Telescience testbed for biomedical experiments in space morphological and physiological experiments of rat musculoskeletal system.

As the second telescience testbed experiment we were examined sophisticated processes of biomedical experiment, such as an implantation of a transmitter into the hamster's abdominal cavity, non-stressful blood sampling, large amount of blood collection, muscle extirpation and biopsy from the hamsters on February 6-8, 1990. To make clear the differences between successful results obtained by an experienced hand and by a non-experienced one, three operators were selected for three successive experimental days; an engineer who had never experienced any biological experiment, a non-biology student, who experienced on biological experiments, and a veterinary surgeon. Surgical procedures need much experiences on maneuvering and understanding of theory to shorten the elapse time. Especially for a non-experienced hand, graphic instructions were much helpful to understand and to maneuver the procedures. Continuous recordings of ECG from a operator and PIs were of an advantage to grasp an extent of the mental strain, which was compared with their reports requested after end of each experimental day. The mental strain was not related to degrees of scientific achievement, but showed faithfully difficulty of each experimental procedure. Training effects on PIs in successive experimental days were found in their instructions for the operator to let understand the procedures.     

Induction of asymmetrical type of chromosomal aberrations in cultured human lymphocytes by ion beams of different energies at varying let from HIMAC and RRC

Frequencies of asymmetrical type of chromosome aberration were scored in cultured human blood lymphocytes irradiated with carbon and neon beams. Blood cells were irradiated with various doses to establish dose response curves for chromosome aberration frequency vs. dose, and chromosome preparation was made by conventional method. Dose response curves for the per cell frequencies of the dicentrics and centric rings as well as the excess amount of acentric fragments were described for 7 different qualities (LET= 22.4, 40.0, 41.5, 69.9, 70.0, 100.0 and 150 KeV/μm) of carbon and neon beams with three different energies, 135, 290 and 400 MeV/u. From the analysis of those dose response curves, the maximum effect was found in the region of LET value at near 70 KeV/μm together with linear expression in the response from all endpoints examined. The 135 MeV/u of carbons (69.9 KeV/μm) and neons (70.0 KeV/μm) showed linear response. The 290 MeV/u of carbons (100 KeV/m) and neons (150 KeV/μm) showed medium effects with different shape of response, linear with a plateau and upward concavity. The 2 carbon beams (41.5 and 40 KeV/μm) from 2 different accelerators showed much discrepancy in the response. RBE-LET relationship was also described by comparing the coefficient of the 7 different dose responses. The peak (near 70 KeV/m) was localized colse to that (80 KeV/m) for the survivals of dsb repair deficient cells (Eguchi-Kasai et al. 1998), but in different position from that previously reported in many other studies (100–200 KeV/mm). Identification of the RBEmax in the present study has yet to be definitive.     

Changes in prevalence of subjective fatigue during 14-day 6° head-down bed rest

The present study examines the prevalence of subjective fatigue in young healthy males during 14 days of 6° head-down bed rest (HDBR) by using a multidimensional questionnaire. Forty-one subjects completed the Subjective Fatigue Scale questionnaire to assess the fatigue-related complaints and symptoms. The questionnaire is composed of three sections, with 10 items each. The sections measured drowsiness and dullness (Section 1), difficulty in concentration (Section 2), and the projection of physical disintegration (Section 3). The subjects answered simple questions between 1400 and 1700 on 6 measurement days before and during the HDBR period. The prevalence rate of low back pain was markedly high (80.5%) on the second day and more than 50% in the first half of the HDBR period, and any complaints related to either a lack of sleep or a deterioration in the quality of sleep continued until the end of the HDBR period. Our findings may be useful in developing preventive strategies against physical and mental fatigue associated with prolonged HDBR, horizontal bed rest, and microgravity environments.     

