Martian jumping rover equipped with electroactive polymer actuators: A preliminary study

This paper presents results of a preliminary study of feasibility for the application of electroactive polymer (EAP) based actuators to a robotic locomotion system, intended by the European Space Agency (ESA) to operate on the surface of Mars. The system is conceived as an elastic spherical rover, exploiting wind propulsion for surface motion, while adopting an active mechanism for vertical jumping over obstacles. The use of polymeric electromechanical devices is envisaged in order to provide actuation to such a jumping mechanism. Among the available EAP technologies, new contractile linear actuators based on dielectric elastomers arc proposed in this study as suitable devices and two potential solutions concerning their use are designed, modeled, and evaluated via numerical simulations. The best solution reveals interesting simulated performances, enabling jumping of obstacle heights corresponding to more than 7% of the diameter of the rover     

Aeronautical telemetry using multiple-antenna transmitters

The placement of multiple antennas on an air vehicle is one possible practice for overcoming signal obstruction created by vehicle maneuvering during air-to-ground transmission. Unfortunately, for vehicle attitudes where more than one of these antennas has a clear path to the receiving station, this practice also leads to self-interference nulls, resulting in dramatic degradation in the average signal integrity. This paper discusses application of unitary space-time codes such as the Alamouti transmit diversity scheme and unitary differential space-time codes to overcome the self-interference effect observed in such systems. The mathematical foundations of these techniques within the context of this application as well as computational performance gains associated with their implementation are provided. Issues such as the cost of channel estimation for trained techniques as well as the throughput performance of nondifferential and differential schemes for realistic air-vehicle motion are analyzed     

Performance limits of sensor-scheduling strategies in electronic support

The case is considered in which a frequency-agile receiver (FAR) for electronic support (ES) attempts to intercept radar emissions over a wide search bandwidth. It was recently shown [1,2] that a random strategy exists in which the expected intercept time can be made arbitrarily close to linear as a function of the scan period of the radar. Can a deterministic strategy be devised in which a similar linear relationship exists for the maximum intercept time? By applying the celebrated arithmetic results of van der Waerden [3] and Szemeredi [4], we show that no such strategy is possible.     

Exploiting GNSS signal structure to enhance observability

There are a number of different error sources, such as multipath and thermal noise, which corrupt satellite navigation waveforms from their theoretical structure. However, even under ideal conditions the broadcast signals have some degree of deformation as a result of the practical individual hardware implementation. For the most demanding users of satellite navigation, such as aircraft navigation and landing systems, it is important to characterize the nominal signal structure in order to detect minimal variations resulting from hardware-based errors. Thus far such precorrelation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal quality monitoring has been performed through high gain antennas, which allow for raising the GNSS spectrum above the thermal noise floor and observing the structure of the signal directly at the front end output. This paper describes a new approach to achieve such observability based on signal processing techniques, such as dithering and averaging, which leverage the repetitive nature of the GNSS signal. The paper presents how these techniques can drastically improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in postprocessing, allowing for the direct analysis of GNSS signals using traditional front end designs and conventional antennas. Results are predicted using the appropriate theory and validated using data collected from the Global Positioning System (GPS).     

Theories and models on the biology of cells in space.

A wide variety of observations on cells in space, admittedly made under constraining and unnatural conditions in many cases, have led to experimental results that were surprising or unexpected. Reproducibility, freedom from artifacts, and plausibility must be considered in all cases, even when results are not surprising. The papers in the symposium on "Theories and Models on the Biology of Cells in Space" are dedicated to the subject of the plausibility of cellular responses to gravity--inertial accelerations between 0 and 9.8 m/s2 and higher. The mechanical phenomena inside the cell, the gravitactic locomotion of single eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, and the effects of inertial unloading on cellular physiology are addressed in theoretical and experimental studies.     

The Spacelab-Mir-1 "Greenhouse-2" experiment.

The Spacelab-Mir-1 (SLM-1) mission is the first docking of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-71) with the Orbital Station Mir in June 1995. The SLM-1 "Greenhouse-2" experiment will utilize the Russian-Bulgarian-developed plant growth unit (Svet). "Greenhouse-2" will include two plantings (1) designed to test the capability of Svet to grow a crop of Superdwarf wheat from seed to seed, and (2) to provide green plant material for post-flight analysis. Protocols, procedures, and equipment for the experiment have been developed by the US-Russian science team. "Greenhouse-2" will also provide the first orbital test of a new Svet Instrumentation System (SIS) developed by Utah State University to provide near real time data on plant environmental parameters and gas-exchange rates. SIS supplements the Svet control and monitoring system with additional sensors for substrate moisture, air temperature, IR leaf temperature, light, oxygen, pressure, humidity, and carbon-dioxide. SIS provides the capability to monitor canopy transpiration and net assimilation of the plants growing in each vegetation unit (root zone) by enclosing the canopy in separate, retractable, ventilated leaf chambers. Six times during the seed-to-seed experiment, plant samples will be collected, leaf area measured, and plant parts fixed and/or dried for ground analysis. A second planting initiated 30 days before the arrival of a U.S. Shuttle [originally planned to be STS-71] is designed to provide green material at the vegetative development stage for ground analysis. [As this paper is being edited, the experiment has been delayed until after the arrival of STS-71.]     

