The MESSENGER Spacecraft

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft was designed and constructed to withstand the harsh environments associated with achieving and operating in Mercury orbit. The system can be divided into eight subsystems: structures and mechanisms (e.g., the composite core structure, aluminum launch vehicle adapter, and deployables), propulsion (e.g., the state-of-the-art titanium fuel tanks, thruster modules, and associated plumbing), thermal (e.g., the ceramic-cloth sunshade, heaters, and radiators), power (e.g., solar arrays, battery, and controlling electronics), avionics (e.g., the processors, solid-state recorder, and data handling electronics), software (e.g., processor-supported code that performs commanding, data handling, and spacecraft control), guidance and control (e.g., attitude sensors including star cameras and Sun sensors integrated with controllers including reaction wheels), radio frequency telecommunications (e.g., the spacecraft antenna suites and supporting electronics), and payload (e.g., the science instruments and supporting processors). This system architecture went through an extensive (nearly four-year) development and testing effort that provided the team with confidence that all mission goals will be achieved. Larry E. Mosher passed away during the preparation of this paper.     

High angular resolution observations in the soft gamma-ray band with sigma

The launch in December 1989, of SIGMA, one of the main devices aboard the GRANAT spacecraft, has provided high-energy astronomers for the first time with a telescope whose imaging properties in the soft γ-ray regime match those of instruments operating in the hard X-ray band. Having examined 300 celestial fields during more than two years of successful in-orbit operations, this coded-aperture telescope, sensitive to radiation in the energy range 35 keV to 1.3 MeV, has succeeded both in disentangling severe source confusion problems and in providing firm identifications and reliable spectra of sources at soft γ-ray wavelengths. A selection of the salient scientific results obtained so far is presented, with intent to emphasize the unique contribution of a coded-mask telescope able to perform accurate images of the sky in the soft γ-ray domain.     

Hard X-ray spectral properties and discovery of narrow annihilation line in the spectrum of Nova Muscae

The observations of X-ray Nova in Musca (GRS1124-684) by two coded mask telescopes on board GRANAT observatory provided spectral data in broad 3 – 1300 keV band. During these observations, spanned over a year, the Nova was detected in a three apparently different spectral states, corresponding to different epochs of the soft X-ray light curve: (1) A spectrum with two distinct components (soft, below 8 keV and hard power law tail with slope 2.5, detected up to 300 keV). The soft emission changed gradually with characteristic decay time around 30 days, while power law component exhibited strong variability on the time scales of several hours and decreased much more slowly. (2) A soft spectrum (without hard power law tail), observed during the “kick” of the soft X-ray light curve. (3) A hard power law spectrum with slope 2.2. Thus, while the 3 – 300 keV luminosity decreased by more than order of magnitude, the source passed through all spectral states known for galactic black hole candidates (Cyg X-1, GX339-4, 1E1740.7-2942, GRS1758-258 etc.).

On January 20–21 1991, the SIGMA telescope aboard GRANAT detected a relatively narrow variable emission line near 500 keV (Fig.1,2) with net flux ≈ 6 · 10⁻³ phot/s/cm², most probably related with electron-positron annihilation processes, occurring in the source /1–4/. Additional excess above power law continuum, centered around 200 keV, was found during this observation.     

Geoscience for Understanding Habitability in the Solar System and Beyond

Space Science Reviews - This paper reviews habitability conditions for a terrestrial planet from the point of view of geosciences. It addresses how interactions between the interior of a planet or...     

Hazard Prevention in Mission Plans for Aerial Vehicles Based on Soft Institutions

Hazard prevention in mission plans requires careful analysis and appropriate tools to support the design of preventive and/or corrective measures. It is most challenging in systems with large sets of states and complex state relations. In the case of sociotechnical systems, hazard prevention becomes even more dicult given that the behaviour of human centric components can at best be partially predictable. In the present article we focus on a specic class of sociotechnical systems namely air spaces containing pilot controlled as well as autonomous aircrafts and introduce the notion of relevant hazards. We also introduce soft institutions as an appropriate basis for analysis, with the aim of addressing relevant hazards. The concept of soft institutions is drawn from specication languages for interaction between agents in multi agent systems but, in our case, is adapted for use in systems that combine human and automated actors.     

客舱内饰改装现状

众所周知,在波音737MAX飞机停飞后,全球各航空公司以租用或购买的形式获得替代型飞机,填补了由于波音737MAX飞机停飞导致的载客量缺口。因此,这在一定程度上推动了客舱升级业务。再加上最近一些航空公司倒闭导致市场上流出大量“空闲”飞机,因此飞机租赁市场也就十分活跃。例如,航空公司倒闭和飞机转租为位于法国蒙彼利埃的维修供应商Vallair带来了大量的飞机内饰升级和改装业务.     

3D radar wavefield tomography of comet interiors

Answering fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of small planetary bodies hinges on our ability to image their surface and interior structure in detail and at high resolution. The interior structure is not easily accessible without systematic imaging using, e.g., radar transmission and reflection data from multiple viewpoints, as in medical tomography. Radar tomography can be performed using methodology adapted from terrestrial exploration seismology. Our feasibility study primarily focuses on full wavefield methods that facilitate high quality imaging of small body interiors. We consider the case of a monostatic system (co-located transmitters and receivers) operated in various frequency bands between 5 and 15?MHz, from a spacecraft in slow polar orbit around a spinning comet nucleus. Using realistic numerical experiments, we demonstrate that wavefield techniques can generate high resolution tomograms of comets nuclei with arbitrary shape and complex interior properties.     

Recent Advancements and Motivations of Simulated Pluto Experiments

This review of Pluto laboratory research presents some of the recent advancements and motivations in our understanding enabled by experimental simulations, the need for experiments to facilitate models, and predictions for future laboratory work. The spacecraft New Horizons at Pluto has given a large amount of scientific data already rising to preliminary results, spanning from the geology to the atmosphere. Different ice mixtures have now been detected, with the main components being nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. Varying geology and atmospheric hazes, however, gives us several questions that need to be addressed to further our understanding. Our review summarizes the complexity of Pluto, the motivations and importance of laboratory simulations critical to understanding the low temperature and pressure environments of icy bodies such as Pluto, and the variability of instrumentation, challenges for research, and how simulations and modeling are complimentary.     

Local orbital debris flux study in the geostationary ring

A local orbital debris flux analysis is performed in the geostationary (GEO) ring to investigate how frequently near-miss events occur for each longitude slot in the GEO ring. The current resident space object (RSO) environment at GEO is evaluated, and publicly-available two-line element (TLE) data are utilized in tandem with a geostationary torus configuration to simulate near-miss events incurred by the trackable RSO population at GEO. Methodology for determining near-miss events with this formulation is introduced, and the results of the analysis for a one-year time frame are provided to illustrate the need for active GEO remediation.