A method of calculation of vertical cutoff rigidity in the geomagnetic field

On the basis of generalization of the results of extensive trajectory calculations for trial charged particles moving in the geomagnetic field the method of calculation of effective vertical cutoff rigidity, taking into account the values of K _p -index and local time, is developed. The IGRF and Tsyganenko-89 models are used for the geomagnetic field. A comparison of the results of model simulations with the experimental data on penetration of charged particles into near-Earth space is made, and penetration functions for typical spacecraft orbits are calculated.     

On the problem of rotation of the ocean and icy crust of Jovian moon Europa

A mathematical model of the non-steady-state magnetosphere of the ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa is described. This magnetosphere is induced by the magnetic field of Jupiter, and its interaction with the Europa ocean is considered. Rotation of the ocean and its icy crust with respect to the hard core is described by a system of integro-differential equations with singular kernels, the values of the Reynolds number and magnetic Reynolds number being large for the system. The solution to these equations obtained by the methods of operational calculus is analyzed quantitatively and compared with a model experiment.     

Autonomous navigation of formation flying spacecrafts in deep space exploration and communication by hybrid navigation utilizing neural network filter

Autonomous navigation of spacecrafts is a difficult task, however, which is a must in future deep space exploration. With multiple spacecrafts flying in space, this aim can be achieved by formation flying spacecraft (FFS) utilizing inverse time difference of arrival (ITDOA) and inverse difference Doppler (IDD) methods, which can locate the position of earth-station from one-way uplink signals in the FFS coordinate, and by way of conversion of coordinates, the position of FFS is achieved in earth-centered earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinate. The ability of neural network (NN) filter in navigation to extract position of spacecrafts from random measuring noise of signal arrival time and Doppler shift is studied with different radius of FFS and surveying parameters. The NN filter used by spacecraft group is new way of unidirectional autonomous navigation and is of high precision of hybrid navigation.     

Pioneer 10 Doppler data analysis: Disentangling periodic and secular anomalies

This paper reports the results of an analysis of the Doppler tracking data of Pioneer probes which did show an anomalous behaviour. A software has been developed for the sake of performing a data analysis as independent as possible from that of Anderson et al. [Anderson, J., Laing, P.A., Lau, E.L., Liu, A.S., Nieto, M.M., Turyshev, S.G. Study of the anomalous acceleration of Pioneer 10 and 11. Phys. Rev. D 65, 082004, 2002], using the same data set. A first output of this new analysis is a confirmation of the existence of a secular anomaly with an amplitude about 0.8 nm s⁻² compatible with that reported by Anderson et al. A second output is the study of periodic variations of the anomaly, which we characterize as functions of the azimuthal angle φ$\phi$ defined by the directions Sun–Earth Antenna and Sun-Pioneer. An improved fit is obtained with periodic variations written as the sum of a secular acceleration and two sinusoids of the angles φ$\phi$ and 2φ$2\phi$. The tests which have been performed for assessing the robustness of these results are presented.     

A laboratory study on the thermally induced transformation of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to the cyanogen anion (CN) in Solar System analog ices

Mixtures of molecular nitrogen and methane have been identified in numerous outer Solar Systemices including the icy surfaces of Pluto and Triton. We have simulated the interaction of ionizing radiation in the Solar System by carrying out a radiolysis experiment on a methane – molecular nitrogen ice mixture with energetic electrons. We have identified the hydrogen cyanide molecule as the most prominent carbon–nitrogen-bearing reaction product formed. Upon warming the irradiated sample, we followed for the first time the kinetics and temporal evolution of the underlying acid–base chemistry which resulted in the formation of the cyanide ion from hydrogen cyanide. On the surfaces of Triton and Pluto and on comets in Oort’s cloud this sort of complex chemistry is likely to occur. In particular, hydrogen cyanide can be produced in low temperature environments (Oort cloud comets) and may be converted into cyanide ions once the comets reach the warmer regions of the Solar System.     

Using high-energy proton fluence to improve risk prediction for consequences of solar particle events

The potential for exposure to large solar particle events (SPEs) with high energy levels is a major concern during interplanetary transfer and extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) on the lunar and Mars surface. Previously, we have used data from the last 5 solar cycles to estimate percentiles of dose to a typical blood-forming organ (BFO) for a hypothetical astronaut in a nominally shielded spacecraft during a 120-d lunar mission. As part of this process, we made use of complete energy spectra for 34 large historical SPEs to calculate what the BFO mGy-Eq dose would have been in the above lunar scenario for each SPE. From these calculated doses, we then developed a prediction model for BFO dose based solely on an assumed value of integrated fluence above 30 MeV (Φ₃₀) for an otherwise unspecified future SPE. In this study, we reasoned that since BFO dose is determined more by protons with higher energies than by those with lower energies, more accurate BFO dose prediction models could be developed using integrated fluence above 60 (Φ₆₀) and above 100 MeV (Φ₁₀₀) as predictors instead of Φ₃₀. However to calculate the unconditional probability of a BFO dose exceeding a pre-specified limit (“BFO dose risk”), one must also take into account the distribution of the predictor (Φ_30,Φ₆₀, or Φ₁₀₀), as estimated from historical SPEs. But Φ₆₀ and Φ₁₀₀ have more variability, and less available historical information on which to estimate their distributions over many SPE occurrences, than does Φ₃₀. Therefore, when estimating BFO dose risk there is a tradeoff between increased BFO dose prediction at a given energy threshold and decreased accuracy of models for describing the distribution of that threshold over future SPEs as the threshold increases. Even when taking the second of these two factors into account, we still arrived at the conclusion that overall prediction improves as the energy level threshold increases from 30 to 60 to 100 MeV. These results can be applied to the development of approaches to improve radiation protection of astronauts and the optimization of mission planning for future space missions.     

