Ares V launch vehicle: An enabling capability for future space science missions

NASA's planned Ares V cargo launch vehicle offers the potential to completely change the paradigm of future space science mission architectures. Future space science telescopes desire increasingly larger telescope collecting aperture. But, current launch vehicle mass and volume constraints are a severe limit. The Ares V greatly relaxes these constraints. For example, while current launch vehicles have the ability to place a 4.5 m diameter payload with a mass of 9400 kg on to a Sun-Earth L2 transfer trajectory, the Ares V is projected to have the ability to place an 8.8 m diameter payload with a mass of approximately 60,000 kg on to the same trajectory, or 180,000 kg into Low Earth Orbit. Also the Ares V could place approximately 3000 kg (13,000 kg with a Centaur upper stage) on to a trajectory with a C3 of 106 km²/s², arriving at Saturn in 6.1 years without the use of gravity assists. This paper summarizes the current planned Ares V payload launch capability.     

Execute Command in Space Communications

Two types of feedback systems for a command channel are described. a) Complex Feedback?where, for each command, an identification is relayed back over the feedback channel. b) Decision Feedback?where the feedback channel is used only to state whether the satellite recognized the transmission as a command word. For a), the decision as to whether a command was properly received at the satellite is made on the ground, while for b), the decision is made at the satellite, the only purpose of the feedback channel being to cause the ground station to retransmit the command word if the satellite did not recognize the initial transmission. The decision feedback system then amounts to a one-way channel, since the satellite makes a decision after the initial transmission as to whether or not a command word was sent. If the transmitted command word is interpreted as a command, whether correct or not, the ground station has no further control. The following theorem is proved rigorously: ``It is always possible to specify a decision feedback system which gives the same error performance as a given complex feedback system.'     

Distributing space weather monitoring instruments and educational materials worldwide for IHY 2007: The AWESOME and SID project

The International Heliophysical Year (IHY) aims to advance our understanding of the fundamental processes that govern the Sun, Earth, and heliosphere. The IHY Education and Outreach Program is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of space and Earth scientists as well as spreading the knowledge, beauty, and relevance of our solar system to the people of the world. In our Space Weather Monitor project we deploy a global network of sensors to high schools and universities to provide quantitative diagnostics of solar-induced ionospheric disturbances, thunderstorm intensity, and magnetospheric activity. We bring real scientific instruments and data in a cost-effective way to students throughout the world. Instruments meet the objectives of being sensitive enough to produce research-quality data, yet inexpensive enough for placement in high schools and universities. The instruments and data have been shown to be appropriate to, and usable by, high school age and early university students. Data contributed to the Stanford data center is openly shared and partnerships between groups in different nations develop naturally. Students and teachers have direct access to scientific expertise.     

Promoting the coalition for a lunar power system

Powering human civilization in the 21st century with clean energy from the Moon became the focus of a unique conference conducted at the Sea Lodge in LaJolla, California, 9–11 July 1990. Organized by Netrologic Inc of San Diego, the lunar-based Solar Power Planning Workshop attracted an elite group of 25 distinguished scientists, engineers and other professionals to formulate an international Coalition for a Lunar Power System. The participants ranged from Buzz Aldrin of Starcraft Enterprises and Bryan Erb of the Canadian Space Agency, to Osamu Inoue of Shimizu Corporation and Gary McAllister of Bechtel Corporation.     

The Influence of Black Hole Binarity on Tidal Disruption Events

Space Science Reviews - Interstellar dust from the Local Interstellar Cloud was detected unambiguously for the first time in 1992 (Grün et al. in Nature 362:428–430,...