Tunnel/predictor display with two-axis control coordination and simplification

A longitudinal-lateral control coordination and simplification concept is considered for a tunnel/predictor display, which presents the command flight path and a specified future aircraft position in a 3-dimensional format to the pilot, for improving flight path control. A basic element of the proposed concept is the generation of common longitudinal-lateral transfer characteristics of the predictor-aircraft system for the crossover frequency region. Control coordination is supported by a dynamics similarity between the longitudinal and the lateral response characteristics of the predictor position in closed-loop pilot control actions. The control coordination and simplification concept is considered to support the pilot in manual flight path control, directed at an enhancement of his control performance and at a reduction of his workload. Results from pilot-in-the-loop simulation experiments support the theoretical findings and show the effectiveness of the proposed predictor concept with control coordination.     

Scientific Planning and Commanding of the Rosetta Payload

ESA’s Rosetta mission was launched in March 2004 and is on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it is scheduled to arrive in summer 2014. It comprises a payload of 12 scientific instruments and a Lander. All instruments are provided by Principal Investigators, which are responsible for their operations. As for most ESA science missions, the ground segment of the mission consists of a Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and a Science Operations Centre (SOC). While the MOC is responsible for all spacecraft-related aspects and the final uplink of all command timelines to the spacecraft, the scientific operations of the instruments and the collection of the data and ingestion into the Planetary Science Archive are coordinated by the SOC. This paper focuses on the tasks of the SOC and in particular on the methodology and constraints to convert the scientific goals of the Rosetta mission to operational timelines.     

Stochastic optimal control guidance law with bounded acceleration

A novel stochastic optimal control guidance law is presented for a missile with bounded acceleration. The nonlinear optimal guidance law (NOGL) is obtained by numerically solving the stochastic optimization problem. Since the certainty equivalence principle is not valid in the investigated problem, the resulting NOGL depends on the conditional probability density function of the estimated states. It is shown that the NOGL is also nonlinear in the estimated zero effort miss distance, and that the probability density function of the miss distance is non-Gaussian. The dependence of the new guidance law on the acceleration limit is investigated and it is shown that only for an extremely large acceleration limit does the proposed guidance law degenerate to the classical optimal linear one     

Spectroscopic Measurement of Coronal Compositions

Although the elemental composition in all parts of the solar photosphere appears to be the same this is clearly not the case with the solar upper atmosphere (SUA). Spectroscopic studies show that in the corona elemental composition along solar equatorial regions is usually different from polar regions; composition in quiet Sun regions is often different from coronal hole and active region compositions and the transition region composition is frequently different from the coronal composition along the same line of sight. In the following two issues are discussed. The first involves abundance ratios between the high-FIP O and Ne and the low-FIP Mg and Fe that are important for meaningful comparisons between photospheric and SUA compositions and the second involves a review of composition and time variability of SUA plasmas at heights of 1.0≤h≤1.5R _⊙.     

The Origin of Mercury

Mercury’s unusually high mean density has always been attributed to special circumstances that occurred during the formation of the planet or shortly thereafter, and due to the planet’s close proximity to the Sun. The nature of these special circumstances is still being debated and several scenarios, all proposed more than 20 years ago, have been suggested. In all scenarios, the high mean density is the result of severe fractionation occurring between silicates and iron. It is the origin of this fractionation that is at the centre of the debate: is it due to differences in condensation temperature and/or in material characteristics (e.g. density, strength)? Is it because of mantle evaporation due to the close proximity to the Sun? Or is it due to the blasting off of the mantle during a giant impact? In this paper we investigate, in some detail, the fractionation induced by a giant impact on a proto-Mercury having roughly chondritic elemental abundances. We have extended the previous work on this hypothesis in two significant directions. First, we have considerably increased the resolution of the simulation of the collision itself. Second, we have addressed the fate of the ejecta following the impact by computing the expected reaccretion timescale and comparing it to the removal timescale from gravitational interactions with other planets (essentially Venus) and the Poynting–Robertson effect. To compute the latter, we have determined the expected size distribution of the condensates formed during the cooling of the expanding vapor cloud generated by the impact. We find that, even though some ejected material will be reaccreted, the removal of the mantle of proto-Mercury following a giant impact can indeed lead to the required long-term fractionation between silicates and iron and therefore account for the anomalously high mean density of the planet. Detailed coupled dynamical–chemical modeling of this formation mechanism should be carried out in such a way as to allow explicit testing of the giant impact hypothesis by forthcoming space missions (e.g. MESSENGER and BepiColombo).     

