Experimental drop tube of the metallurgy department of Grenoble

The drop tube which will be available in the “Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble” is described. Its main features are the following: - Dimensions : Drop height : 47.1 m Drop time : 3.1 s Tube inside diameter : 0.2 m - Experimental atmosphere : 1 Ultra-vacuum : 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻⁷ Pa - Residual gravity level : 10⁻⁸ to 10⁻⁹ g according to the vacuum level and drop diameter.

This facility is unique insofar as it enables experiments to be performed under ultra-vacuum conditions which, by delaying the formation of surface oxides, should contribute to improving maximum undercooling values.

The techniques used for obtaining small metallic drops (0.5 to 3 mm) are described. The availability of this instrument for the scientific community is also foreseen by the french sponsoring organizations (CEA, CNES, CNRS) ; some practicle informations will be given to potential experimenters.     

Engineering concepts for inflatable Mars surface greenhouses.

A major challenge of designing a bioregenerative life support system for Mars is the reduction of the mass, volume, power, thermal and crew-time requirements. Structural mass of the greenhouse could be saved by operating the greenhouse at low atmospheric pressure. This paper investigates the feasibility of this concept. The method of equivalent system mass is used to compare greenhouses operated at high atmospheric pressure to greenhouses operated at low pressure for three different lighting methods: natural, artificial and hybrid lighting.     

Science rational for MIERS/IRI collaboration

In this paper, we will shortly highlight some of the aspects that COST Action 296 on Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems (MIERS) and International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) have in common in an attempt to define science rationale for collaboration between these two international projects.     

Surface tension-driven flows in horizontal liquid metal layers

The problem of surface tension-driven flows in horizontal liquid layers has been studied experimentally, and theoretically by direct numerical simulation and small perturbation analysis. We focus our attention on situations in which the depth of the fluid (liquid tin; small Prandtl number, Pr=0.015) is small enough to ensure the predominance of the surface tension forces over those due to the buoyancy. The surface velocity has been experimentally obtained for liquid tin layer with various aspect ratio (length to height) in the range 5<A<83. The thermal gradients are ranged from 5 to 40°K/cm. In the numerical study, the Navier-Stokes and energy equations are solved by an efficient finite difference technique. The parameters governing the flow behaviour in the liquid are varied to determine their effects on thermocapillary convection: the Reynolds number 10<Re<210⁴ and the aspect ratio 2<A<25; with Pr kept constant at Pr=0.015. The linear eigenequation resulting from small spatial disturbances of the Couette flow solution is solved using an Tau-Chebyshev approximation. A notable feature of the theoretical study is the totally different end circulations. In the region near the cold wall a multicell structure is evident. This agrees with the eigensolution which is of complex type, indicating spatial periodicity. In the hot wall region the flow is accelerated to reach the velocity value for the fully-developed Couette flow which is reached under conditions such as Re/A<20. The transition from viscous to boundary layer regime occurs for a critical value (Re/A)_c of nearly about 200, as deduced from the numerical and experimental results.     

Maps of hydrogen isotopes at low altitudes in the inner zone from sampex observations

The PET instrument aboard the SAMPEX satellite has provided us with long-term intra-calibrated observations of geomagnetically trapped protons and deuterons in the inner zone, suitable for use in constraining the low-altitude portions of radiation belt models being developed as successors to AP-8. These observations have been summarized elsewhere (Looper et al., 1996). Here we report a detection of geomagnetically-trapped tritium at energies from 14 to 35 MeV/nuc below L = 1.2, at about 1/8 the flux of deuterium previously reported at that location and at similar energy per nucleon. We also demonstrate the utility of the SAMPEX/PET observations for measuring the east-west anisotropy in the trapped particle flux at low altitudes, which is due to displacement of particle gyrocenters from the position of observation in a region of strong flux gradients. This anisotropy is implicitly ignored in omnidirectional radiation-flux models, but it can be important to mission planners considering how to distribute shielding over the surface of oriented spacecraft in low Earth orbit.     

