Flow of a water jet into vacuum

At certain intervals excess water has to be dumped into space overboard of the Spacelab cabin. For the development of a useful nozzle the behaviour of a water jet flowing into vacuum was investigated experimentally and theoretical interpretations of the flow phenomena which were found are given. The influence of parameters like the shape of the nozzle, the temperature and the gas content of water were studied. At certain test conditions, the jet leaves the nozzle exit in bundled form and ends abruptly bursting into droplets and ice-particles. The “bursting”-mechanism is explained by a sudden boiling of the water in the jet causing the growth of vapor bubbles decomposing the jet. The formation of vapor bubbles is initiated by a superheating of the water of the jet caused by a sudden pressure drop and a cooling at the surface of the jet. The expansion of vapor bubbles in the jet is retarded by surface tension forces which results in a relaxation time for the bursting of the jet. The vapor flow in radial directions of the jet is approximately described by a plane radial source flow. The measurement of the pitot-pressure radially to the jet proves that the vapor flow is supersonic.     

The ethics of treading on Neil Armstrong''s footprints

The Moon landings of the Apollo programme irrevocably changed the way we see ourselves. Most significantly, this was the first time that humans had set foot on a celestial body other than Earth. The program has left a number of sites on the Moon as well as on Earth. While the management of the sites and artefacts on Earth is fairly straightforward as they are subject to national heritage legislation, it is not so simple with the sites and artefacts on the lunar surface. Moreover, the sites on the Moon differ in one unique aspect from all other heritage sites on Earth: the absence of a lunar atmosphere of any note means that all foot- and track prints of the astronauts are preserved providing a total record of the pioneering phases of human exploration of the Moon. The nascent developments of space tourism, including proposals for lunar heritage tourism, however, threaten the preservation of these traces on the Moon. This paper discusses the terrestrial and in particular the extraterrestrial heritage of the Apollo programme. Set out are the management ethics that need to apply on the lunar surface if this unique heritage is to have a future.     

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.     

A Geosynchronous Orbit Search Strategy

Since more than 10 years there is evidence that small-size space debris is accumulating in the geosynchronous orbit (GEO), probably as the result of breakups. Two break-ups have been reported in GEO. The 1978 break-up of an EKRAN 2 satellite, SSN 10365, was identified in 1992, and in 1992 a Titan 3C Transtage, SSN 3432, break-up produced at least twenty observable pieces. Subsequently several nations performed optical surveys of the GEO region in the form of independent observation campaigns. Such surveys suffer from the fact that the field of view of optical telescopes is small compared with the total area covered by the GEO ring. As a consequence only a small volume of the orbital element-magnitude-space is covered by each individual survey. Results from these surveys are thus affected by observational biases and therefore difficult to compare. This paper describes the development of a common search strategy to overcome these limitations. The strategy optimizes the sampling for objects in orbits similar to the orbits of the known GEO population but does not exclude the detection of objects with other orbital planes. A properly designed common search strategy clearly eases the comparison of results from different groups and the extrapolation from the sparse (biased) samples to the entire GEO environment.     

Geometric reasoning under uncertainty for map-based localization

Map-based navigation in outdoor terrain lacking man-made structures or other highly distinctive landmarks can produce severe localization problems. This paper presents an approach to navigation which implements high level geometric reasoning and matching strategies based on those used by skilled human navigators. This approach, which is demonstrated on a real example involving imagery of mountainous terrain obtained with a video camera and USGS map data, is designed to avoid many of the pitfalls occurring when an attempt is made to navigate by modeling the environment mathematically. It exploits feature attributes which cannot be easily expressed quantitatively but are central to the successful human navigation process.     

Operational continuity of the global meteorological satellite network

The global network of meteorological satellites used different forms of international cooperation during its development, and some of these forms continue. Concern about continued operation of the global network led the WMO to study the issues and to adopt a long-term policy and strategy based on a shared meteorological satellite network. Nations need to consider how to combine their meteorological and space-related organizations in a partnership role, so they can directly contribute to a future global network of meteorological satellites. Some examples are cited to demonstrate that increased direct participation is a valid and feasible objective.     