Studies on the imaging characteristics of Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope: Optical aberration and scattering

In order to better understand the characteristics of Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) mirror, we have analyzed the in-flight overexposed image (the starburst image) obtained during the solar flare observation. It has been revealed from our study that the intensity distribution inside the shadows shown in the scattering difference image contains little of the scattered component of the PSF and matches almost correctly the extension of the PSF core profile. Also it is found that the scattering wing of the SXT PSF is connected smoothly to the PSF core within the distance of about 100–200 arcsec from the peak. With numerical simulations we have shown that an increase in energy affects not only the level of scattering wing, but also both the shape and the absolute level of the PSF core. The results have revealed, however, that the energy dependence for the SXT PSF cannot be easily estimated with the data obtained from one filter alone, which implies that the data analysis using multiple filters will enable us to determine the absolute amount of scattered component as well as the energy dependence of the SXT PSF. Details on the analysis of starburst image and the results from numerical simulations will be introduced and discussed thoroughly.     

Solar neutron events as a tool to study particle acceleration at the Sun

The Sun provides unique opportunities to study particle acceleration mechanisms using data from detectors placed on the Earth’s surface and on board spacecrafts. Particles may gain high energies by several physical mechanisms. Differentiating between these possibilities is a fundamental problem of cosmic ray physics. Energetic neutrons provide us with information that keeps the signatures of the acceleration site. A summary of some representative solar neutron events observed on the Earth’s surface, including associated X and γ-ray observations from spacecrafts is presented. We discuss evidence of acceleration of particles by the Sun to energies up to several tens of GeV. In addition, a recent solar neutron event that occurred on September 7th 2005 and detected by several observatories at Earth is analyzed in detail.     

Hands-on education system using water rocket

Trial of hands-on education of rocket technology for university students using water rocket, which consists of structural study, propulsion system study, aerodynamic study, stability study, and flight trajectory study, has been performed. Integrating each subject into a group of tasks, a hands-on education system of aerospace technology will become feasible. Advantage of the system is that students can verify the theory by hands-on practice. Development of recovery mechanism for water rocket will be a good subject of hands-on innovative design. Although the system has been developed mostly for university students, it can easily be converted to hands-on education system for school children and high school students.     

Mesospheric nitric oxide and ozone measurements in polar winter at 69°N

Two rocket experiments were carried out just before and after the polar night at Andoya (69°N), Norway to investigate transport of nitric oxide produced by auroral processes into the middle atmosphere and its influence on the ozone chemistry. Nitric oxide densities of (2–5) × 10⁸cm⁻³ found in the 70–90 km region are one to two orders of magnitude larger than those at middle latitudes. The influence on ozone densities in the 70–90 km region due to such enhanced nitric oxide abundance is found to be insignificant as compared to that due to transport in the middle of February. The larger ozone densities found in February (in spite of longer sunlit duration) than in November in the 40–60 km region again support predominance of transport over photochemical loss.     

Automatic detection of typical dust devils from Mars landscape images

This paper presents an improved algorithm for automatic detection of Martian dust devils that successfully extracts tiny bright dust devils and obscured large dust devils from two subtracted landscape images. These dust devils are frequently observed using visible cameras onboard landers or rovers. Nevertheless, previous research on automated detection of dust devils has not focused on these common types of dust devils, but on dust devils that appear on images to be irregularly bright and large. In this study, we detect these common dust devils automatically using two kinds of parameter sets for thresholding when binarizing subtracted images. We automatically extract dust devils from 266 images taken by the Spirit rover to evaluate our algorithm. Taking dust devils detected by visual inspection to be ground truth, the precision, recall and F-measure values are 0.77, 0.86, and 0.81, respectively.     

Small cryogenic propulsion unit for upper stage application

The feasibility study was conducted to use the cryogenic propulsion system for the third stage of the future H-1 vehicle. While the $\text{LO}{}_2\text{LH}{}_2$ third-stage mass fraction is less than the current solid propellant third stage, the 50% higher Isp results in a significantly higher payload. Two basic configurations of the new propulsion system were proposed: one pressure-fed system and two pump-fed systems. The first is a pressure-fed system providing a 700 kg thrust at an Isp of 441 sec with restart capability. The second is a pump-fed system, operating on an expander cycle principle. A midget turbopump with a 90 000 rpm shaft speed feeds the thrust chamber which delivers 1 ton of thrust at an Isp of 471 sec. The third proposed system is also a pump-fed design using a unique expander bleed cycle, and delivers a 1 ton thrust at an Isp of 470 sec with a turbopump speed of 80 000 rpm. The results of engine testing predict the performance feasibility of respective propulsion system designs.