The mass and speed dependence of meteor air plasma temperatures

The speed and mass dependence of meteor air plasma temperatures is perhaps the most important data needed to understand how small meteoroids chemically change the ambient atmosphere in their path and enrich the ablated meteoric organic matter with oxygen. Such chemistry can play an important role in creating prebiotic compounds. The excitation conditions in various air plasma emissions were measured from high-resolution optical spectra of Leonid storm meteors during NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign. This was the first time a sufficient number and range of temperature measurements were obtained to search for meteoroid mass and speed dependencies. We found slight increases in temperature with decreasing altitude, but otherwise nearly constant values for meteoroids with speeds between 35 and 72 km/s and masses between 10(-5) g and 1 g. We conclude that faster and more massive meteoroids produce a larger emission volume, but not a higher air plasma temperature. We speculate that the meteoric plasma may be in multiphase equilibrium with the ambient atmosphere, which could mean lower plasma temperatures in a CO(2)-rich early Earth atmosphere.     

基于SRUKF的偏心仅测角相对导航方法

针对以单个光学/红外相机作为相对导航敏感器的航天器,提出采用相机偏心安装和平方根无损卡尔曼滤波（SRUKF）两种方法,解决自主交会时中远距离和近距离全过程的仅测角导航(AON)问题。在观测相机安装时,人为设置一个分米量级的安装偏心,按照观测距离分段建立相机观测模型并推导了观测敏感矩阵,从理论上证明了径向和法向相机安装偏心可以改善近距离v-bar相对位置保持点的观测度,并且对远距离导航精度没影响。构建了基于SRUKF的仅测角导航方法,该方法不需要强制要求初始估计误差满足小量假设和零均值高斯分布假设。经算例验证,在远距离时,采用本文提出的仅测角导航方法,其导航精度比传统扩展卡尔曼滤波（EKF）方法提高了一倍,计算负载降低了约10%;在近距离时,解决了仅测角导航v-bar相对位置保持点不可观测问题;并且当初始估计误差呈非高斯特性时,依然可以实现对相对距离的无偏估计。     

γ-H2AX as a biomarker of DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation in human peripheral blood lymphocytes and artificial skin

Ionizing radiation (IR) exposure is inevitable in our modern society and can lead to a variety of deleterious effects including cancer and birth defects. A reliable, reproducible and sensitive assessment of exposure to IR and the individual response to that exposure would provide much needed information for the optimal treatment of each donor examined. We have developed a diagnostic test for IR exposure based on detection of the phosphorylated form of variant histone H2AX (γ-H2AX), which occurs specifically at sites of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). The cell responds to a nascent DSB through the phosphorylation of thousands of H2AX molecules flanking the damaged site. This highly amplified response can be visualized as a γ-H2AX focus in the chromatin that can be detected in situ with the appropriate antibody. Here we assess the usability of γ-H2AX focus formation as a possible biodosimeter for human exposure to IR using peripheral blood lymphocytes irradiated ex vivo and three-dimensional artificial models of human skin biopsies. In both systems, the tissues were exposed to 0.2–5 Gy, doses of IR that might be realistically encountered in various scenarios such as cancer radiotherapies or accidental exposure to radiation. Since the γ-H2AX response is maximal 30 min after exposure and declines over a period of hours as the cells repair the damage, we examined the time limitations of the useful detectability of γ-H2AX foci. We report that a linear response proportional to the initial radiation dose was obtained 48 and 24 h after exposure in blood samples and skin cells respectively. Thus, detection of γ-H2AX formation to monitor DNA damage in minimally invasive blood and skin tests could be useful tools to determine radiation dose exposure and analyze its effects on humans.     

European space governance: The outlook

For the third year in a row, the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), and the Secure World Foundation (SWF) joined together to organise their annual space conference. The event took place in Brussels on 13 September 2011, under the banner “European space governance: the outlook”. This report summarises the main outputs of this event.     

A high-order SPH method by introducing inverse kernels

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is usually expected to be an effi-cient numerical tool for calculating the fluid-structure interactions in compressors; however, an endogenetic restriction is the problem of low-order consistency. A high-order SPH method by intro-ducing inverse kernels, which is quite easy to be implemented but efficient, is proposed for solving this restriction. The basic inverse method and the special treatment near boundary are introduced with also the discussion of the combination of the Least-Square (LS) and Moving-Least-Square (MLS) methods. Then detailed analysis in spectral space is presented for people to better under-stand this method. Finally we show three test examples to verify the method behavior.     

Impact analysis of the transponder time delay on radio-tracking observables

Accurate tracking of probes is one of the key points of space exploration. Range and Doppler techniques are the most commonly used. In this paper we analyze the impact of the transponder delay, $i.e$. the processing time between reception and re-emission of a two-way tracking link at the satellite, on tracking observables and on spacecraft orbits. We show that this term, only partially accounted for in the standard formulation of computed space observables, can actually be relevant for future missions with high nominal tracking accuracies or for the re-processing of old missions. We present several applications of our formulation to Earth flybys, the NASA GRAIL and the ESA BepiColombo missions.     

EB~2:一种新型复合材料装配解决方案

复合材料在航空领域的大量使用带来了新的技术问题,由于这些材料的性能与"标准"金属不同,特别是要关注其损伤部位,因此重新考虑安装技术以获得有吸引力的机械性能、并使之相对易于操作是很有必要的。基于以上考虑,在阿基坦大区的支持下,Capaero与WCIE(西岸产业欧洲)和Bordeaux的LGM2B实验室一起针对机械工程和材料提出了这种EB2工艺方法。     

自动化纤维铺放制造碳预型件的实时认证

为降低成本,人们正在研发像三维编织结构、三维编织物或纤维铺放等可以生产预型件后再浸胶的材料。该类技术的主要优势在于三维结构直接由一维原材料碳纤维纱线制成。这样就可以不受纤维束二维构型的约束,而是在设计预型件时考虑最终零件上的载荷,即可达到更高的性能。     

ODYSSEY, Orbit Determination Software for the Pioneer Data Analysis

The Pioneer anomaly refers to the difference between the computed trajectories of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecrafts and their actual trajectories as observed through Doppler tracking. This difference has been described by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a constant anomalous acceleration. In order to perform an independent analysis, specific trajectography software, named ODYSSEY, has been developed. The paper will focus on the models implemented in this software and on the results obtained. The existence of a constant anomalous acceleration is confirmed with properties similar to those reported by JPL. Time dependent components of the anomaly are also found and discussed.