STARDUST: finessing expensive cometary sample returns

The STARDUST Discovery mission will collect samples of cometary coma and interstellar dust and return them to Earth. Five years after launch in February 1999, coma dust in the 1- to 100-micrometers size range will be captured by impact into ultra-low-density silica aerogel during a 6 kms-1 flyby of Comet Wild 2. The returned samples will be investigated at laboratories where the most critical information on these primitive materials is retained. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will provide project management with Lockheed Martin Astronauts as the spacecraft industrial partner. STARDUST management will aggressively and innovatively achieve cost control through the use of Total Quality Management principles, the chief of which will be organization in a Project Engineering and Integration Team that "flattens" the traditional hierarchical structure by including all project elements from the beginning, in a concurrent engineering framework focusing on evolving Integrated Mission Capability.     

A search for narrow band signals with SERENDIP II: a progress report

Commensal programs for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), carried out concurrently with conventional radio astronomical observing programs, can be an attractive and cost-effective means of exploring the large multidimensional search space intrinsic to this effort. Our automated commensal system, SERENDIP II, is a high resolution 131,072 channel spectrometer. It searches for 0.49 Hz signals in sequential 64,700 Hz bands of the IF signal from a radio telescope being used for an astronomical observation. Upon detection of a narrow band signal with power above a preset threshold, the frequency, power, time, and telescope direction are recorded for later study. The system has been tested at the Hat Creek Radio Astronomy Observatory 85 ft telescope and the NASA-JPL Deep Space Station (DSS 14) 64 m telescope. It is currently collecting data at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory 300 ft telescope.     

Ethical problems of interaction between ground-based personnel and orbital station crewmembers.

Manned missions onboard orbital stations Salyut-6 and Salyut-7 have led us to the conclusion that a long-term space mission can be viewed as a complex socio-man-machine system whose effectiveness largely depends on the quality of interaction between its subsystems. When analyzing and assessing the reliability of this system, it is important to consider ethical aspects, because they concern human relations, permeating its very component and in the long run determining its efficiency. Psychological and medical examinations before, during and after manned missions have helped us to identify the major points of interaction of the subsystems which require adequate monitoring and optimization using socio-psychological and organization-technical approaches: arrangement and evaluation of the quality of work, arrangement of proper leisure, psychological comfort in the interpersonality and intergroup relations during prolonged space missions. This paper also discusses adaptive changes in the mental and physical state due to prolonged exposure to space flight factors such as microgravity and confinement.     

Space motion sickness preflight adaptation training: preliminary studies with prototype trainers

Preflight training frequently has been proposed as a potential solution to the problem of space motion sickness. The paper considers successively the otolith reinterpretation, the concept for a preflight adaptation trainer and the research with the Miami University Seesaw, the Wright Patterson Air-Force Base Dynamic Environment Simulator and the Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator prototype adaptation trainers.     

Summary of medical investigations in the U.S.S.R. manned space missions.

The results of biomedical investigations carried out in the U.S.S.R. manned space missions are discussed. Their basic result is well-documented evidence that man can perform space flights of long duration. The investigations have demonstrated no direct correlation between inflight or postflight physiological reactions of crewmembers and flight duration. In all likelihood, this can be attributed to the fact that special exercises done inflight efficiently prevented adverse effects of weightlessness. However, human reactions to weightlessness need further study. They include negative calcium balance and anemia as well as vestibulo-autonomic disorders shown by crewmembers at early stages of weightlessness. Attention should be given to psychological, social-psychological and ethical problems that may also limit further increase in flight duration.     

Stability of dynamic algorithms of determination of quasi-stationary satellite orbits

A method of estimating the stability of the problem of orbit determination under disturbances caused by finite accuracy of calculation and geographical siting of observation stations is proposed.     

Clustering capability of field emission ion thruster

A laboratory model of field emission ion thruster has been used to demonstrate the clustering capability of field emission ion sources.The single emitters sustained preliminary tests aimed to increase elementary trust. Clustering had shown the additivity of elementary sources characteristics and the lack of interference between ion beamlets.     

Some technical aspects of gaseous detonation

This paper briefly describes two attempts to utilize detonative combustion processes to MHD conversion of thermal energy of fuel to electrical energy and bonding of atmospheric nitrogen. For this purpose a continuous impulse detonation chamber with a frequency up to 200 cps was constructed. Using methane-oxygen-nitrogen mixtures the chamber was maintained in stable operation for several hundred hours. Oil was also employed as fuel.Estimates based on experimental data showed that up to 2% of chemical energy of the fuel may be converted into electrical energy. The use of an accelerating nozzle may improve this result.The concentration of nitrogen oxide in combustion products of the detonation wave was higher by 14% than that expected under usual combustion conditions.The advantages of this type of apparatus are: absence of compressors for fuel and oxidant, impulse current generation, low temperatures of chamber walls, and operation over a large range of operating conditions.Problems associated with the effect of the magnetic field on the propagation of the detonation wave are discussed and the possibility of applying the Zeldovich theory to the case of MHD interaction is described. It is shown that the detonation velocity may either increase or decrease depending on the relative orientation of the direction of magnetic field with respect to the detonation wave.     

Determination of the Attitude Motion of a Satellite Based on a Kinematical Model of Motion and Using Data of Measurements of Its Angular Velocity and the Earth’s Magnetic Field Strength

An integral statistical procedure of determination of the attitude motion of a satellite using the data of onboard measurements of angular velocity vectors and the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field (EMF) is suggested. The procedure uses only the equations of kinematics of a solid body and is applicable to determining both controlled and uncontrollable motions of a satellite at any external mechanical moments acting upon it. When applying this procedure, the data of measurements of both types, accumulated during a certain interval of time, are processed jointly. The data of measuring the angular velocity are smoothed by discrete Fourier series, and these series are substituted into kinematical Poisson equations for elements of the matrix of transition from a satellite-fixed coordinate system to the orbital coordinate system. The equations thus obtained represent a kinematical model of the satellite motion. The solution to these equations (which approximate the actual motion of a satellite) is found from the condition of the best (in the sense of the least squares method) fit of the data of measuring the EMF strength vector to its calculated values. The results of testing the suggested procedure using the data of measurements of the angular velocity vectors onboard the Foton-12 satellite and measurements of EMF strengths are presented.__________Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 43, No. 4, 2005, pp. 295–305.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Abrashkin, Volkov, Voronov, Egorov, Kazakova, Pankratov, Sazonov, Semkin.     

Estimation of the Probability of Radiation Failures and Single Particle Upsets of Integrated Microcircuits onboard the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fobos-Grunt</Emphasis> Spacecraft

When designing the radio-electronic equipment for long-term operation in a space environment, one of the most important problems is a correct estimation of radiation stability of its electric and radio components (ERC) against radiation-stimulated doze failures and one-particle effects (upsets). These problems are solved in this paper for the integrated microcircuits (IMC) of various types that are to be installed onboard the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft designed at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Lavochkin Research and Production Association.” The launching of this spacecraft is planned for 2009.__________Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 43, No. 3, 2005, pp. 237–239.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Kuznetsov, Popov, Khamidullina.