Structure of the Program of Short-term Prediction of Powerful Solar Flares

Input data of the system are two-dimensional images and one-dimensional distributions of total and polarized solar emission at 5.2 cm wavelength obtained with SSRT. Together with photoheliograms, magnetograms, Hα-filtergrams and characteristics of active regions received from other sources, they form the initial database. The first stage includes superimposing the images, identifying microwave sources with active regions, assigning NOAA numbers to the sources, and determining for each active region the heliolatitude, extent, and inclination angle of the group's axis to the equator. These data are used to calculate the boundaries of longitude zones for each active region. A next stage involves determining the brightness temperatures of microwave sources less than the polarization distribution, the degree of polarization, and microwave emission flux, as well as calculating the parameters of microwave sources. Each parameter is assigned its own value of the weight factor, and the sum of values is used to draw the conclusion about the flare occurrence probability in each active region and on the Sun in general.     

The characteristics of sharp (small-scale) boundaries of solar wind plasma and magnetic field structures

We investigate properties of large (>20%) and sharp (<10 min) solar wind ion flux changes using INTERBALL-1 and WIND plasma and magnetic field measurements from 1996 to 1999. These ion flux changes are the boundaries of small-scale and middle-scale solar wind structures. We describe the behavior of the solar wind velocity, temperature and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) during these sudden flux changes. Many of the largest ion flux changes occur during periods when the solar wind velocity is nearly constant, so these are mainly plasma density changes. The IMF magnitude and direction changes at these events can be either large or small. For about 55% of the ion flux changes, the sum of the thermal and magnetic pressure are in balance across the boundary. In many of the other cases, the thermal pressure change is significantly more than the magnetic pressure change. We also attempted to classify the types of discontinuities observed.     

Interplanetary shocks and sudden impulses during solar maximum (2000) and solar minimum (1995–1996)

In this work a study is performed on the correlation between fast forward interplanetary shock parameters at 1 Astronomical Unit and sudden impulse (SI) amplitudes in the H-component of the geomagnetic field, for periods of solar activity maximum (year 2000) and minimum (year 1995–1996). Solar wind temperature, density and speed, and total magnetic field, were taken to calculate the static pressures (thermal and magnetic) both in the upstream and downstream sides of the shocks. The variations of the solar wind parameters and pressures were then correlated with SI amplitudes. The solar wind speed variations presented good correlations with sudden impulses, with correlation coefficients larger than 0.70 both in solar maximum and solar minimum, whereas the solar wind density presented very low correlation. The parameter better correlated with SI was the square root dynamic pressure variation, showing a larger correlation during solar maximum (r = 0.82) than during solar minimum (r = 0.77). The correlations of SI with square root thermal and magnetic pressure were smaller than with the dynamic pressure, but they also present a good correlation, with r > 0.70 during both solar maximum and minimum. Multiple linear correlation analysis of SI in terms of the three pressure terms have shown that 78% and 85% of the variance in SI during solar maximum and minimum, respectively, are explained by the three pressure variations. Average sudden impulse amplitude was 25 nT during solar maximum and 21 nT during solar minimum, while average square root dynamic pressure variation is 1.20 and 0.86 nPa^1/2 during solar maximum and minimum, respectively. Thus on average, fast forward interplanetary shocks are 33% stronger during solar maximum than during solar minimum, and the magnetospheric SI response has amplitude 20% higher during solar maximum than during solar minimum. A comparison with theoretical predictions (Tsyganenko’s model corrected by Earth’s induced currents) of the coefficient of sudden impulse change with solar wind dynamic pressure variation showed excellent agreement, with values around 17 nT/nPa^1/2.     

A first step towards proton flux forecasting

We present a preliminary version of a potential tool for real time proton flux prediction which provides proton flux profiles and cumulative fluence profiles at 0.5 and 2 MeV of solar energetic particle events, from their onset up to the arrival of the interplanetary shock at the spacecraft position (located at 1 or 0.4 AU). Based on the proton transportation model by Lario et al. [Lario, D., Sanahuja, B., Heras, A.M. Energetic particle events: efficiency of interplanetary shocks as 50 keV E < 100 MeV proton accelerators. Astrophys. J. 509, 415–434, 1998] and the magnetohydrodynamic shock propagation model of Wu et al. [Wu, S.T., Dryer, M., Han, S.M. Non-planar MHD model for solar flare-generated disturbances in the Heliospheric equatorial plane. Sol. Phys. 84, 395–418, 1983], we have generated a database containing “synthetic” profiles of the proton fluxes and cumulative fluences of 384 solar energetic particle events. We are currently validating the applicability of this code for space weather forecasting by comparing the resulting “synthetic” flux profiles with those of several real events.