Comparative study of lunar mission requirements and onboard propulsion system performance

In recent years, the lunar explorer programs, suspended for a long time, have resumed again with the rapid development of low cost and high-level technologies. As a result, several nations have made a success of lunar exploration programs with their own orbiters. Unlike a satellite orbiting the earth, the optimal design of an onboard propulsion system of a lunar orbiter is a major issue because it is not simple to make the orbiter arrive accurately at another planet far from the earth. Hence, a close attention is required to select and develop an appropriate type of the onboard propulsion system based on given mission requirements of a lunar orbiter. To do this, this study first surveys several lunar orbiters launched since 1990 and their major mission requirements. Then, it summarizes the technical trends of the onboard propulsion systems of the recent lunar orbiters and their key design and performance specifications through trade-off studies. By comparing these features, the present study investigates which lunar mission requirements are critically important, and how they can effect on the overall performance of an onboard propulsion system. Based on these investigations the major objective of the present study intends ultimately to set up a fundamental baseline in selecting and developing an appropriate type of onboard propulsion system of a lunar orbiter.     

Gravitational wave detection on the Moon and the moons of Mars

The Moon and the moons of Mars should be extremely quiet seismically and could therefore become sensitive gravitational wave detectors, if instrumented properly. Highly sensitive displacement sensors could be deployed on these planetary bodies to monitor the motion induced by gravitational waves. A superconducting displacement sensor with a 10-kg test mass cooled to 2 K will have an intrinsic instrument noise of 10⁻¹⁶ m Hz^−1/2. These sensors could be tuned to the lowest two quadrupole modes of the body or operated as a wideband detector below its fundamental mode. An interesting frequency range is 0.1–1 Hz, which will be missed by both the ground detectors on the Earth and LISA and would be the best window for searching for stochastic background gravitational waves. Phobos and Deimos have their lowest quadrupole modes at 0.2–0.3 Hz and could offer a sensitivity h_min ? 10⁻²² Hz^−1/2 within their resonance peaks, which is within two orders of magnitude from the goal of the Big Bang Observer (BBO). The lunar and Martian moon detectors would detect many interesting foreground sources in a new frequency window and could serve as a valuable precursor for BBO.     

脉冲爆震火箭发动机引射模态的起爆实验研究

为实现脉冲爆震火箭发动机(PDRE)引射模态下主爆震室的起爆,采用航空煤油和氧气作为推进剂,设计了PDRE引射模态的模型机,采用压电传感器测量主爆震室中爆震波的压力和速度.在主爆震室中成功实现了5 ～8Hz稳定连续的爆震,爆震波的峰值压力能够达到3MPa,爆震波以1600～ 2000m/s左右的速度在主爆震室中传播.实验结果表明:PDRE引射模态下主爆震室的DDT距离,远低于常规高能电喷起爆下的两相PDRE的DDT距离;高频PDRE引射模态下主爆震室的起爆难度加大;加长主爆震室、末端增加收敛段可以提高引射模态的爆震性能.     

脉冲爆震发动机孔板型气动阀工作特性实验研究

采用流动显示和压力测量两种手段对应用于脉冲爆震发动机的三种不同阻塞比孔板型气动阀进行了试验研究.研究结果表明,在不存在燃烧的流场里,孔板型气动阀具有较强的阻隔压力波动的能力;然而对于采用自适应供油的脉冲爆震发动机,发动机点火后,由于压差,燃油液雾必然向上游流动,孔板型气动阀将处于可燃混合物中,较强的燃烧火焰穿越孔板时,孔板将担当起射流点火的作用,从而加速火焰的传播,最终破坏孔板阻隔压力回传的作用;增大孔板阻塞比可以减少燃油液雾的反流量,这有助于爆震室对进气系统的影响.     

代数重建法反演环电流分布的初步结果

TC-2卫星携带了高能中性原子成像仪.在理论上可以根据对中性原子的探测通过反演获得磁层中环电流的空间分布.开发了一种新的反演技术和算法来反演环电流的分布.文中将层析成像技术引入反演环电流区离子分布,把磁层空间环电流区域划分为网格并依据层析成像常用的代数重建法反演环电流的分布.反演前后的电流离子分布具有一致性,证实了这种反演方法的可行性.通过对比反演结果与初始分布,模型通过较少的假设和简单的步骤就可以获得全面的环电流信息.      

