Metrology on-board PROBA-3: The shadow position sensors subsystem

PROBA-3 is an ESA mission aimed at the demonstration of formation flying performance of two satellites that will form a giant coronagraph in space. The first spacecraft will host a telescope imaging the solar corona in visible light, while the second, the external occulter, will produce an artificial eclipse. This instrument is named ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun). To accomplish the payload's scientific tasks, PROBA-3 will ensure sub-millimeter reciprocal positioning of its two satellites using closed-loop on-board metrology. Several metrology systems will be used and the Shadow Position Sensor (SPS) subsystem senses the penumbra around the instrument aperture and returns the 3-D displacement of the coronagraph satellite, with respect to its nominal position, by running a dedicated algorithm. In this paper, we describe how the SPS works and the choices made to accomplish the mission objectives.     

Design and Performance of the ICON EUV Spectrograph

We present the design, implementation, and on-ground performance measurements of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer EUV spectrometer, ICON EUV, a wide field (\(17^{\circ}\times 12^{\circ}\)) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging spectrograph designed to observe the lower ionosphere at tangent altitudes between 100 and 500 km. The primary targets of the spectrometer, which has a spectral range of 54–88 nm, are the Oii emission lines at 61.6 nm and 83.4 nm. Its design, using a single optical element, permits a $0\stackrel{{}^{°}}{.}26$ imaging resolution perpendicular to the spectral dispersion direction with a large (\(12^{\circ} \)) acceptance parallel to the dispersion direction while providing a slit-width dominated spectral resolution of \(R\sim25\) at 58.4 nm. Pre-flight calibration shows that the instrument has met all of the science performance requirements.     

A review of chatter vibration research in milling

Chatter is a self-excited vibration of parts in machining systems. It is widely present across a range of cutting processes, and has an impact upon both efficiency and quality in production processing. A great deal of research has been dedicated to the development of technologies that are able to predict and detect chatter. The purpose of these technologies is to facilitate the avoidance of chatter during cutting processes, which leads to better surface precision, higher productivity, and longer tool life. This paper summarizes the current state of the art in research regarding the problems of how to arrive at stable chatter prediction, chatter identification, and chatter control/suppression, with a focus on milling processes. Particular focus is placed on the theoretical relationship between cutting chatter and process damping, tool runout, and gyroscopic effect, as well as the importance of this for chatter prediction. The paper concludes with some reflections regarding possible directions for future research in this field.     

The Genesis Solar Wind Concentrator

The primary goal of the Genesis Mission is to collect solar wind ions and, from their analysis, establish key isotopic ratios that will help constrain models of solar nebula formation and evolution. The ratios of primary interest include ¹⁷O/¹⁶O and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O to ±0.1%, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N to ±1%, and the Li, Be, and B elemental and isotopic abundances. The required accuracies in N and O ratios cannot be achieved without concentrating the solar wind and implanting it into low-background target materials that are returned to Earth for analysis. The Genesis Concentrator is designed to concentrate the heavy ion flux from the solar wind by an average factor of at least 20 and implant it into a target of ultra-pure, well-characterized materials. High-transparency grids held at high voltages are used near the aperture to reject >90% of the protons, avoiding damage to the target. Another set of grids and applied voltages are used to accelerate and focus the remaining ions to implant into the target. The design uses an energy-independent parabolic ion mirror to focus ions onto a 6.2 cm diameter target of materials selected to contain levels of O and other elements of interest established and documented to be below 10% of the levels expected from the concentrated solar wind. To optimize the concentration of the ions, voltages are constantly adjusted based on real-time solar wind speed and temperature measurements from the Genesis ion monitor. Construction of the Concentrator required new developments in ion optics; materials; and instrument testing and handling. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Development of the Primary Sorption Pump for the SEIS Seismometer of the InSight Mission to Mars

We report on the development of a passive sorption pump, capable of maintaining high-vacuum conditions in the InSight seismometer throughout the duration of any extended mission. The adsorber material is a novel zeolite-loaded aerogel (ZLA) composite, which consists of fine zeolite particles homogeneously dispersed throughout a porous silica network. The outgassing species within the SEIS evacuated container were analyzed and the outgassing rate was estimated by different methods. The results were used to optimize the ZLA composition to adsorb the outgassing constituents, dominated by water, while minimizing the SEIS bakeout constraints. The InSight ZLA composite additionally facilitated substantial CO₂ adsorption capabilities for risk mitigation against external leaks in Mars atmosphere. To comply with the stringent particle requirements, the ZLA getters were packaged in sealed containers, open to the SEIS interior through \(1~\upmu\mbox{m}\)-size pore filters. Results from experimental validation and verification tests of the packaged getters are presented. The pressure forecast based on these data, corroborated by rudimentary in situ pressure measurements, infer SEIS operational pressures not exceeding \(10^{-5}~\mbox{mbar}\) throughout the mission.     

The Solar Dynamo: The Role of Penetration, Rotation and Shear on Convective Dynamos

In this paper I discuss the importance of turbulence, rotation, penetration and shear for solar dynamos (both local and global). An understanding of these processes is vital for progress towards a self-consistent theory for the generation of solar magnetic activity. I discuss the difficulties for large-scale field generation and suggest that large-scale solar magnetic activity may be driven by dynamos that arise owing to instabilities, with these dynamos modified by the presence of turbulence.     

Microphysics in Astrophysical Plasmas

Although macroscale features dominate astrophysical images and energetics, the physics is controlled through microscale transport processes (conduction, diffusion) that mediate the flow of mass, momentum, energy, and charge. These microphysical processes manifest themselves in key (all) boundary layers and also operate within the body of the plasma. Crucially, most plasmas of interest are rarefied to the extent that classical particle collision length- and time-scales are long. Collective plasma kinetic phenomena then serve to scatter or otherwise modify the particle distribution functions and in so-doing govern the transport at the microscale level. Thus collisionless plasmas are capable of supporting thin shocks, current sheets which may be prone to magnetic reconnection, and the dissipation of turbulence cascades at kinetic scales. This paper lays the foundation for the accompanying collection that explores the current state of knowledge in this subject. The richness of plasma kinetic phenomena brings with it a rich diversity of microphysics that does not always, if ever, simply mimic classical collision-dominated transport. This can couple the macro- and microscale physics in profound ways, and in ways which thus depend on the astrophysical context.     

Non-Gaussian clutter characterization applied to OTHR using a mixture of two Rayleigh probability density functions

A practical technique for characterizing non-Gaussian radar clutter is specified and demonstrated using Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR) data, as an example. The technique employs maximum likelihood to fit the probability density of the clutter amplitude returns to a mixture of two Rayleigh probability densities instead of the single Rayleigh density typically used for Gaussian clutter. This model for non-Gaussian clutter is fully specified for any set of clutter amplitudes by a log likelihood, two Rayleigh parameters, and a mixing coefficient. A 3D plot of these values yields an easily-visualized clutter characterization, as is illustrated using OTHR data. This technique is a demonstration of clutter characterization using OTHR data, but the method can be applied to characterize other types of clutter data.     

Individual Differences in Representational Precision Predict Spatial Working Memory Span

Perhaps the signature feature of working memory is that it is limited. In the same subjects, we used two different retrieval tasks to independently measure two different limits of spatial memory. Precision was measured by asking participants to localize a missing target item among a field of other targets and distracters. Capacity was measured with a similar task where participants identified, rather than localized, a set of remembered targets from within a larger set of identical items. Across participants, the precision of localization was positively correlated with the number of successfully retrieved items. These data suggest that an individual's representational capacity may ultimately be constrained by their ability to form precise representations of space.