Occurrence rate of SAR arcs during the 23rd solar activity cycle

The occurrence rate of SAR arcs during 1997–2007 has been analyzed based on the photometric observations at the Yakutsk meridian (Maimaga station, corrected geomagnetic coordinates: 57°N, 200°E). SAR arcs appeared in 114 cases (∼500 h) during ∼370 nights of observations (∼3170 h). The occurrence frequency of SAR arcs increases to 27% during the growth phase of solar activity and has a clearly defined maximum at a decline of cycle 23. The SAR arc registration probability corresponds to the variations in geomagnetic activity in this solar cycle. The dates, intervals of UT, and geomagnetic latitudes of SAR arc observations at the Yakutsk meridian are presented.     

Computational fluid dynamics and material processing (buoyancy and thermocapillary convections in melts during directional crystallization)

Modelisation and solution of heat and mass transfer problems relevant for material processing are generally hard to be handled, as they often involve 3D unsteady flows, viscous mixtures, phase changes, moving liquid-solid fronts, deforming liquid-gas interfaces, etc.… For space applications, material processing benefits of reduced buoyancy convection but can be faced to a strongly increased complexity due to variable g, mainly in manned flight.

Computational techniques used to analyse fluid motions in material processing, accounting for free surface, crystallization front and bulk convection in melt, are reviewed with emphasis to directional crystallization. Hydrodynamics stability and bifurcation analysis are shown to be useful complementary tools for correlating data, and for a better understanding of the physical laws. This last point will be illustrated in the case of the onset of oscillations in metallic melts.     

Induced abnormality in Mir- and Earth grown Super Dwarf wheat.

Super-dwarf wheat grown on the Mir space station using the Svet "Greenhouse" exhibited morphological, metabolic and reproductive abnormalities compared with Earth-grown wheat. Of prominent importance were the abnormalities associated with reproductive ontogeny and the total absence of seed formation on Mir. Changes in the apical meristem associated with transition from the vegetative phase to floral initiation and development of the reproductive spike were all typical of 'Super-Dwarf' wheat up to the point of anthesis. Observation of ruptured anthers from the Mir-grown plants revealed what appeared to be normally developed pollen. These pollen gains, however, contained only one nuclei, while normal viable pollen is tri-nucleate. A potentially important difference in the flight experiment, compared with ground reference studies, was the presence of a high level of atmospheric ethylene (1,200 ppb). Ground studies conducted by exposing 'Super-Dwarf' wheat to ethylene just prior to anthesis resulted in manifestation of the same abnormalities observed in the space flight samples.     

Effect of earth?s rotation and range foldover on space-based radar performance

Space-based radar (SBR) by virtue of its motion generates a Doppler frequency component to the clutter return from any point on the Earth as a function of the SBR-Earth geometry. The effect of the rotation of the Earth around its own axis also adds an additional component to this Doppler frequency. The overall effect of the rotation of the Earth on the Doppler turns out to be two correction factors in terms of a crab angle affecting the azimuth angle, and a crab magnitude scaling the Doppler magnitude of the clutter patch. Interestingly, both these quantities depend only on the SBR orbit inclination and its latitude and not on the location of the clutter patch of interest. Further, the crab angle has maximum effect for an SBR on a polar orbit that is above the equator. The crab magnitude, on the other hand, peaks for an SBR on an equatorial orbit. Together with the range foldover phenomenon, their overall effect is to generate Doppler spread/splitting resulting in wider clutter notches that degrade the clutter nulling performance of adaptive processing techniques. A detailed performance analysis and methods to minimize these effects are discussed here     

Carrier-wave interference to Loran-C: a statistical evaluation

Loran-C is a pulsed, hyperbolic radio aid for long-range marine, air, and land navigation. The worldwide expansion of Loran-C, especially in Europe, has focused attention on carrier-wave interference to the system. The effects of a multiplicity of carrier-wave interferers (CWIs) on receiver timing measurement accuracy are considered. Both the phase tracking and the cycle-selection performance of receivers are quantified in terms of the probabilities that they will operate correctly within the arbitrarily set error limits. Characteristic functions (CFs) are used to compute these probabilities. Analyses and results are presented for typical situations. The relative sensitivity of the phase tracking and cycle-selection functions to interfering signals are discussed