Closed Artificial ecosystems as a means of ecosystem studies for Earth and space needs.

Closed Artificial ecosystems (CAES) have good prospects for wide use as new means for quantitative studies of different types of both natural ecosystems and man-made ones. The paper deals with the discussion of three points of CAES applications. The first one is of importance for theoretical ecology development and is connected with bringing together "holistic" and "merological" approaches in ecosystems studies. Using CAES, we can combine both approaches, taking into account the biotic turnover of limiting substrates which few in number even for complicated natural ecosystems. The second CAES use concerns the development of "ecosystems health" concept and application of a key-factor-approach for the indication and measurement of healthy unhealthy state and functioning of ecosystems or their links. The third use is more of an applied nature, oriented to the intensification of bioremediation or biodepollution processes in different types of ecosystems, including the global biosphere. Grant numbers: N 99-04-96017, N25.     

Effect of bacterial population density on germination wheat seeds and dynamics of simple artificial ecosystems.

Effect of the size of rhizospheric bacterial populations on germination of seeds and development of simple terrestrial "wheat plants--rhizospheric microorganisms--artificial soil" and "wheat plants-artificial soil" systems has been studied. Experiments demonstrated that within specify ranges in the inoculate, the rhizospheric bacteria are capable of increasing the yield of germinated seeds and stimulate the growth of plantlets. Germination of seeds inoculated with bacteria was either stimulated, or inhibited or remained at control levels depending on the amount of bacteria. Plant biomass growth and total photoassimilation has been found to depend on the amount of bacteria on the plant roots: the higher the amount of bacteria on plant roots, the smaller is the biomass of plants but the total photoassimilation is, higher. Thus, depending on the amount of bacteria on the roots of plants the system either increases the biomass of plants or increases the total photoassimilation, i.e. "pumps" carbon through itself involving bacteria. Grant numbers: N99-04-96017, N15.     

Effect of volatile metabolites of dill, radish and garlic on growth of bacteria

In a model experiment plants were grown in sealed chambers on expanded clay aggregate under the luminance of 150 W/m2 PAR and the temperature of 24 degrees C. Seven bacterial strains under investigation, replicated on nutrient medium surface in Petri dishes, were grown in the atmosphere of cultivated plants. Microbial response was evaluated by the difference between colony size in experiment and in control. In control, bacteria grew in the atmosphere of clean air. To study the effects of volatile metabolites of various plant on microbial growth, the experimental data were compared with the background values defined for each individual experiment. Expanded clay aggregate, luminance, temperature, and sealed chamber (without plants) for the background were the same. Volatile metabolites from 28-days old radish plants have been reliably established to have no effect on the growth of microbes under investigation. Metabolites of 30-days old dill and 50-days old garlic have been established to have reliable bacteriostatic effect on the growth of three bacterial strains. Dill and garlic have been found to have different range of effects of volatile substances on bacterial growth. Volatile metabolites of dill and garlic differed in their effect on the sensitivity spectrum of bacteria. An attempt has been made to describe the obtained data mathematically.     

Martian polar expeditions: problems and solutions.

The Martian polar ice caps are regions of substantial scientific interest, being the most dynamic regions of Mars. They are volatile sinks and thus closely linked to Martian climatic conditions. Because of their scale and the precedent set by the past history of polar exploration on Earth, it is likely that an age of polar exploration will emerge on the surface of Mars after the establishment of a capable support structure at lower latitudes. Expeditions might be launched either from a lower latitude base camp or from a human-tended polar base. Based on previously presented expeditionary routes to the Martian poles, in this paper a "spiral in-spiral out" unsupported transpolar assault on the Martian north geographical pole is used as a Reference expedition to propose new types of equipment for the human polar exploration of Mars. Martian polar "ball" tents and "hover" modifications to the Nansen sledge for sledging on CO2-containing water ice substrates under low atmospheric pressures are suggested as elements for the success of these endeavours.Other challenges faced by these expeditions are quantitatively and qualitatively addressed.     

The Martian and extraterrestrial UV radiation environment--1. Biological and closed-loop ecosystem considerations

The Martian surface is exposed to both UVC radiation (<280 nm) and higher doses of UVB (280-315 nm) compared to the surface of the Earth. Terrestrial organisms have not evolved to cope with such high levels of UVC and UVB and thus any attempts to introduce organisms to Mars, particularly in closed-loop life support systems that use ambient sunlight, must address this problem. Here we examine the UV radiation environment of Mars with respect to biological systems. Action spectra and UV surface fluxes are used to estimate the UV stress that both DNA and chloroplasts would experience. From this vantage point it is possible to consider appropriate measures to address the problem of the Martian UV environment for future long term human exploration and settlement strategies. Some prospects for improving the UV tolerance of organisms are also discussed. Existing artificial ecosystems such as Biosphere 2 can provide some insights into design strategies pertinent to high UV environments. Some prospects for improving the UV tolerance of organisms are also discussed. The data also have implications for the establishment of closed-loop ecosystems using natural sunlight on the lunar surface and elsewhere in the Solar System.     

An Optimally Integrated Track Recovery System for Aerial Bathymetry

An airborne system has been developed for charting shallow coastal and inland waters. The primary components of this system are an aerial survey camera, a profiling laser radar, an analytical stereo plotter, and a multisensor track recovery system (TRS). The TRS comprises a gimbaled inertial navigation system and a number of auxiliary sensors which acquire redundant position and attitude information. The sensor data are combined postmission using a U-D factorized Kalman filter and modified Bryson-Frazier smoother to compute accurate estimates of the orientation parameters of the survey camera at the times of film exposure. These parameters are used to position each overlapping pair of photographs on the analytical plotter to form a stereo image and corresonding analytical stereomodel from which water depth measurements are made. Flight trial results demonstrate that the TRS can achieve radial position and attitude accuracies which exceed 1 m and 2 arcmin root mean square (rms), respectively, and that this level of performance is sufficient to enable water depth measurements to be made to an accuracy of better than 0.65 m (rms).     

Application of Recursive Estimation and Kalman Filtering to Doppler Tracking

The techniques of recursive estimation and Kalman filtering are applied to the problem of estimation of space vehicle orbits and trajectories using only measurements of the Doppler shifts in radio signals transmitted by or reflected from the target. Two approaches are described. One is a global fit technique in which the parameters of an assumed trajectory model are estimated. The second is a pointwise mapping technique in which the trajectory estimate is extrapolated as the target tracking data is received. The paper provides a tutorial illustration of the direct application of recursive optimization techniques to a class of engineering problems.     

Experiments with injection of powerful plasma jet into the ionosphere

This paper describes two rocket experiments “Aelita” with high power lithium plasma injection. The results of onboard magnetometer, massspectrometer, photometer, plasma, corpuscular and ground radar measurements are given. Dynamics and structure of plasma formation are discussed.     

LS Localizer Multipath Analysis

The scattering effect of structures on Instrument Landing System localizer signals is analyzed in this paper. A generalized computer program results which can be used to determine the reflection from surfaces of most materials and orientations for which the radius of curvature is large compared with the wavelength. For most reflecting walls, a closed form solution is used and the computation time is short. The program will enable users to determine the placement of hangars, towers, etc., in airports and to find ways to reduce their effect on localizer facilities.