带二次流增推喷管的脉冲爆震发动机推进性能分析

为了研究带二次流喷管的脉冲爆震发动机的推进性能,结合广义一维流动模型和等容循环模型建立了对应的数学模型,对在二次流影响下的喷管推力系数进行了研究。计算结果表明:在定常流动中,若喷管几何构型不变,当喷管落压比小于一个临界值时,注入二次流可以提高其性能。在爆震循环中,若燃烧后压力一定,存在一个最佳扩张比的喷管,使发动机平均推力系数达到最大值,若二次流连续注入,当喷管的扩张比大于一个临界值时,注入二次流会提高发动机性能,但是不能提高其最大平均推力系数;采用间断注入二次流的方案,可以提高此燃烧后压力对应的最大平均推力系数,当燃烧后压力为5MPa时,提升率可以达到2.4%。     

Onset study of impulsive solar energetic particleevents

Impulsive solar energetic particle (SEP) events are associated with impulsive X-ray flares, energetic electrons,and enhanced heavy ion abundances. Using instruments on ACE, we have examined the composition and origin of twelve impulsive SEP events from November 1997 to June 2000. All selected impulsive SEP events have enhanced ³He/⁴He ratios compared with the solar wind values. The range of ³He/⁴He ratios varies from 0.01 to 7.8. By assuming scatter-free propagation at zero degree pitch-angle, we fitted the minimum particle path lengths (from 1.2 to 1.4 AU, as expected), and estimated the ion event release time back at the Sun to within better than 30 minutes in most cases. We found only four events in which the release times agree for both 38–50 keV electrons and <1 MeV/nucleon ions. Five of our events have significant differences (>40 minutes) between the electron and ion onset times, all with ions injected later. Three impulsive ion events have no association with any impulsive electron event. Seven events have associated solar electromagnetic signatures (Type III radio bursts and/or X-ray flares).     

脉冲爆震发动机多循环工作过程仿真及性能分析

针对脉冲爆震发动机零维性能模型的局限性,建立了火箭式脉冲爆震发动机(PDRE)多循环工作过程的一维非稳态仿真性能模型,仿真模型能够捕获PDRE的非定常的工作特征,可研究各种调节参数对PDRE性能的影响,通过模拟计算直管PDRE和带收敛扩张喷管PDRE在多循环工作过程中的压力分布及其性能参数,可以看到,由于循环过程之间的耦合性,使得多循环脉冲爆震发动机(PDE)的内部流场与单循环PDE有很大的不同;同时,同样进气条件下,PDRE要比常规火箭发动机有优势,对其工作频率和隔离气体使用量是有要求的。     

Unsteady aerodynamics and flow control for flapping wing flyers

The creation of micro air vehicles (MAVs) of the same general sizes and weight as natural fliers has spawned renewed interest in flapping wing flight. With a wingspan of approximately 15 cm and a flight speed of a few meters per second, MAVs experience the same low Reynolds number (10⁴–10⁵) flight conditions as their biological counterparts. In this flow regime, rigid fixed wings drop dramatically in aerodynamic performance while flexible flapping wings gain efficacy and are the preferred propulsion method for small natural fliers. Researchers have long realized that steady-state aerodynamics does not properly capture the physical phenomena or forces present in flapping flight at this scale. Hence, unsteady flow mechanisms must dominate this regime. Furthermore, due to the low flight speeds, any disturbance such as gusts or wind will dramatically change the aerodynamic conditions around the MAV. In response, a suitable feedback control system and actuation technology must be developed so that the wing can maintain its aerodynamic efficiency in this extremely dynamic situation; one where the unsteady separated flow field and wing structure are tightly coupled and interact nonlinearly. For instance, birds and bats control their flexible wings with muscle tissue to successfully deal with rapid changes in the flow environment. Drawing from their example, perhaps MAVs can use lightweight actuators in conjunction with adaptive feedback control to shape the wing and achieve active flow control. This article first reviews the scaling laws and unsteady flow regime constraining both biological and man-made fliers. Then a summary of vortex dominated unsteady aerodynamics follows. Next, aeroelastic coupling and its effect on lift and thrust are discussed. Afterwards, flow control strategies found in nature and devised by man to deal with separated flows are examined. Recent work is also presented in using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) actuators and angular speed variation to achieve active flow control for MAVs. Finally, an explanation for aerodynamic gains seen in flexible versus rigid membrane wings, derived from an unsteady three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model with an integrated distributed control algorithm, is presented.     

Fast alignment using rotation vector and adaptive Kalman filter

A fast and convenient alignment method is proposed. To improve the speed of convergence, we used rotation vectors instead of traditional Euler angles. Furthermore, we developed an algorithm to automatically tune the measurement noise covariance matrix using adaptive Kalman filtering. Finally, the developed algorithms were applied to an aerial imaging system to automatically geo-locate the centers of the images.