Developing a vitamin greenhouse for the life support system of the International Space Station and for future interplanetary missions.

In order to evaluate the effects of gravity on growing plants, we conducted ground based long-term experiments with dwarf wheat, cultivar Apogee and Chinese cabbage, cultivar Khibinskaya. The test crops had been grown in overhead position with HPS lamp below root module so gravity and light intensity gradients had been in opposite direction. Plants of the control crop grew in normal position under the same lamp. Both crops were grown on porous metallic membranes with stable -1 kPa matric potential on their surface. Results from these and other studies allowed us to examine the differences in growth and development of the plants as well as the root systems in relation to the value of the gravity force influence. Dry weight of the roots from test group was decreased in 2.5 times for wheat and in 6 times - at the Chinese cabbage, but shoot dry biomass was practically same for both test and control versions. A harvest index of the test plants increased substantially. The data shows, that development of the plants was essentially changed in microgravity. The experiments in the space greenhouse Svet aboard the Mir space station proved that it is possible to compensate the effects of weightlessness on higher plants by manipulating gradients of environmental parameters (i.e. photon flux, matric potential in the root zone, etc.). However, the average productivity of Svet concerning salad crops even in ground studies did not provide more than 14 g fresh biomass per day. This does not provide a sufficient level of supplemental nutrients to the crew of the ISS. A cylindrical design of a space plant growth chamber (SPGC) allows for maximal productivity in presence of very tight energy and volume limitations onboard the ISS and provides a number of operational advantages. Productivity from this type of SPGF with a 0.5 kW energy utilization when salad growing would provide approximately 100 g of edible biomass per day, which would almost satisfy requirements for a crew of two in vitamin C and carotene and partly vitamin B group as well as rough fiber.     

Analytical design of a causal multiconnected astatic observing device

A method for synthesis of a multiconnected astatic observing device that makes it possible to obtain a physically realizable (causal) solution is proposed. We determine the conditions that allow the problem solvability to be defined at the initial stage of synthesis.     

Medical prevention of space motion sickness--animal model of therapeutic effect of a new medicine on motion sickness.

Space motion sickness (MS) is one of the most important problems in the field of space medicine. In order to prevent space MS, a new medicine, PMPA, has been prepared by means of synthesizing in our laboratory. The purposes of this study were to set up animal models of PMPA against MS, and to observe its effects on anti-MS, and to prove its function of antagonism to choline. Eight cats, forty rabbits and two hundred and ten rats were selected as animal subjects. The parallel swing stimulus, a method causing the reversal syndromes and tests of anti-choline function were used in our experiments. The results are as follows: (1) The score of MS symptoms in cats with PMPA or scopolamine (SCOP) is significantly lower than that in cats with placebo (p<0.01), while the incidences of efficiency and prevention of PMPA (87.5%, 75%) are higher than those of SCOP (75.0%, 50%) in cats. (2) PMPA of 1.6 mg/kg or 0.8 mg/kg could antagonize the reversal syndromes and repress reversal rotation significantly in rabbits like SCOP in comparison with placebo (p<0.01). (3) PMPA could inhibit tremor evoked by oxotremorine or by nicotine-procaine in rats like SCOP, and play an important role in the antagonism to central M-choline and N-choline receptors. The animal experiments demonstrate that PMPA is an effective medicine against MS with antagonism function to choline.     

MELISSA: a potential experiment for a precursor mission to the Moon.

MELISSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) has been conceived as a micro-organism based ecosystem intended as a tool for developing the technology for a future artificial ecosystem for long term space missions, as for example a lunar base. The driving element of MELISSA is the recovering of edible biomass from waste, CO2, and minerals with the use of sun light as energy source. In this publication, we focus our attention on the potential applications of MELISSA for a precursor mission to the Moon. We begin by a short review of the requirements for bioregenerative Life Support. We recall the concept of MELISSA and the theoretical and technical approaches of the study. We present the main results obtained since the beginning of this activity and taking into account the requirements of a mission to the Moon we propose a preliminary experiment based on the C cycle of the MELISSA loop.     

近代烃类转化用换热转化器的开发与应用

汇集国内外开发的新型换热转化器(亦称转化炉)的设计形式和结构特征,可供老厂节气节能挖潜技术改造或新建装置优选和参考。     

Definition of the lower hybrid frequency by active wave methods on the intercosmos-24 satellite and comparison of these data with mass-spectrometric measurements

The lower hybrid resonance (LHR) frequency estimated from the mass-spectrometer data is compared with measurements using spectrograms of VLF noise excited by both natural sources and through active wave stimulation of the surrounding plasma. The measurements are from the Intercosmos 24 satellite taken over a 2 year period from 1989–1991.     

Radiation-induced syntheses in cometary simulated models.

