Comet nucleus sample return: Plans and capabilities

ROSETTA — the Comet Nucleus Sample Return mission — is one of the four Cornerstone missions to which ESA has committed itself in its approved Long-Term Programme Horizon 2000. The mission is currently being studied in collaboration with NASA. The comet-nucleus samples that ROSETTA is to provide will allow us to study some of the most primitive material in the solar system and the physical and chemical processes that marked the beginning of the system 4.6 billion years ago. For ESA, ROSETTA is a new type of mission: one which will return a sample at cryogenic temperature, and where as much effort has to be spent on preparing the laboratory analysis on-ground as has to be invested in preparing the space segment with the sample acquisition and in situ documentation. As part of the preparation for this mission, ESA is now starting to consider Planetary Protection issues.     

Energy and charge localization in irradiated DNA.

The relation between the site of energy deposition and the site of its biological action is an important question in radiobiology. Even at 77 degrees K, evidence is clear that these two sites must be separated since energy deposition is random but specific products are formed. Several processes that may contribute to this separation are: 1) hole migration and stabilization through deprotonation to give neutral oxidation product radicals; 2) electron trapping and transfer to form specific radical anions, possibly followed by protonation to give neutral reduction product radicals; and 3) recombination of spatially separated charges or radicals. These microscopic processes will be reviewed critically in an analysis using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) evidence for and against long-range transfer of energy and/or charge in frozen, hydrated DNA.     

Direct integration methods in dynamic problems of structural mechanics

A method of direct integration with respect to time is proposed to solve dynamic problems of structural mechanics and comparison with the well-known methods is presented.     

Radar Imaging of Mercury

Earth-based radar has been one of the few, and one of the most important, sources of new information about Mercury during the three decades since the Mariner 10 encounters. The emphasis during the past 15 years has been on full-disk, dual-polarization imaging of the planet, an effort that has been facilitated by the development of novel radar techniques and by improvements in radar systems. Probably the most important result of the imaging work has been the discovery and mapping of radar-bright features at the poles. The radar scattering properties of these features, and their confinement to permanently shaded crater floors, is consistent with volume backscatter from a low-loss volatile such as clean water ice. Questions remain, however, regarding the source and long-term stability of the putative ice, which underscores the need for independent confirmation by other observational methods. Radar images of the non-polar regions have also revealed a plethora of bright features, most of which are associated with fresh craters and their ejecta. Several very large impact features, with rays and other bright ejecta spreading over distances of 1,000 km or more, have been traced to source craters with diameters of 80–125 km. Among these large rayed features are some whose relative faintness suggests that they are being observed in an intermediate stage of degradation. Less extended ray/ejecta features have been found for some of the freshest medium-size craters such as Kuiper and Degas. Much more common are smaller (<40 km diameter) fresh craters showing bright rim-rings but little or no ray structure. These smaller radar-bright craters are particularly common over the H-7 quadrangle. Diffuse areas of enhanced depolarized brightness have been found in the smooth plains, including the circum-Caloris planitiae and Tolstoj Basin. This is an interesting finding, as it is the reverse of the albedo contrast seen between the radar-dark maria and the radar-bright cratered highlands on the Moon.     

Robust wavelet neuro control for linear brushless motors

Design, simulation and experimental implementation of a wavelet basis function network learning controller for linear brushless dc motors (LBDCM) are considered. Stability robustness with position tracking is the primary concern. The proposed controller deals mainly with external disturbances, e.g. nonlinear friction force and payload variation in motion control of linear motors. It consists of two parts, one is a state feedback component, and the other one is a learning feedback component. The state feedback controller is designed on the basis of a simple linear model, and the learning feedback component is a wavelet neural controller. The attenuation effect of wavelet neural networks on friction force is first verified by the numerical method. The learning effect of wavelet neural networks on friction force is also shown in the numerical results. Then, a wavelet neural network is applied on a real LBDCM to on-line suppress the friction force, which may be variable due to the different lubrication. The effectiveness of the proposed control schemes is demonstrated by simulated and experimental results.     

Performance characteristics of lithium ion cells at low temperatures

The low temperature charge and discharge characteristics of experimental MCMB-Li/sub x/Ni/sub y/Co/sub 1-y/O/sub 2/ cells containing different electrolytes were investigated. The use of low ethylene carbonate (EC)-content electrolyte formulations has resulted in good discharge performance to temperatures as low as -40/spl deg/C. The effect of charge voltage and charge current upon the individual electrode potentials at low temperature was investigated using the three electrode cells (containing lithium reference electrodes). In some cases, lithium plating was observed to occur upon low temperature charge, and found to be facilitated by high charge voltages, high charge currents, and poor anode kinetics. Electrochemical characterization of the cells has helped to establish the conditions under which lithium plating can occur by providing information regarding the polarization effects present at each electrode.     

Improved multilevel quantization for detection of narrowbandsignals

Nearly optimum quantization levels for multileveled quantizers in radar receivers and distributed-detection are calculated for preassigned false-alarm probability Q₀ by maximizing the detection probability Q_d after replacing both Q ₀ and (1-Q_d) by the saddlepoint approximations. Narrowband signals of random phase and with both fixed and Rayleigh-fading amplitudes in Gaussian noise are treated, and the loss in signal detectability incurred by quantization is estimated     

Interaction of artificially injected plasma flows with ionospheric plasma

Results of rocket experiments on study of plasma flows (PF) artificially injected by sources separated from vehicles and their effect on medium parameters in ionosphere at altitudes 160:230 km are presented.PF were injected comprising lithium ions with velocities 1,2 x 10⁴ m/sec. and cesium-potassium ions with velocities (1,4–1,5)x10³ m/sec. Mass flow rate in case of lithium PS is 2 mg/sec, and in case of cesium-potassium PS is 0,2 g/sec. During experiments mass-spectrometer measurements of ion medium content in ranges of different ion masses were held, disturbancies of electric fields with frequencies up to 20 kHz and electron flows with energies 0,7keV, 4,6keV and over 40 keV were controlled at distancies from 150m to (500–600)m between plasma source and scientific equipment.     

Temporal decorrelation of X-band backscatter from wind-influencedvegetation

The temporal decorrelation characteristics of X-band radar backscatter from wind-influenced vegetation were investigated using a short-range CW radar. Radar reflectance data were gathered on various types of individual trees from a distance of approximately 30 m. The windspeed was monitored during each measurement, which lasted 5 s. The crown cover and the mean leaf area of the trees were also recorded. Autocovariance plots were generated for each measurement, from which the decorrelation time was estimated. As expected, the return signals decorrelated faster at higher wind speeds. However, the decorrelation time was also found to depend on the tree type, tree structure, and leaf cover characteristics. Measured decorrelation times for moderate winds (7-9 m/s) were often between 40-60 ms, although the lowest decorrelation time measured under these conditions was 14 ms for the Eastern Cottonwood. In lighter winds (1-4 m/s), decorrelation times were much longer, and there was substantial spread in the data