Possible physical properties of the flow in the vicinity of the heliopause

An interface between the fully ionized hydrogen plasma of the solar wind (SW) and the partially ionized hydrogen gas flow of the local interstellar medium (LISM) is formed as a region where there is a strong interaction between these two flows. The interface is bounded by the solar wind termination shock (TS) and the LISM bow shock (BS) and is separated on two regions by the heliopause (HP) separating the solar wind and charged component of the LISM (plasma component below). The BS is formed due to the deceleration of the supersonic LISM flow relative to the solar system. Regions of the interface between the TS and HP and between the HP and BS were in literature named as the inner and outer heliosheaths, respectively. An investigation of the structure and physical properties of the heliosheath is at present especially interested due to the fact that Voyager-1 and Voyager-2 have crossed the TS in December 2004 (Burlaga, L.F., Ness, N.F., Acuna, M.Y., et al. Crossing the termination shock into the the heliosheath. Magnetic fields. Science 309, 2027–2029, 2005; Fisk, L.A. Journey into the unknown beyond. Science 309, 2016–2017, 2005; Decker, R.B., Krimigis, S.M., Roelof, E.C., et al. Voyager 1 in the foreshock, termination shock and heliosheath. Science 309, 2020–2024, 2005; Stone, E.C., Cummings, A.C., McDonald, F.B., et al. Voyager 1 explores the termination shock region and the heliosheath beyond. Science 309, 2017–2020, 2005) and in September 2007 (Jokipii, J.R. A shock for Voyager 2. Nature 454, 38–39, 2008; Gurnett, D.A., Kurth, W.S. Intense plasma waves at and near the solar wind termination shock. Nature 454, 78–80, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07023; Wang, L., Lin, R.P., Larson, D.E., Luhmann, J.G. Domination of heliosheath pressure by shock-accelerated pickup ions from observations of neutral atoms. Nature 454, 81–83, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07068.14; Burlaga, L.F., Ness, N.F., Acuna, M.H., et al. Magnetic fields at the solar wind termination shock. Nature 454, 75–77, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07029; Richardson, J.D., Kasper, J.C., Wang, C., et al. Cool heliosheath plasma and deceleration of the upstream solar wind at the termination shock. Nature 454, 63–66, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07024; Stone, E.C., Cummings, A.C., McDonald, F.B., et al. An asymmetric solar wind termination shock. Nature 454, 71–74, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature07022; Decker, R.B., Krimigis, S.M., Roelof, E.C., et al. Mediation of the solar wind termination shock by non-thermal ions. Nature 454, 67–70, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature 07030), respectively, and entered to the inner heliosheath.     

Induction of genomic instability after an acute whole-body exposure of mice to Fe ions

The purpose of this study was to evaluate dose–response relationships for the in vivo induction of micronuclei (MN) as a measure of both initial radiation damage and the induction of genomic instability. These measurements were made in mouse blood erythrocytes as a function of radiation dose, radiation quality, time after irradiation, and the genetic background of exposed individuals. Blood samples were collected from two strains of mouse (CBA/CaJ and C57BL/6J) at different times up to 3 months following a whole-body exposure to various doses of 1 GeV/amu ⁵⁶Fe ions (0, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 Gy, at the dose rate of a 1 Gy/min) or ¹³⁷Cs gamma rays (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 3.0 Gy, at the dose rate of 0.72 Gy/min). Blood-smear slides were stained with acridine orange (AO). The frequencies of MN were measured in mature normochromatic-erythrocytes (MN-NCEs) and in immature polychromatic-erythrocytes (MN-PCEs). Effects of both types of radiation on erythropoiesis were also evaluated. As a measure of cell progression delay, a dose-dependent decrease in numbers of PCEs was observed at day 2 post-exposure in both strains, regardless of radiation quality. Subsequently, the levels of PCEs increased in all exposed mice, reaching control levels (or higher) by day 7 post-exposure. Further, at day 2 after the exposure, there was no increase in the frequency of MN-PCEs in CBA/CaJ mice exposed to ⁵⁶Fe ions while the frequency of MN-PCEs elevated as a function of dose in the C57BL/6J mice. At day 4, there was no dose related increase in MN-NCEs in either strain of mouse exposed to ¹³⁷Cs gamma rays. Additionally, at the early sacrifice times (days 2 and 4), ⁵⁶Fe ions were slightly more effective (per unit dose) in inducing MN-NCEs than ¹³⁷Cs gamma rays in CBA/CaJ mice. However, there was no increase in the frequency of MN-NCEs at late times after an acute exposure to either type of radiation. In contrast, both types of radiation induced increased MN-PCEs frequencies in irradiated CBA/CaJ mice, but not C57BL/6J mice, at late times post-exposure. This finding indicates the potential induction of genomic instability in hematopoietic cells of CBA/CaJ mice by both types of radiation. The finding also demonstrates the influence of genetic background on radiation-induced genomic instability in vivo.     

Optimization of transfers under constraints on the thrust direction: II

This paper completes the study of optimal transfers with constraints imposed on the thrust vector direction that was opened by paper [1]. The linear inhomogeneous and homogeneous constraints on the thrust direction are considered (specified either by equalities or inequalities), as well as mixed constraints. Some examples of the constraints are presented. A modified method of the transporting trajectory is applied in order to find the optimal transfer under the linear constraints on the thrust direction. This method also gives the necessary condition for a transfer possibility at a given constraint on the thrust direction. A numerical example is considered, in which the propellant consumption is analyzed for the cases of transfers with and without constraints.