Two years of INTEGRAL observation of the BHC IGR J17464-3213

On March 2003, IBIS, the γ-ray imager on board the INTEGRAL satellite, detected an outburst from a new source, IGR J17464-3213, that turned out to be an HEAO-1 transient, namely H1743-322. The spectral and temporal evolutions of the source were observed by INTEGRAL in different periods. Also RXTE observed the source for the first time on 2003 March 29 during a PCA Galactic bulge scan. The source flux decayed below the RXTE PCA sensitivity limit in November 2003, then in April 2004 it was again detected by INTEGRAL. On July 3, 2004 the source was again detected by RXTE/PCA at a 2–10 keV intensity of 16 mCrab and on July 7, reached 69 mCrab. Recently, a new outburst was observed on August 2005. We briefly summarise here the behaviour of the source observed by INTEGRAL from March 2003 to August 2005. The new outbursts of the source and the analysis of all the data collected (now public) give a global view of the spectral and time behaviour of this X-ray transient.     

Unmanned aircraft navigation for shipboard landing using infrared vision

This paper addresses the problem of determining the relative position and orientation of an unmanned air vehicle with respect to a ship using three visible points of known separation. The, images of the points are obtained from an onboard infrared camera. The paper develops a numerical solution to this problem. Both simulation and flight test results are presented.     

Human exposure to large solar particle events in space.

Whenever energetic solar protons produced by solar particle events traverse bulk matter, they undergo various nuclear and atomic collision processes which significantly alter the physical characteristics and biologically important properties of their transported radiation fields. These physical interactions and their effect on the resulting radiation field within matter are described within the context of a recently developed deterministic, coupled neutron-proton space radiation transport computer code (BRYNTRN). Using this computer code, estimates of human exposure in interplanetary space, behind nominal (2 g/cm2) and storm shelter (20 g/cm2) thicknesses of aluminum shielding, are made for the large solar proton event of August 1972. Included in these calculations are estimates of cumulative exposures to the skin, ocular lens, and bone marrow as a function of time during the event. Risk assessment in terms of absorbed dose and dose equivalent is discussed for these organs. Also presented are estimates of organ exposures for hypothetical, worst-case flare scenarios. The rate of dose equivalent accumulation places this situation in an interesting region of dose rate between the very low values of usual concern in terrestrial radiation environments and the high dose rate values prevalent in radiation therapy.     

Planetary protection considerations for MarsNet and Mars sample return missions.

The ESA MarsNet mission proposal consists most probably of a trio of Mars landers. These landers each contain a variety of scientific equipment. The network of stations demands for a definition of its planetary protection requirements. With respect to the MarsNet mission only forward contamination problems will be considered. Future involvement of European efforts in planetary exploration including sample returns will also raise the problem of back contamination. A tradeoff study for the overall scientific benefit with respect to the approximative cost is necessary. Planetary protection guide-lines will be proposed by an interdisciplinary and international board of experts working in the fields of both biology and planetary science. These guide-lines will have to be flexible in order to be modified with respect to new research results, e.g. on adaptation of microorganisms to extreme (space) conditions. Experiments on the survival of microorganisms at conditions of simulated Mars surface and subsurface will have to be conducted in order to obtain a baseline data collection as a reference standard for future guide-lines.     

The J-MASS Marketplace: a new way for DoD to do business

It is current DoD policy to use commercial off-the-shelf software whenever it meets DoD requirements. The application of this policy to modeling and simulation has resulted in the concept of “The Joint Modeling and Simulation System (J-MASS) Marketplace.” J-MASS is designed as an Open Systems Architecture with the capability for the Simulation Support Environment (SSE) to be expanded by the addition of site specific software. In the “J-MASS Marketplace” industry will build commercial tools to work with J-MASS and individual organizations will license what they need for their particular site. The J-MASS SSE is a framework or backplane into which everything else plugs. A J-MASS product release would have the core capabilities, but the unique needs of various organizations would be satisfied by industry. This paper addresses how the J-MASS Marketplace could work and how compliance can be defined. It will outline opportunities for industry in both building software for the Marketplace and in defining the Marketplace concept