In-flight testing of the injection of the LISA Pathfinder test mass into a geodesic

LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator space mission, aimed at testing key technologies for detecting gravitational waves in space. The mission is the precursor of LISA, the first space gravitational waves observatory, whose launch is scheduled for 2034. The LISA Pathfinder scientific payload includes two gravitational reference sensors (GRSs), each one containing a test mass (TM), which is the sensing body of the experiment. A mission critical task is to set each TM into a pure geodesic motion, i.e. guaranteeing an extremely low acceleration noise in the sub-Hertz frequency bandwidth. The grabbing positioning and release mechanism (GPRM), responsible for the injection of the TM into a geodesic trajectory, was widely tested on ground, with the limitations imposed by the 1-g environment. The experiments showed that the mechanism, working in its nominal conditions, is capable of releasing the TM into free-fall fulfilling the very strict constraint imposed on the TM residual velocity, in order to allow its capture on behalf of the electrostatic actuation.However, the first in-flight releases produced unexpected residual velocity components, for both the TMs. Moreover, all the residual velocity components were greater than maximum value set by the requirements. The main suspect is that unexpected contacts took place between the TM and the surroundings bodies. As a consequence, ad hoc manual release procedures had to be adopted for the few following injections performed during the nominal mission. These procedures still resulted in non compliant TM states which were captured only after impacts. However, such procedures seem not practicable for LISA, both for the limited repeatability of the system and for the unmanageable time lag of the telemetry/telecommand signals (about 4400 s). For this reason, at the end of the mission, the GPRM was deeply tested in-flight, performing a large number of releases, according to different strategies. The tests were carried out in order to understand the unexpected dynamics and limit its effects on the final injection. Some risk mitigation maneuvers have been tested aimed at minimizing the vibration of the system at the release and improving the alignment between the mechanism and the TM. However, no overall optimal release strategy to be implemented in LISA could be found, because the two GPRMs behaved differently.     

Automated determination of the orientation of dust devil tracks in mars orbiter images

The paper presents and evaluates three methods for automatically estimating the main orientation of Martian dust devil tracks in MOC and HiRISE images. Inferring such information about dust devils from their tracks is important to better understand the near surface wind. The methods considered were based on gradient direction, directional openings and morphological granulometry. The accuracy of the methods was asserted by comparing the results to a set of directions estimated visually and assumed to be the ground truth. The higher accuracy was reached using directional openings. Besides, the directions inferred by this method were compared to those predicted by the GCM and the results agreed.     

The GANDER constellation for maritime dissaster mitigation

The development of sea state monitoring from polar-orbiting satellites has recently moved away from the concept of single, multi-sensor platform such as ERS-2, Topex/Poseidon or ENVISAT towards the design of a system that would allow frequent updates from a constellation of small satellites equipped with special-purpose radar altimeters. This new system, called GANDER for Global Altimeter Network Designed to Evaluate Risk, has attracted significant support from a number of important customer segments including the military.

This paper details the design of an altimeter for a Surrey small satellite, and illustrates the major system trade-offs that need to be made. Critical to the viability of the mission will be the development of a radar altimeter capable of operating successfully on a small satellite bus, within a limited volume and power budget. The mission design presents a number of key technological challenges, in order to permit a physically small antenna to be employed, and to minimise the pulse power. This can be achieved by advanced techniques, such as the delay Doppler altimeter concept, which emphasises the needs for high-speed on-board signal processing, phase linearity and pulse-to-pulse phase coherency.

The system design for the GANDER constellation is also described, illustrating how it not only offers a means for maritime disaster mitigation, but also can reduce shipping cost and time.     

