermal conductivity.     

Entrapment of bacteria in fluid inclusions in laboratory-grown halite

Cells of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which were genetically modified to produce green fluorescent protein, were entrapped in fluid inclusions in laboratory-grown halite. The bacteria were used to inoculate NaCl-saturated aqueous solutions, which were allowed to evaporate and precipitate halite. The number, size, and distribution of fluid inclusions were highly variable, but did not appear to be affected by the presence of the bacteria. Many of the inclusions in crystals from inoculated solutions contained cells in populations ranging from two to 20. Microbial attachment to crystal surfaces was neither evident nor necessary for entrapment. Cells occurred exclusively within fluid inclusions and were not present in the crystal matrix. In both the inclusions and the hypersaline solution, the cells fluoresced and twitched, which indicates that the bacteria might have remained viable after entrapment. The fluorescence continued up to 13 months after entrapment, which indicates that little degradation of the bacteria occurred over that time interval. The entrapment, fluorescence, and preservation of cells were independent of the volume of hypersaline solution used or whether the solutions were completely evaporated prior to crystal extraction. The results of this study have a wide range of implications for the long-term survival of microorganisms in fluid inclusions and their detection through petrography. The results also demonstrate the preservation potential for microbes in hypersaline fluid inclusions, which could allow cells to survive harsh conditions of space, the deep geologic past, or burial in sedimentary basins.