固体发动机药柱粘结试件的三维应力分析

推进剂／衬层／绝热层矩形粘结试件已作为随发动机测试试件，用于监控药柱最薄弱的推进剂／衬层界面粘结质量。由于试件较厚，又材料具有粘弹特性，因此应对它进行三维粘弹性有限元分析。本文分析了推进剂／衬层界面附近的应力分布情况，并给出试件启裂点有效应力与拉伸平均应力之比的集中系数，供药柱结构完整性分析人员使用     

光纤加速度传感器

介绍开环和闭环两种光纤加速度传感器的特点、工作原理和结构简图，论述了温度对开环光纤加速度计的影响，以及解决此影响的方法，并给出了消除温度漂移误差的系统框图。     

定速拉伸的固体推进剂双轴板条的应力分析

对固体推进剂双轴板条试件进行了有限元分析，并考虑了粘弹性对应力结果的影响，分析结果表明，双轴板条试件中心域为平面应变状态，与发动机药柱中部内孔表面相似，并给出了计算杨氏模量所需的修正系数。     

刚弹性复杂系统在重力场中的定点转动

本文研究了轴对称刚－弹系统在重力场中的定点运动。首先利用模态分析方法将偏微分方程转化为常微分方程组，然后引进小参数将藕合的长周期运动和短周期运动分离。得到了这个非线性刚弹藉合系统的一次近似解，并利用它研究了刚－弹系统运动特性。     

固体火箭发动机点火过程内流场的二维预示

本文对固体火箭发动机点火过程的内场流进行了二维无粘非定常分析，计算得到了该阶段燃烧室中压强，温度和速度的分布。本文还提出了以近似预示复杂三维装药发动机内流场的有效积法。     

Mineralogical biosignatures and the search for life on Mars

If life ever existed, or still exists, on Mars, its record is likely to be found in minerals formed by, or in association with, microorganisms. An important concept regarding interpretation of the mineralogical record for evidence of life is that, broadly defined, life perturbs disequilibria that arise due to kinetic barriers and can impart unexpected structure to an abiotic system. Many features of minerals and mineral assemblages may serve as biosignatures even if life does not have a familiar terrestrial chemical basis. Biological impacts on minerals and mineral assemblages may be direct or indirect. Crystalline or amorphous biominerals, an important category of mineralogical biosignatures, precipitate under direct cellular control as part of the life cycle of the organism (shells, tests, phytoliths) or indirectly when cell surface layers provide sites for heterogeneous nucleation. Biominerals also form indirectly as by-products of metabolism due to changing mineral solubility. Mineralogical biosignatures include distinctive mineral surface structures or chemistry that arise when dissolution and/or crystal growth kinetics are influenced by metabolic by-products. Mineral assemblages themselves may be diagnostic of the prior activity of organisms where barriers to precipitation or dissolution of specific phases have been overcome. Critical to resolving the question of whether life exists, or existed, on Mars is knowing how to distinguish biologically induced structure and organization patterns from inorganic phenomena and inorganic self-organization. This task assumes special significance when it is acknowledged that the majority of, and perhaps the only, material to be returned from Mars will be mineralogical.     

Economy of modular low-technology launch vehicles

The paper comprises an assessment of the design and the economics of so-called “low-cost” simple modular launch vehicles. It is shown that the performance is very marginal and that the cost per launch cannot compete with technically more advanced fully reusable vehicles. Especially a private-funded development cannot be amortized economically in case of an expendable launch vehicle.     

Lunar precursor missions for human exploration of Mars--III: studies of system reliability and maintenance

Discussions of future human expeditions into the solar system generally focus on whether the next explorers ought to go to the Moon or to Mars. The only mission scenario developed in any detail within NASA is an expedition to Mars with a 500-day stay at the surface. The technological capabilities and the operational experience base required for such a mission do not now exist nor has any self-consistent program plan been proposed to acquire them. In particular, the lack of an Abort-to-Earth capability implies that critical mission systems must perform reliably for 3 years or must be maintainable and repairable by the crew. As has been previously argued, a well-planned program of human exploration of the Moon would provide a context within which to develop the appropriate technologies because a lunar expedition incorporates many of the operational elements of a Mars expedition. Initial lunar expeditions can be carried out at scales consistent with the current experience base but can be expanded in any or all operational phases to produce an experience base necessary to successfully and safely conduct human exploration of Mars.     

Production of neutrons from interactions of GCR-like particles

In order to help assess the risk to astronauts due to the long-term exposure to the natural radiation environment in space, an understanding of how the primary radiation field is changed when passing through shielding and tissue materials must be obtained. One important aspect of the change in the primary radiation field after passing through shielding materials is the production of secondary particles from the breakup of the primary. Neutrons are an important component of the secondary particle field due to their relatively high biological weighting factors, and due to their relative abundance, especially behind thick shielding scenarios. Because of the complexity of the problem, the estimation of the risk from exposure to the secondary neutron field must be handled using calculational techniques. However, those calculations will need an extensive set of neutron cross section and thicktarget neutron yield data in order to make an accurate assessment of the risk. In this paper we briefly survey the existing neutron-production data sets that are applicable to the space radiation transport problem, and we point out how neutron production from protons is different than neutron production from heavy ions. We also make comparisons of one the heavy-ion data sets with Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) calculations.     

Radial velocity search for low mass companions of nearby stars

The detection of substellar companions of nearby stars is very difficult, because these objects are very faint and are located close to their bright parent stars. One way to attack this problem is to look for small periodic motion of the bright star, induced by the gravitational attraction exerted by the unseen small companion. Over the past decade stellar spectroscopy has been used by a few teams to monitor the radial velocities of several samples of stars, with a threshold for detection of companions well below the substellar limit of about 0.08 M. So far, only a few possible spectroscopic binaries have been identified where the unseen companions might be substellar.Recently, radio observers discovered that the millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12 displays periodic variations in the pulse arrival times, indicating the existence of at least three unseen companions in circular orbits around the pulsar. This is the first convincing case for an extra-solar planetary system. This discovery suggests that planetary systems can form in very different situations, and therefore may prove to be common.