美国陆军白沙导弹靶场动目标分辨技术的开发

“动目标分辨”(TMR)是指为了从现有测量雷达设备中提取更多更好信息的高度专用的软件和处理方法的总称。在美国陆军白沙靶场,TMR正在彻底改变C波段相干测量雷达系统的用途以及人们对该系统的看法。只需要对雷达稍作花钱不多的改造,就可以实现一种技术,用以测得精密的弹道参数,获得目标相对于重心的运动以及相对于雷达的定向,而且可以检测目标发生的各种事件,如主发动机关机,导弹分离,弹头爆炸,以及子弹头释放等等。     

用于低轨卫星精密轨道确定的简化动力学法

全球定位系统(GPS)的测量量可促成一种简化动力学法,用于近地卫星的近厘米级定轨。利用这种方法,不同观测时刻的卫星状态问的转移由正规的动力学模型和由连续GPS载波相位数据以运动学法导出的卫星位置变化来完成。动力学信息和运动学信息间的相对权重可自由变化。协方差分析表明:当观测几何差而动力学模型好时,模型支配着状态转移的计算;动力模型差而观测几何好时,载波相位统治着状态转移的计算;而当运动学和动力学信息间没有明显优劣时,简化动力学联合法可显著提高轨道精度。本文给出简化动力学法中准最佳的择权准则,并研究了求解精度对权的敏感性。     

Bone and body mass changes during space flight

Long duration space flight has shown us that humans have significant bone loss and mineral changes because they are living in microgravity. Skylab and the longer Salyut and Mir missions, are providing us useful data and allowing us to explore the mechanism involved in skeletal turnover. Bone redistribution occurs throughout space flight with bone loss predominately in the weight bearing bones of posture and locomotion. The primary health hazards which may occur during space flight induced by skeletal changes include signs and symptoms of hypercalcemia, and the risk of kidney stones and metastatic calcification. After flight lengthy recovery of bone mass and the possible increase in the risk of bone fracture should be considered. Continued research studies are being directed toward determining the mechanisms by which bone is lost in space and developing more effective countermeasures by both the US (Schneider and McDonald, 1984 and Schneider, LeBlanc & Huntoon, 1993) and Russian (Grigoriev et. al., 1989) space programs.     

The SERENDIP piggyback SETI project

The SERENDIP project is an ongoing program of monitoring and processing broadband radio signals acquired by existing radio astronomy observatories. SERENDIP operates in a piggyback mode: it makes use of whatever observing plan (sequence of frequencies, sky coordinates, and polarizations) is under way at its host observatory. Moreover, the SERENDIP data acquisition system, once installed, operates autonomously. This approach makes it possible to obtain large amounts of high quality observing time in a manner that is economical and that does not adversely affect ongoing radio astronomy survey work. The SERENDIP II system has been installed at the NRAO 300-foot telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia, and has operated there for several thousand hours. In this report, we summarize our findings from these observations and describe the present status of the project. Two key elements of SERENDIP are the automated data acquisition system that uses adaptive thresholds and logs only statistically significant peaks in the real-time power spectra, and the subsequent off-line analysis programs that identify and reject a variety of interference signals. Several specific correlations have been identified that offer promise. At present, the development and testing of these interference rejection algorithms is the main thrust of our work.     

具有反应流的固体冲压式火箭 发动机侧向进气道排放燃烧室的研究

固体冲压式火箭发动机是冲压发动机的一种变种。本研究使用一个带侧向空气道的排放燃烧室。考虑反应流,在燃气发生器中装填了50％高氯酸铵和50％聚酯的富燃推进剂。将κ—ε联立方程描述的湍流模型和一个简单、一步、快速反应的化学动力学总合成椭圆型偏微分方程来描述流场。为了适合所研究的问题,由改进的TEACH计算机程序来求解。基于此分析,更加深入地了解到混合和燃烧对固体冲压式火箭发动机全部性能的影响。将侧向空气进气道的位置移向燃料进气道,减少侧向空气进气道的角度,以及增加空气对燃料的比例,都能改善混合和燃烧特性,提高固体冲压式火箭发动机的比冲,这与Vanka的分析结果和Schadow的试验数据定性地一致。     

中巴地球资源卫星在巴西的应用

重点介绍了当前巴西以用户为导向的中巴地球资源卫星(CBERS-1)数据在森林采伐监测、土地利用规划、影像制图和科学应用等方面的应用项目，对今后利用中巴地球资源卫星开展国家项目发表了一些看法。     

Scenarios which may lead to the rise of an asteroid-based technical civilisation

In a previous paper, the author described a hypothetical development path of technical civilisations which has the following stages: planet dwellers, asteroid dwellers, interstellar travellers, interstellar space dwellers. In this paper, several scenarios are described which may cause the rise of an asteroid-based technical civilisation. Before such a transition may take place, certain space technologies must be developed fully (now these exist only in very preliminary forms): closed-cycle biological life support systems, space manufacturing systems, electrical propulsion systems. After mastering these technologies, certain events may provide the necessary financial means and social impetus for the foundation of the first asteroid-based colonies. In the first scenario, a rich minority group becomes persecuted and they decide to leave the Earth. In the second scenario, a "cold war"-like situation exists and the leaders of the superpowers order the creation of asteroid-based colonies to show off their empires' technological (and financial) grandiosity. In the third scenario, the basic situation is similar to the second one, but in this case the asteroids are not just occupied by the colonists. With several decades of hard work, an asteroid can be turned into a kinetic energy weapon which can provide the same (or greater) threat as the nuclear arsenal of a present superpower. In the fourth scenario, some military asteroids are moved to Earth-centred orbits and utilised as "solar power satellites" (SPS). This would be a quite economical solution because a "military asteroid" already contains most of the important components of an SPS (large solar collector arrays, power distribution devices, orbit modifying rocket engine), one should add only a large microwave transmitter.     

Voluntary head stabilization in space during trunk movements in weightlessness

The ability to voluntarily stabilize the head in space during lateral rhythmic oscillations of the trunk has been investigated during parabolic flights. Five healthy young subjects, who gave informed consent, were examined. The movements were performed with eyes open or eyes closed, either during phases of microgravity or phases of normal gravity. The main result to emerge from this study is that the head may be stabilized in space about the roll axis under microgravity conditions with, as well as without vision, despite the reduction of the vestibular afferent and the muscle proprioceptive inputs. Moreover, the absence of head stabilization about the yaw axis confirms that the degrees of freedom of the neck can be independently controlled, as it was previously shown [1]. These results seem to indicate that voluntary head stabilization does not depend crucially upon static vestibular afferents. Head stabilization in space may be in fact organized on the basis of either dynamic vestibular afferents or a postural body scheme.     

“飞马座”运载火箭

在“挑战者”号航天飞机失事之后,美国便竭力要为空军和民用用户提供一次性使用运载火箭.这些运载火箭包括“阿特拉斯”Ⅱ、“德尔它”Ⅱ、“大力神”Ⅳ,以及新研制的大推力先进运载火箭(ALV)和航天飞机C.与此同时,美国还正研制一种飞行轨迹全然不同的小型运载火箭——“飞马座”空中发射运载火箭.