The Plasma Ion and Electron Instruments for the Genesis Mission

The Genesis Ion Monitor (GIM) and the Genesis Electron Monitor (GEM) provide 3-dimensional plasma measurements of the solar wind for the Genesis mission. These measurements are used onboard to determine the type of plasma that is flowing past the spacecraft and to configure the solar wind sample collection subsystems in real-time. Both GIM and GEM employ spherical-section electrostatic analyzers followed by channel electron multiplier (CEM) arrays for detection and angle and energy/charge analysis of incident ions and electrons. GIM is of a new design specific to Genesis mission requirements whereas the GEM sensor is an almost exact copy of the plasma electron sensors currently flying on the ACE and Ulysses spacecraft, albeit with new electronics and programming. Ions are detected at forty log-spaced energy levels between ∼ 1 eV and 14 keV by eight CEM detectors, while electrons with energies between ∼ 1 eV and 1.4 keV are measured at twenty log-spaced energy levels using seven CEMs. The spin of the spacecraft is used to sweep the fan-shaped fields-of-view of both instruments across all areas of the sky of interest, with ion measurements being taken forty times per spin and samples of the electron population being taken twenty four times per spin. Complete ion and electron energy spectra are measured every ∼ 2.5 min (four spins of the spacecraft) with adequate energy and angular resolution to determine fully 3-dimensional ion and electron distribution functions. The GIM and GEM plasma measurements are principally used to enable the operational solar wind sample collection goals of the Genesis mission but they also provide a potentially very useful data set for studies of solar wind phenomena, especially if combined with other solar wind data sets from ACE, WIND, SOHO and Ulysses for multi-spacecraft investigations. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Distributed Airborne Array Concepts

The improvement in SNR and detection range due to distributing an antenna array throughout the airframe and skin of an aircraft is examined. SNR formulas for three system configurations are presented and compared with that of a conventional, monostatic radar. Examples given in the paper show detection range increases as large as a factor of 4. Three additional potential advantages of the distributed array are an increase in spatial signal processing capability, an improvement in azimuthal resolution, and a potential reduction in transmitter power for fixed radar Performance so as to reduce the probability of intercept.     

Saturn kilometric radiation as a monitor for the solar wind?

Since the Voyager mission it is known that Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) is strongly influenced by external forces, i.e., the solar wind and in particular the solar wind ram pressure. Recent studies using Cassini data essentially confirmed these findings for particular periods during the first Cassini orbit of Saturn. The data coverage of SKR by the Cassini/RPWS experiment for the period of six months prior to Saturn Orbit Insertion (July 1, 2004) is rather continuous, whereas there are gaps in the solar wind plasma data. The strong correlation of SKR with the solar wind may provide an indication on the variations of the solar wind plasma, specifically during the gap periods. These periods lacking solar wind data are substituted by Ulysses solar wind data which have been propagated over ∼4 AU, applying magnetohydrodynamic propagation models. Cross correlation studies showed that Ulysses solar wind data can be taken as a substitute for missing Cassini data. The use of SKR as monitor for solar wind variations is discussed. With the present set of observations the SKR proxy lacks significant reliability.     

Slot Length and Line-of-Sight Protection

The reasoning which led to the particular slot structure defined for the collision avoidance system specified by the Air Transportation Association Collision Avoidance System Technical Working Group is discussed. The objectives were to choose a slot length that would 1) minimize the probability of interference, 2) maximize the capacity of the information channel (as measured by the number of messages received in a unit of time). Interference can be manifested by the garbling of either the collision avoidance message or the synchronization signals.     

Solar Wind Conditions and Composition During the Genesis Mission as Measured by in situ Spacecraft

We describe the Genesis mission solar-wind sample collection period and the solar wind conditions at the L1 point during this 2.3-year period. In order to relate the solar wind samples to solar composition, the conditions under which the samples were collected must be understood in the context of the long-term solar wind. We find that the state of the solar wind was typical of conditions over the past four solar cycles. However, Genesis spent a relatively large fraction of the time in coronal-hole flow as compared to what might have been expected for the declining phase of the solar cycle. Data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) are used to determine the effectiveness of the Genesis solar-wind regime selection algorithm. The data collected by SWICS confirm that the Genesis algorithm successfully separated and collected solar wind regimes having distinct solar origins, particularly in the case of the coronal hole sample. The SWICS data also demonstrate that the different regimes are elementally fractionated. When compared with Ulysses composition data from the previous solar cycle, we find a similar degree of fractionation between regimes as well as fractionation relative to the average photospheric composition. The Genesis solar wind samples are under long-term curation at NASA Johnson Space Center so that as sample analysis techniques evolve, pristine solar wind samples will be available to the scientific community in the decades to come. This article and a companion paper (Wiens et al. 2013, this issue) provide post-flight information necessary for the analysis of the Genesis array and foil solar wind samples and the Genesis solar wind ion concentrator samples, and thus serve to complement the Space Science Review volume, The Genesis Mission (v. 105, 2003).     

Sequence CLEAN: a modified deconvolution technique for microwaveimages of contiguous targets

High resolution range profiles usually suffer from range sidelobe artifacts which cause reduction in the dynamic range. The sidelobes can be greatly reduced by a deconvolution technique called Coherent CLEAN. The Coherent CLEAN algorithm is based on the assumption that the scene consists of isolated and independent targets. However, many real-life targets are contiguous. Even if we approximate the contiguous targets by very closely spaced point sources, they can hardly be assumed to radiate independently. The sidelobes and the mainlobes of these closely spaced point sources can interact constructively and destructively causing spurious peaks and peak mislocations. These problems are studied and a variation in the existing Coherent CLEAN algorithm, called Sequence CLEAN, is proposed. Sequence CLEAN is found to work well with actual targets     

Data fusion system engineering

The paper reports on methods for the cost-effective development and integration of multi-sensor fusion technology. The methods presented extend the Project Correlation Data Fusion Engineering Guidelines with significant evolution. The key new insight is in formulating the system engineering process as a resource management problem; allowing the application of the Bowman's model of the duality between data fusion and resource management     

The Effect of Clipping on the Performance of a Phased-Array Antenna in an Aniso-tropic Background

The effect of an anisotropic reverberation pattern on the performance of various signal processing systems for linear sonar arrays was studied. It was determined that the use of clipping at each array element could seriously affect the performance of the system in comparison on to a similar analog system.     

Space policy responsiveness: The relationship between public opinion and NASA funding

Is the government responsive to public opinion of space policy? In 1995, Stimson et al. demonstrated that changes in domestic public policy were in response to changes in public opinion. Ten years later, Jacobs and Page demonstrated that foreign policy was not responsive to public opinion, and instead responds to the opinion of business leaders. This research builds off these seminal works to explore who influences space policy. Findings suggest that the public supports the idea of space exploration, while also feeling that spending on space exploration is “too high.” Therefore, the government appears to be giving the people exactly what they want in regards to NASA’s budget – more money each year – but at the same time a smaller percentage of the federal budget.     

Variable structure robust flight control system for the F-14

In this paper, a flight control law for a simplified F-14 aircraft model is designed based on variable structure control (VSC) theory. For m-input, q-output linear uncertain systems (q相似文献