Summary of experiments onboard Soviet biosatellites.

Physiological, morphological and biochemical studies of mammals flown onboard biosatellites of the series Cosmos revealed changes in their cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, endocrine and vestibular systems. Space flight resulted in moderate stress reactions, intralabyrinthine conflict information during movements and changes in fluid-electrolyte metabolism. Exposure to artificial gravity (1 g) decreased the level of myocardial, musculoskeletal and excretory changes, but disturbed the function of equilibrium. Studies with combined weightlessness and ionizing radiation demonstrated that weightlessness did not produce a significant modifying effect on radiation damage and postradiation recovery. Consistent changes in certain systems of animals and humans in weightlessness confirm the practical importance of biosatellite studies, which also contribute to the solution of general biology, problems associated with gravity effects on life processes.     

Conditions for exciting the maximal gas vibration amplitude in a combustion chamber of the Helmholtz resonator type

In this paper, we present the results of calculating conditions for gas vibration excitement, sound pressure frequency and level as a function of mixture composition, geometric burner parameters and the resonator throat with constant capacity. We estimate in quantity the parameters influencing a vibration combustion process in the Helmholtz resonator with the inlet multichannel burner which result in the maximum possible gas vibration amplitude value.     

Vegetable production facility as a part of a closed life support system in a Russian Martian space flight scenario

A Manned Mars Mission scenario had been developed in frame of the Project 1172 supported International Science & Technology Center in Moscow. The Mars transit vehicle (MTV) supposed to have a crew of 4–6 with Pilot Laboratory compartment volume of 185 m³ and with inner diameter of 4.1 m. A vegetable production facility with power consumption up to 10 kW is being considered as a component of the life support system to supply crew members by fresh vegetables during the mission. Proposed design of conveyor-type plant growth facility (PGF) comprised of 4-modules. Each module has a cylindrical planting surface and spiral cylindrical LED assembly to provide a high specific productivity relative to utilized onboard resources. Each module has a growth chamber that will be from 0.7 m to 1.5 m in length, and a crop illuminated area from 1.7 m² to 4.0 m². Leafy crops (cabbage, lettuce, spinach, chard, etc.) have been selected for module 1, primarily because of the highest specific productivity per consumed resources. Dietitians have recommended also carrot crop for module 2, pepper for module 3 and tomato for module 4. The maximal total PGF light energy estimated as 1.16 kW and total power consumption as about 7 kW. The module 1 characteristics have been calculated using own experimental data, information from the best on ground plant growth experiments with artificial light were used to predict crop productivity and biomass composition in the another modules. 4-module PGF could produce nearly 0.32 kg per crew member per day of fresh edible biomass, which would be about 50% of recommended daily vegetable supplement. An average crop harvest index is estimated as 0.75. The MTV food system could be entirely closed in terms of vitamins C and A with help of the PGF. In addition the system could provide 10–25% of essential minerals and vitamins of group B, and about 20% of food fibers. The present state of plant growth technology allows formulating of requirements specification for the flight-qualified modules.     

Micromechanical gyros & accelerometers for digital navigation & control systems

There is no general consensus of opinion about the future of micromechanical gyroscopes and accelerometers. According to the pessimistic estimation, micromechanical gyroscopes and accelerometers have attained the limit of their accuracy. However, optimists believe that micromechamical gyroscopes will soon occupy the niche of fiber-optical gyroscopes and the latter will press laser gyroscopes. The present-day development of micromechanical gyroscopes and accelerometers is aimed at improving the basic and minor parameters: sensitivity, bias, offset, drift, resolution, scale factor, and its non-linearity. High level of performance is provided by application of high technology. This is devoted to the development and manufacturing of "silicon-glass" micromechanical sensors of encapsulated-type with digital output processing. The key technological processes allowing production of micromechanical encapsulated sensors with vacuum insides are considered and the features of their design are described. The methods for maintaining high reliability of encapsulated micromechanical gyroscopes with inner getter structure are discussed. ASIC designs for control and processing of micromechanical sensor outputs allow their accuracy, which is part of modern integrated systems, to be considerably improved. Also considered are various assemblies and packaging of the ASIC and micromechanical sensor as a single product.     

Status of the GAMMA-400 project

The preliminary design of the new space gamma-ray telescope GAMMA-400 for the energy range 100 MeV–3 TeV is presented. The angular resolution of the instrument, 1–2° at E_γ ∼ 100 MeV and ∼0.01° at E_γ > 100 GeV, its energy resolution ∼1% at E_γ > 100 GeV, and the proton rejection factor ∼10⁶ are optimized to address a broad range of science topics, such as search for signatures of dark matter, studies of Galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sources, Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emission, gamma-ray bursts, as well as high-precision measurements of spectra of cosmic-ray electrons, positrons, and nuclei.     

Numerical Simulation of Detachment Dynamics of a Payload from the Parent Aircraft

This paper presents the numerical simulation of detachment dynamics of a payload from its parent aircraft. The simulation allowed obtaining the free motion parameters of the payload taking into account its mass and momentum characteristics, aerodynamic forces and moments as well as gravity.     

Possible role of electrostatic potential in formation of sharp boundaries of small-scale and middle-scale solar wind structures

Sharp boundaries of small-scale and middle-scale structures of the solar wind are an essential part of a turbulized solar wind. Such boundaries are observed near the Earth’s orbit as sharp and large-amplitude changes of parameters (in particular, ion density) of the solar wind. In this paper, the observed phenomena are briefly described, and an account of their basic properties and specific features is given. Using the kinetic approach, a possible theoretical mechanism is suggested in order to explain some peculiarities in the formation of these structures.     

AE9, AP9 and SPM: New Models for Specifying the Trapped Energetic Particle and Space Plasma Environment

The radiation belts and plasma in the Earth’s magnetosphere pose hazards to satellite systems which restrict design and orbit options with a resultant impact on mission performance and cost. For decades the standard space environment specification used for spacecraft design has been provided by the NASA AE8 and AP8 trapped radiation belt models. There are well-known limitations on their performance, however, and the need for a new trapped radiation and plasma model has been recognized by the engineering community for some time. To address this challenge a new set of models, denoted AE9/AP9/SPM, for energetic electrons, energetic protons and space plasma has been developed. The new models offer significant improvements including more detailed spatial resolution and the quantification of uncertainty due to both space weather and instrument errors. Fundamental to the model design, construction and operation are a number of new data sets and a novel statistical approach which captures first order temporal and spatial correlations allowing for the Monte-Carlo estimation of flux thresholds for user-specified percentile levels (e.g., 50th and 95th) over the course of the mission. An overview of the model architecture, data reduction methods, statistics algorithms, user application and initial validation is presented in this paper.     

Physical–chemical properties of plasma membrane and function of erythrocytes of cosmonauts after long-term space flight

We studied microfluidity and selective ion permeability of plasma membranes and O₂-binding properties of erythrocytes of cosmonauts during early rehabilitation after a long-term space flight (LTSF). Microfluidity of plasma membranes in surface regions was found to undergo a reversible decrease during 13–15 days following LTSF, which was accompanied by a reversible increase in relative cholesterol content. Cosmonauts’ erythrocytes revealed an increased activity of Na/H-exchanger and K_Ca-channel as well as a decrease in number of discocytes and increase in number of echinocytes, stomatocytes and knizocytes. Total hemoglobin content as well as oxyhemoglobin content were lowered after the LTSF, while the affinity of hemoglobin to O₂ was advanced. It is suggested that the changes in Hb properties, microfluidity and selective permeability of plasma membranes following the elevated cholesterol content in the membranes can decrease tissue supply with O₂.