In-situ resource utilization technologies for Mars life support systems.

The atmosphere of Mars has many of the ingredients that can be used to support human exploration missions. It can be "mined" and processed to produce oxygen, buffer gas, and water, resulting in significant savings on mission costs. The use of local materials, called ISRU (for in-situ resource utilization), is clearly an essential strategy for a long-term human presence on Mars from the standpoints of self-sufficiency, safety, and cost. Currently a substantial effort is underway by NASA to develop technologies and designs of chemical plants to make propellants from the Martian atmosphere. Consumables for life support, such as oxygen and water, will probably benefit greatly from this ISRU technology development for propellant production. However, the buffer gas needed to dilute oxygen for breathing is not a product of a propellant production plant. The buffer gas needs on each human Mars mission will probably be in the order of metric tons, primarily due to losses during airlock activity. Buffer gas can be separated, compressed, and purified from the Mars atmosphere. This paper discusses the buffer gas needs for a human mission to Mars and consider architectures for the generation of buffer gas including an option that integrates it to the propellant production plant.     

经纬仪水平测角误差的谱分析

分析了经纬仪水平测角时的误差组成，为了更精细地分离各误差成份提出了 谱分析法，并对引起测角误差的主要分量进行了误差修正。实际测量数据的分析表明，该方 法与传统的一次水平测角极限误差相比，可以获取更详细的误差，并可大大减小经纬仪使用时的测量不确定度。     

通用仪器CAT可视软件开发平台

通用仪器CAT可视软件开发平台(以下简称"CAT"平台),是在深入研究各个校准实验室日常计量检测工作普遍规律的基础上,设计出的一套辅助实验室软件开发与应用的通用工具,可以完成检测软件开发与应用、证书编辑与生成、实验室信息管理等工作,全面提高校准实验室检定测试的技术与管理水平.     

两相毛细泵环中蒸发器的工作特性的实验研究

在两相毛细泵环的反向式蒸发器初步研究的基础上,对同一蒸发器进行了改进的实验研究,改进措施为:在作为毛细结构的复合金属网上加压一块带有纵向和横向槽道的金属平板。对不同倾角下该蒸发器的工作特性的实验结果进行了分析和比较。     

Generation of artificial ionospheric plasma density irregularities with prescribed spectra

The creation of artificial plasma density irregularities (AI) with prescribed spectra in the ionospheric heating experiments is discussed. We show that periodic successions of powerful pulses, pumped into the F-region of the ionosphere lead to obtaining AI with the controlled stationary spatial spectrum and allow us to change power low spectral index 2β at least from 2β = 2.2 to 2β = 3.4 by changing of the powerful pulse time schedule.     

Characteristics and formation of amino acids and hydroxy acids of the Murchison meteorite.

Eight characteristics of the unique suite of amino acids and hydroxy acids found in the Murchison meteorite can be recognized on the basis of detailed molecular and isotopic analyses. The marked structural correspondence between the alpha-amino acids and alpha-hydroxy acids and the high deuterium/hydrogen ratio argue persuasively for their formation by aqueous phase Strecker reactions in the meteorite parent body from presolar, i.e., interstellar, aldehydes, ketones, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. The characteristics of the meteoritic suite of amino acids and hydroxy acids are briefly enumerated and discussed with regard to their consonance with this interstellar-parent body formation hypothesis. The hypothesis has interesting implications for the organic composition of both the primitive parent body and the presolar nebula.     

Galactic cosmic rays and cell-hit frequencies outside the magnetosphere.

An evaluation of the exposure of space travelers to galactic cosmic radiation outside the earth's magnetosphere is made by calculating fluences of high-energy primary and secondary particles with various charges traversing a sphere of area 100 microns2. Calculations relating to two shielding configurations are presented: the center of a spherical aluminum shell of thickness 1 g/cm2, and the center of a 4 g/cm2 thick aluminum spherical shell within which there is a 30 g/cm2 diameter spherical water phantom with the point of interest 5 g/cm2 from the surface. The area of 100 microns2 was chosen to simulate the nucleus of a cell in the body. The frequencies as a function of charge component in both shielding configurations reflects the odd-even disparity of the incident particle abundances. For a three-year mission, 33% of the cells in the more heavily shielded configuration would be hit by at least one particle with Z greater than 10. Six percent would be hit by at least two such particles. This emphasizes the importance of studying single high-Z particle effects both on cells which might be "at risk" for cancer induction and on critical neural cells or networks which might be vulnerable to inactivation by heavy charged particle tracks. Synergistic effects with the more numerous high-energy protons and helium ions cannot be ruled out. In terms of more conventional radiation risk assessment, the dose equivalent decreased by a factor of 2.85 from free space to that in the more heavily shielded configuration. Roughly half of this was due to the decrease in energy deposition (absorbed dose) and half to the decrease in biological effectiveness (quality factor).     