But what is the true rationale for human spaceflight?

Human interest in spaceflight is ancient. It is therefore ironic that, at a time when humans finally have the capability to travel in space, the notion that we should do so is being questioned. The author analyses the reasons for this — the historical/political and technological contingency of the Space Age and the sudden falling away of the conditions which drove space activity — and in the process provides a critique of the forgoing article and the tendency to search for utilitarian justifications of human spaceflight. He argues rather that space programmes will thrive only when driven by non-material cultural and political forces. US-Russian cooperation, which has principally been undertaken for geopolitical reasons is a model for the future.     

In-situ resource utilization technologies for Mars life support systems.

The atmosphere of Mars has many of the ingredients that can be used to support human exploration missions. It can be "mined" and processed to produce oxygen, buffer gas, and water, resulting in significant savings on mission costs. The use of local materials, called ISRU (for in-situ resource utilization), is clearly an essential strategy for a long-term human presence on Mars from the standpoints of self-sufficiency, safety, and cost. Currently a substantial effort is underway by NASA to develop technologies and designs of chemical plants to make propellants from the Martian atmosphere. Consumables for life support, such as oxygen and water, will probably benefit greatly from this ISRU technology development for propellant production. However, the buffer gas needed to dilute oxygen for breathing is not a product of a propellant production plant. The buffer gas needs on each human Mars mission will probably be in the order of metric tons, primarily due to losses during airlock activity. Buffer gas can be separated, compressed, and purified from the Mars atmosphere. This paper discusses the buffer gas needs for a human mission to Mars and consider architectures for the generation of buffer gas including an option that integrates it to the propellant production plant.     

Exobiological exploration of Mars.

Of all the other planets in the solar system, Mars remains the most promising for further elucidating concepts about chemical evolution and the origin of life. Strategies were developed to pursue three exobiological objectives for Mars exploration: determining the abundance and distribution of the biogenic elements and organic compounds, detecting evidence of an ancient biota on Mars, and determining whether indigenous organisms exist anywhere on the planet. The three strategies are quite similar and, in fact, share the same sequence of phases. In the first phase, each requires global reconnaissance and remote sensing by orbiters to select sites of interest for detailed in situ analyses. In the second phase, lander missions are conducted to characterize the chemical and physical properties of the selected sites. The third phase involves conducting "critical" experiments at sites whose properties make them particularly attractive for exobiology. These critical experiments would include, for example, identification of organics, detection of fossils, and detection of extant life. The fourth phase is the detailed analysis of samples returned from these sites in Earth-based laboratories to confirm and extend previous discoveries. Finally, in the fifth phase, human exploration is needed to establish the geological settings for the earlier findings or to discover and explore sites that are not accessible to robotic spacecraft.     

The atmospheric radiation response to solar-particle-events.

High-energy solar particles, produced in association with solar flares and coronal mass ejections, occasionally bombard the earth's atmosphere. resulting in radiation intensities additional to the background cosmic radiation. Access of these particles to the earth's vicinity during times of geomagnetic disturbances are not adequately described by using static geomagnetic field models. These solar fluxes are also often distributed non uniformly in space, so that fluxes measured by satellites obtained at great distances from the earth and which sample large volumes of space around the earth cannot be used to predict fluxes locally at the earth's surface. We present here a method which uses the ground-level neutron monitor counting rates as adjoint sources of the flux in the atmosphere immediately above them to obtain solar-particle effective dose rates as a function of position over the earth's surface. We have applied this approach to the large September 29-30, 1989 ground-level event (designated GLE 42) to obtain the magnitude and distribution of the solar-particle effective dose rate from an atypically large event. The results of these calculations clearly show the effect of the softer particle spectra associated with solar particle events, as compared with galactic cosmic rays, results in a greater sensitivity to the geomagnetic field, and, unlike cosmic rays, the near-absence of a "knee" near 60 degrees geomagnetic latitude.