Critical issues in connection with human missions to Mars: protection of and from the Martian environment.

Human missions to Mars are planned to happen within this century. Activities associated therewith will interact with the environment of Mars in two reciprocal ways: (i) the mission needs to be protected from the natural environmental elements that can be harmful to human health, the equipment or to their operations; (ii) the specific natural environment of Mars should be protected so that it retains its value for scientific and other purposes. The following environmental elements need to be considered in order to protect humans and the equipment on the planetary surface: (i) cosmic ionizing radiation, (ii) solar particle events; (iii) solar ultraviolet radiation; (iv) reduced gravity; (v) thin atmosphere; (vi) extremes in temperatures and their fluctuations; and (vii) surface dust. In order to protect the planetary environment, the requirements for planetary protection as adopted by COSPAR for lander missions need to be revised in view of human presence on the planet. Landers carrying equipment for exobiological investigations require special consideration to reduce contamination by terrestrial microorganisms and organic matter to the greatest feasible extent. Records of human activities on the planet's surface should be maintained in sufficient detail that future scientific experimenters can determine whether environmental modifications have resulted from explorations.     

Features of active sidestick controllers

This paper discusses the advantages of incorporating active sidesticks into a modern aircraft cockpit. Active sidestick controllers for manual pilot inputs in pitch and roll are examined for commercial transport aircraft. Options and requirements for sidesticks are reviewed. The recommendation of an active sidestick controller is developed providing both cross-cockpit coupling and autopilot backdrive capability. These characteristics provide pilot cues identical to traditional cable-linked column/yoke configurations     

Methodologies in user interface design

Software applications that require a high learning curve, a mountain of documentation, and weeks of training should be things of the past. Today's applications need to be simple to learn and to use. The human/computer interface should be intuitive and consistent. Context sensitive help should be available to keep the user on track. This paper provides some guidelines for taking commercial world concepts and applying them to the Automatic Test Equipment world. Examples included are from the Integrated Maintenance Information System (IMIS)     

Millimeter wave radar with clutter measurements

A portable millimeter wave test radar system, also suitable for battery operation, gives interesting possibilities for clutter recordings at hard-to-reach sites. The designed system covers all common radar frequencies from the Ka- to V-bands and enables spatial detection of targets or clutter elements within an adjustable time gate, whereby spatial clutter profiles of rain can be analyzed. The construction allows full operation with non-scanning antennas as well. This is advantageous when measuring temporal RCS variations of selected targets or surface clutter from snow dunes.     

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Journal: fifty years of radar

This review assumes that many non-US readers may not be well-informed about the steps and work in radar development in the US after WW II to the present. Many know MIT by name and recall the famous Radiation Laboratory Series. But the more recent technical history has been less in the "public domain." In an attempt to correct this, one of the key institutions in the field, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory two years ago produced a special issue of their regular publication. Although the document currently at hand is not a book in the strict sense, the size, shape, and editorial comprehensiveness of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Journal's Fifty-Year Anniversary Issue (12, 2, 2000) justifies calling this article being treated as a book review.     

Advanced lithium ion battery charger

A lithium ion battery charger has been developed for four and eight cell batteries or multiples thereof. This charger has the advantage over those using commercial lithium ion charging chips in that the individual cells are allowed to be taper charged at their upper charging voltage rather than be cutoff when all cells of the string have reached the upper charging voltage limit. Since 30-60% of the capacity of lithium ion cells may be restored during the taper charge, this charger has a distinct benefit of fully charging lithium ion batteries by restoring all of the available capacity to all of its cells     

Advanced Pulsed Plasma Thrusters and Their Application as a Part of Small Spacecraft Propulsion Systems

The paper presents the research results of the effect of a capacitor energy storage device configuration on the specific characteristics of advanced modern propulsion systems based on the ablative pulsed plasma thrusters (APPT). These thrusters are designed to perform specific tasks within the small spacecrafts with the onboard power capacity up to 200 W.     

Contamination of short GRBs by giant magnetar flares: Significance of downward revision in distance to SGR 1806–20

We highlight how the downward revision in the distance to the star cluster associated with SGR 1806–20 by Bibby et al. (2008) reconciles the apparent low contamination of BATSE short GRBs by intense flares from extragalactic magnetars without recourse to modifying the frequency of one such flare per 30 years per Milky Way galaxy. We also discuss the variety in progenitor initial masses of magnetars based upon cluster ages, ranging from ∼50 M_⊙ for SGR 1806–20 and AXP CXOU J164710.2–455216 in Westerlund 1 to ∼17 M_⊙ for SGR 1900+14 according to Davies et al. (2009) and presumably also 1E 1841–045 if it originated from one of the massive RSG clusters #2 or #3.     

An Automatic System for the Control of Multiple Drone Aircraft

A conceptual system is proposed and described for the control of a multiplicity of drone aircraft. Each target (drone) aircraft is controlled, during a given mission, over a separate preprogrammed path comprised of straight line and circular arc segments. Full control of each target's altitude, plan position, and velocity is available. Position measurement can be obtained by use of either a radar or a bilateration method where altitude is measured in either case by each aircraft and telemetered to a central control point. Velocity is obtained by smoothing position data in a central computer, which also controls the entire mission complex.