Prompt effects of solar wind variations on the inner magnetosphere and midlatitude ionosphere

It is well known that the solar wind can significantly affect high-latitude ionospheric dynamics. However, the effects of the solar wind on the middle- and low-latitude ionosphere are much less studied. In this paper, we report observations that large perturbations in the middle- and low-latitude ionosphere are well correlated with solar wind variations. In one event, a significant (20–30%) decrease of the midlatitude ionospheric electron density over a large latitudinal range was related to a sudden drop in the solar wind pressure and a northward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field, and the density decrease became larger at lower latitudes. In another event, periodic perturbations in the dayside equatorial ionospheric E × B drift and electrojet were closely associated with variations in the interplanetary electric field. Since the solar wind is always changing with time, it can be a very important and common source of ionospheric perturbations at middle- and low-latitudes. The relationship between solar wind variations and significant ionospheric perturbations has important applications in space weather.     

Continuous tracking of cmes using MICA, andLASCO C2 and C3 coronagraphs

In this work we have tracked coronal mass ejections observed with the ground based Mirror Coronagraph for Argentina (MICA) and the Large Angle and Spectroscopic Coronagraph (LASCO) C2 and C3 on board of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The MICA telescope is located at El Leoncito (31.8 S, 69.3 W), San Juan (Argentina), since 1997 as part of a bilateral scientific project between Germany and Argentina. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. Together these instruments are able to observe the solar corona ranging from 1.05 to 32 solar radii. MICA images the Fe XIV emission line corona and LASCO coronagraphs observe the Thomson scattered white light corona. We have selected events for which there are observations from the three coronagraphs. Using the composite data we were able to obtain height-time diagrams for the corresponding dynamical coronal features traveling outwards in order to determine some of their kinematical properties, i.e., plane of sky velocity and acceleration.     

A theoretical assessment of the feasibility of potential Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter radio occultation observations of the lunar ionosphere

The existence of a “dense” lunar ionosphere has been controversial for decades. Positive ions produced from the lunar surface and exosphere are inferred to have densities that are $?$${10}^6$ – ${10}^7$ m^?3 near the surface and smaller at higher altitudes, yet electron densities derived from radio occultation measurements occasionally exceed these values by orders of magnitude. For example, about 4% of the single-spacecraft radio occultation measurements from Kaguya/SELENE were consistent with peak electron densities of $~$$3\times {10}^8$ m^?3. Space plasmas should be neutral on macroscopic scales, so this represents a substantial discrepancy. Aditional observations of electron densities in the lunar ionosphere are critical to resolving this longstanding paradox. Here we theoretically assess whether radio occultation observations using two-way coherent S-band radio signals from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft could provide useful measurements of electron densities in the lunar ionosphere. We predict the uncertainty in a single LRO radio occultation measurement of electron density to be $~$$3\times {10}^8$ m^?3, comparable to occasional observations by Kaguya/SELENE of a dense lunar ionosphere. Thus an individual profile from LRO is unlikely to reliably detect the lunar ionosphere; however, averages of multiple ($~$10) LRO profiles acquired under similar geophysical and viewing conditions should be able to make reliable detections. An observing rate of six ingress occultations per day ($~$2000 per year) could be achieved with minimal impact on current LRO operations. This rate compares favorably with the 378 observations reported from the single-spacecraft experiment on Kaguya/SELENE between November 2007 and June 2009. The large number of observations possible for LRO would be sufficient to permit wide-ranging investigations of spatial and temporal variations in the poorly understood lunar ionosphere. These findings strengthen efforts to conduct such observations with LRO.