Detection of Envisat RA2/ICE-1 retracked radar altimetry bias over the Amazon basin rivers using GPS

Altimetry is now routinely used to monitor stage variations over rivers, including in the Amazon basin. It is desirable for hydrologic studies to be able to combine altimetry from different satellite missions with other hydrogeodesy datasets such as leveled gauges and watershed topography. One requirement is to accurately determine altimetry bias, which could be different for river studies from the altimetry calibrated for deep ocean or lake applications. In this study, we estimate the bias in the Envisat ranges derived from the ICE-1 waveform retracking, which are nowadays widely used in hydrologic applications. As a reference, we use an extensive dataset of altitudes of gauge zeros measured by GPS collocated at the gauges. The thirty-nine gauges are spread along the major tributaries of the Amazon basin. The methodology consists in jointly modeling the vertical bias and spatial and temporal slope variations between altimetry series located upstream and downstream of each gauge. The resulting bias of the Envisat ICE-1 retracked altimetry over rivers is 1.044 ± 0.212 m, revealing a significant departure from other Envisat calibrations or from the Jason-2 ICE-1 calibration.     

一种小型弹载混合式光纤惯导系统设计

为解决混合式惯导在小型弹载惯导系统的应用问题,在论述混合式惯导技术特点的基础上,提出小型弹载混合式惯导系统所涉及的三项关键技术：小型化设计技术,抗振动高可靠锁紧技术和基于降维Kalman滤波的抗扰动自标定技术。重点对第三项技术提出具体的技术方案和实现途径。在建立惯导误差模型的基础上,根据姿态精度因子(ADOP)可观测度设计出混合式惯导系统的自标定流程,进行了卡尔曼滤波的降维处理和抗干扰观测量设计。开展了原理样机的标定试验、力学环境试验和导航精度试验工作,试验结果校验了技术方案的可行性和自标定算法的正确性,为其在小型战术导弹中的应用提供了工程借鉴。     

复杂航天器结构火工冲击环境预示方法研究

针对复杂航天器结构在宽频、瞬态火工冲击载荷激励下其响应难以预示的问题,以某型复杂卫星结构为研究对象开展了火工冲击环境预示方法研究。首先,推导了基于加速度频响函数(FRF)的虚拟模态综合法(VMSS)的理论公式。对于复杂卫星结构各子系统动力学特性存在较大差异的特点,建立了有限元-统计能量分析（FE-SEA）混合模型,并进行响应计算,获得了加速度频响包络曲线及模态数曲线,为虚拟模态综合法的响应预示提供输入。然后,对复杂卫星结构推进舱底板和侧板的火工冲击响应进行了计算分析。最后,将计算结果与整星火工分离冲击试验结果对比发现两者基本保持一致。研究结果表明,联合FE-SEA混合建模技术和虚拟模态综合法能够对复杂卫星结构火工冲击环境进行较为精确地预示。     

一种用于深空通信的系统LT码

针对传统LT（Luby Transform）码用于深空通信时性能不理想的问题,通过重构LT码的二分图设计适用于深空通信环境的系统LT码,提出一种去环编码算法。采用外信息转移图分析系统LT码的收敛阈值,然后通过仿真试验评估系统LT码的性能。仿真结果表明,采用本文提出的编码方案的系统LT码能够明显降低错误平层,提高译码算法的性能。     

HW/SW Co-design of the Instrument Control Unit for the Energetic Particle Detector on-board Solar Orbiter

ESA’s medium-class Solar Orbiter mission is conceived to perform a close-up study of our Sun and its inner heliosphere to better understand the behaviour of our star. The mission will provide the clues to discover how the Sun creates and controls the solar wind and thereby affects the environments of all the planets. The spacecraft is equipped with a comprehensive suite of instruments. The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) is one of the in-situ instruments on-board Solar Orbiter. EPD is composed of five different sensors, all of them sharing the Instrument Control Unit or ICU that is the sole interface with the spacecraft. This paper emphasises on how the hardware/software co-design approach can lead to a decrease in software complexity and highlights the versatility of the toolset that supports the development process. Following a model-driven engineering approach, these tools are capable of generating the high-level code of the software application, as well as of facilitating its configuration control and its deployment on the hardware platforms used in the different stages of the development process. Moreover, the use of the Leon2ViP virtual platform, with fault injection capabilities, allows an early software-before-hardware verification and validation and also a hardware–software co-simulation. The adopted solutions reduce development time without compromising the whole process reliability that is essential to the EPD success.