The behavior of an aqueous-dominant multicomponent cometary model is examined at high doses of ionizing radiation. The system is composed of a water mixture of HCN (0.2 mol dm-3), CH3CN (0.04 mol dm-3), C2H5CN (0.02 mol dm-3), CH3OH (0.12 mol dm-3) and HCO2H (0.01 mol dm-3. It was exposed to gamma rays at doses up to 18.5 MGy. The chemical kinetic database used in the computer treatment of experimental data consists of 79 reactions. A complex mixture of products has been synthesized: gases, amino acids, carboxylic acids and polymeric material. The results suggest that the pristine material in cometary nuclei may have been chemically altered by the action of cosmic rays and embedded radionuclides.     

具有远近视距引导的机械臂多工位精确对准技术

为提升机械臂系统对环境的感知能力,针对机械臂多工位精确对准问题,提出了一种具有远近视距引导的机械臂多工位对准技术。首先构造具有远近视距的两目视觉配置,并与机械臂构成Eye-in-hand视觉反馈系统。然后标定两目视觉的内外参数和手眼关系变换矩阵。通过离线先验局部对准方式,建立各工位的任务表。提出了三阶段对准策略,即多工位作业起始位姿获取、全局相机的初定位和局域相机的精对准,使得机械臂能在多个工位下实现末端工具与目标的精确对准。通过多位置孔轴对准实验验证了本文方法的可行性。单个孔位重复对准标准差角度不超过0.015°,位置不超过0.078 mm,三阶段对准实验结果表明,角度误差小于0.05°,位置误差小于0.17 mm。     

Protective effects of melatonin against C beam irradiation-induced oxidative stress and DNA injury in the mouse brain

The purpose of this experiment was to estimate the protective effects of melatonin against radiation-induced brain damages in mice induced by heavy ion beams. Kun-Ming mice were randomly divided into five groups: normal control group, irradiation control group, and three different doses of melatonin (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) treated groups. Apart from the normal control group, the other four groups were exposed to whole-body 4.0 Gy carbon ion beam irradiation (approximately 0.5 Gy/min) after i.p. administration of normal saline or melatonin 1 h before irradiation. The oxidative redox status of brain tissue was assessed by measurement of malondiadehyde (MDA) levels, total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), cytosolic superoxide dismutase (Cu/ZnSOD, SOD1) and mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (MnSOD, SOD2) activities at 8 h after irradiation. DNA damages were determined using the Comet assay and apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were detected by flow cytometric analyses. A dramatic dose-dependent decrease in MDA levels, tail moment, rates of tailing cells, and apoptosis, and a dose-dependent increase in T-SOD and SOD2 activities, in brain tissues in the melatonin-treated groups were detected compared with the irradiation only group. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that the percentage of brain cells in the G0/G1 phase decreased significantly, while those in the S and G2/M stage increased dramatically, with mice pretreated with melatonin compared to the irradiation control group. These data indicate that melatonin has protective effects against irradiation-induced brain injury, and that its underlying protective mechanisms may relate to modulation of oxidative stress induced by heavy ionirradiation.     

Monitoring of long-term land subsidence from 2003 to 2017 in coastal area of Semarang,Indonesia by SBAS DInSAR analyses using Envisat-ASAR,ALOS-PALSAR,and Sentinel-1A SAR data

Land subsidence is a critical issue that large cities located in coastal areas, such as Semarang, Indonesia, must address. The monitoring of land subsidence is vital for predicting and mitigating the disasters that such subsidence may cause. Therefore, an economical and effective monitoring method, which can continuously provide accurate measurements over extensive areas, is highly required. Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) has the potential to be a powerful technique that can meet the above demands. Actually, DInSAR has been applied to monitor the subsidence in Semarang, but it was for a limited period before 2012.In order to clarify the transition of the long-term subsidence behavior in Semarang, the Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) method, which is one type of time-series DInSAR, is employed in this research. The sets of data of Envisat-ASAR (2003–2007), ALOS-PALSAR (2007–2011), and Sentinel-1A (2015–2017) are employed for the analyses. Then, the validity of the SBAS results is discussed from the viewpoints of both spatial distribution and temporal transition using GPS displacement measurement results and the geological conditions of the ground.On the other hand, as the lifespan of SAR satellites is commonly designed to be around 5–7?years, an appropriate method, which can connect the subsidence provided independently by the unlinked time-series data sets of the three different SAR satellite data, is required. This study uses the Hyperbolic Method (HM) to connect the above unlinked SBAS results. The HM is often used to fit the monitored subsidence in practice as a geotechnical engineering tool. Using this method, 14?years of the temporal behavior of the subsidence in Semarang is evaluated.It is found that the transition of the subsidence is different depending on the location, and that the subsidence rate is still increasing in the north and northeast parts of the coastal area. This study shows that SBAS DInSAR can be a useful tool for long-term continuous subsidence monitoring.