Experiences in Managing the Prometheus Project

Congress authorized NASA's Prometheus Project in February 2003, with the first Prometheus mission slated to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The project had two major objectives: 1) to develop a nuclear reactor that would provide unprecedented levels of power and show that it could be processed safely and operated reliably in space for long-duration, deep-space exploration; and 2) to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter - Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa - and return science data that would meet the scientific goals as set forth in the Decadal Survey Report of the National Academy of Sciences. Early in project planning, it was determined that the development of the Prometheus nuclear-powered spaceship would be complex and require the intellectual knowledge residing at numerous organizations across the country. In addition, because of the complex nature of the project and the multiple partners, approaches beyond those successfully used to manage a typical JPL project would be needed. This describes the key experiences in managing Prometheus, which should prove useful for future projects of similar scope and magnitude.     

Investigation of the infrared characteristics of the rocket nozzle

Investigation of the infrared characteristics of a rocket nozzle is very important for the study of infrared initiating technology. The Narrow-Band Zone model is developed for that purpose. The spectral transmission and absorption factors are introduced, and the equations between radiative heat flux and the temperature of waill surfaces and gas are developed. The radiative heat transfer in one axisymmetric cylindrical enclosure filled with homogeneous radiative participating medium is computed with the Narrow-Band Zone model and compared with those in the reference documents. The comparison shows good agreement. The radiative heat transfer to the nozzle of one rocket engine is also calculated with the Narrow-Band Zone model, and the outgoing radiative energy flux and energy rate integrated in a mid-wave infrared band 2-6 pm, a long-wave infrared band 8-14 pm and the full wave band are analyzed. The following conclusions can be derived: the spectral radiation from the inlet and outlet of the nozzle show apparent spectral discontinuity, which appears greater in the 2.7-2.95 pm than in the neighboring wave band. The spectral outgoing radiative energy flux of nozzle wail is similar to that of gray body, which decreases with wavelength in 2-14 pm. The outgoing radiative energy flux on the nozzle wall is greater in the cylindrical and contracting section of nozzle, but smaller in the divergent section, which is determined by temperature. The nozzle of the rocket engine radiates most energy in the mid-wave surfaces by absorption. The most important feature of gas radiation is the strong selection of the waveband, so the detailed study of the infrared characteristics of nozzle of the rocket engine should be carried out on narrow-band computation.     

Service Orientation Principles in Integrated Communication Environments

Today, every modern organization aspires to improve its performance through better use of information technology. As communication technology improves, organizations can operate over wider distances and can even assemble operational components on an ad-hoc basis to meet requirements of a specific objective. Future air traffic communication studies are already discussing whether to operate IP networks that are combining voice and data transport. The problem is that although voice and data are using a common infrastructure, they remain separate at the application level. Probably, some service providers have already enjoyed reduced network infrastructure and operational costs by merging voice and data transport, but the majority may have failed to realize the significant cost, productivity, and service differentiation capabilities that converged, collaborative applications could bring. This elaborates mechanisms needed for a robust and globally interconnected network environment (including infrastructure, systems, processes, and people) in which data is shared timely and seamlessly among users, applications, and platforms. Such an environment enables substantially improved situational awareness and shortened decision-making cycles. Stepping ahead, our contribution discusses standards making application or service convergence a reality.     

Local Path Planning and Tracking Control of Vehicle Collision Avoidance System

Automotive collision avoidance technology can effectively avoid the accidents caused by dangerous traffic conditions or driver's manipulation errors.Moreover,it can promote the development of autonomous driving for intelligent vehicle in intelligent transportation.We present a collision avoidance system,which is composed of an evasive trajectory planner and a path following controller.Considering the stability of the vehicle in the conflict-free process,the evasive trajectory planner is designed by polynomial parametric method and optimized by genetic algorithm.The path following controller is proposed to make the car drive along the designed path by controlling the vehicle's lateral movement.Simulation results show that the vehicle with the proposed controller has good stability in the collision process,and it can ensure the vehicle driving in accordance with the planned trajectory at different speeds.The research results can provide a certain basis for the research and development of automotive collision avoidance technology.     

柔性卫星姿态稳定鲁棒变结构控制器设计

根据实际三轴稳定卫星姿态稳定,模型参数存在不确定性(转动惯量),以及未知干扰力矩,设计了一种鲁棒变结构控制器,它能确保系统具有全局渐近稳定性,并且系统能在有限的时间内到达滑模面,具有鲁棒到达条件,控制律实现简单。同时采用积分型滑模面,保证系统在到达滑模面后具有给定的良好性能。最后根据某颗公开卫星参数给出了具体的数值算例,数值仿真结果良好。从数值仿真结果来看,控制器在存在较大不确定性情况下(考虑系统转动惯量有5%的不确定性)依然保持良好性能,具有很强的鲁棒稳定性。而采用边界层改进控制器后,有效解决抖振问题,同时控制器的性能基本保持不变,从而说明鲁棒变结构控制器的设计是有效的。     

尾流作用下对转涡轮叶片振动的流固耦合数值分析

采用对转涡轮设计可以提高喷气发动机的推重比.本文应用ANSYS/CFX软件,采用流固耦合数值分析方法对低压涡轮转子叶片进行了分析.对一定的涡轮工况,得到了高压涡轮转子叶片尾流作用下的低压涡轮转子叶片振动的应力和变形变化规律.采用傅里叶变换,对流体激励力、叶片应力及变形相应进行频谱分析,结果表明:在复杂来流激励下,叶片的第一阶振动较易被激起;但高阶振动响应不可忽略;而且叶身温度场不同,被激起的振动阶次也不同.     

A broad climatology of very high latitude substorms

Magnetic data from a newly commissioned Indian Antarctic station Bharati (corrected geomagnetic (CGM) coordinates 74.7°S, 97.2°E) and closely-spaced IMAGE chain observatories (∼100° magnetic meridian in Northern hemisphere) has been analyzed to study the climatology of substorms which were localized poleward of the standard auroral oval. We considered four austral summers (year 2007–2010) when data from Bharati was available. Several very high latitude substorms were observed in this duration when the solar activity remained unexpectedly low for a long time. Various features of very high latitude substorms, e.g., local time dependence, interplanetary state, hemispherical asymmetry and their nightside low latitude signatures are examined. Events studied here, suggested the following properties of substorms occurring at very high latitudes: (1) maximum occurrence was observed near magnetic midnight (21:00–02:00 MLT). (2) In contradiction to earlier reports, many substorms were observed even during negative IMF Bz condition. In addition, majority of substorms occurred during low or moderate solar wind streams. (3) Magnetic signatures were often pronounced in the winter hemisphere. (4) Even if widely used standard AE indices fail to monitor very high latitude substorms, their low latitude signatures are often evident.     

基于大规模并行D-W分解算法的空中交通短期流量管理模型研究

针对空中交通短期流量管理问题,给出了整机型的空中交通短期流量管理模型(ST-TFMP)。运用大规模并行的D-W分解算法,结合数据仓储技术,快速解决了航班延误最小问题。同时对算法的计算性能进行了计算估计和实验分析。通过对实际终端区流量进行仿真计算,仿真结果验证了本文提出的并行算法的合理性。