InSight Mars Lander Robotics Instrument Deployment System

The InSight Mars Lander is equipped with an Instrument Deployment System (IDS) and science payload with accompanying auxiliary peripherals mounted on the Lander. The InSight science payload includes a seismometer (SEIS) and Wind and Thermal Shield (WTS), heat flow probe (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, HP³) and a precision tracking system (RISE) to measure the size and state of the core, mantle and crust of Mars. The InSight flight system is a close copy of the Mars Phoenix Lander and comprises a Lander, cruise stage, heatshield and backshell. The IDS comprises an Instrument Deployment Arm (IDA), scoop, five finger “claw” grapple, motor controller, arm-mounted Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), lander-mounted Instrument Context Camera (ICC), and control software. IDS is responsible for the first precision robotic instrument placement and release of SEIS and HP³ on a planetary surface that will enable scientists to perform the first comprehensive surface-based geophysical investigation of Mars’ interior structure. This paper describes the design and operations of the Instrument Deployment Systems (IDS), a critical subsystem of the InSight Mars Lander necessary to achieve the primary scientific goals of the mission including robotic arm geology and physical properties (soil mechanics) investigations at the Landing site. In addition, we present test results of flight IDS Verification and Validation activities including thermal characterization and InSight 2017 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO), Deployment Scenario Test at Lockheed Martin, Denver, where all the flight payloads were successfully deployed with a balloon gravity offload fixture to compensate for Mars to Earth gravity.     

A digital quadrature demodulation system

Existing digital quadrature demodulation techniques sample the input at either 2B Hz or 4B Hz, select the even samples as the in-phase (I), and interpolate the odd samples to give the quadrature (Q), output. The signal bandwidth is B. We propose a demodulation system to produce I and Q samples at arbitrary sampling rate greater than 2B Hz. The system eliminates the IF downconversion step with a special sampling scheme. The even samples correspond to the I component, while the Q components are the filtered output. The filter can be a lowpass or least squares (LS) filter. The lowpass filter design is based on trade-offs between the filter length and the degree of oversampling. It produces similar results as previous work when the sampling rate is 2B Hz or 4B Hz. Unlike existing methods which assume the input is white, a LS filter, on the other hand, can make use of input signal characteristics to achieve a better result. The higher the correlation in the input the larger the improvement. The cost for LS filtering is a coefficient update step if the input is time varying. A scheme to cancel dc offset from analog to digital (A/D) converters is also given     

Matching trajectory optimization and nonlinear tracking control for HALE

This paper concerns optimal trajectory generation and nonlinear tracking control for stratospheric airship platform of VIA-200. To compensate for the mismatch between the point-mass model of optimal trajectory and the 6-DOF model of the nonlinear tracking problem, a new matching trajectory optimization approach is proposed. The proposed idea reduces the dissimilarity of both problems and reduces the uncertainties in the nonlinear equations of motion for stratospheric airship. In addition, its refined optimal trajectories yield better results under jet stream conditions during flight. The resultant optimal trajectories of VIA-200 are full three-dimensional ascent flight trajectories reflecting the realistic constraints of flight conditions and airship performance with and without a jet stream. Finally, 6-DOF nonlinear equations of motion are derived, including a moving wind field, and the vectorial backstepping approach is applied. The desirable tracking performance is demonstrated that application of the proposed matching optimization method enables the smooth linkage of trajectory optimization to tracking control problems.     

Medium resolution near-infrared spectra of the host galaxies of nearby quasars

We present medium resolution near-infrared host galaxy spectra of low redshift quasars, PG 0844+349$0844+349$ (z = 0.064), PG 1226+023$1226+023$ (z = 0.158), and PG 1426+015$1426+015$ (z = 0.086). The observations were done by using the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) at the Subaru 8.2 m telescope. The full width at half maximum of the point spread function was about 0.3 arcsec by operations of an adaptive optics system, which can effectively resolve the quasar spectra from the host galaxy spectra. We spent up to several hours per target and developed data reduction methods to reduce the systematic noises of the telluric emissions and absorptions. From the obtained spectra, we identified absorption features of Mg I (1.503 μm), Si I (1.589 μm) and CO (6-3) (1.619 μm), and measured the velocity dispersions of PG 0844+349$0844+349$ to be 132 ± 110 km s⁻¹ and PG 1426+015$1426+015$ to be 264 ± 215 km s⁻¹. By using an _MBH–σ$M_{\text{BH}}''–''\sigma$ relation of elliptical galaxies, we derived the black hole (BH) mass of PG 0844+349$0844+349$, log(_MBH/_M⊙)=7.7±5.5$\log (M_{\text{BH}}/M_{\odot })=7.7\pm 5.5$ and PG 1426+015,log(_MBH/_M⊙)=9.0±7.5$1426+015\text{,}\log (M_{\text{BH}}/M_{\odot })=9.0\pm 7.5$. These values are consistent with the BH mass values from broad emission lines with an assumption of a virial factor of 5.5.     

Heat transfer of thermocapillary convection in a two-layered fluid system under the influence of magnetic field

Heat transfer of a two-layer fluid system has been of great importance in a variety of industrial applications. For example, the phenomena of immiscible fluids can be found in materials processing and heat exchangers. Typically in solidification from a melt, the convective motion is the dominant factor that affects the uniformity of material properties. In the layered flow, thermocapillary forces can come into an important play, which was first emphasized by a previous investigator in 1958. Under extraterrestrial environments without gravity, thermocapillary effects can be a more dominant factor, which alters material properties in processing. Control and optimization of heat transfer in an immiscible fluid system need complete understanding of the flow phenomena that can be induced by surface tension at a fluid interface. The present work is focused on understanding of the magnetic field effects on thermocapillary convection, in order to optimize material processing. That is, it involves the study of the complicated phenomena to alter the flow motion in crystal growth. In this effort, the Marangoni convection in a cavity with differentially heated sidewalls is investigated with and without the influence of a magnetic field. As a first step, numerical analyzes are performed, by thoroughly investigating influences of all pertinent physical parameters. Experiments are then conducted, with preliminary results, for comparison with the numerical analyzes.     

CCF300/5228A复合材料RFI成型工艺参数

采用经过改性的低成本树脂膜熔渗工艺(RFI)用5228A高温环氧树脂体系,以国产纤维CCF300碳纤维为增强材料,对改性后的RFI专用5228A环氧树脂体系的RFI工艺参数进行研究。对5228A树脂体系RFI成型的全部过程中渗透浸渍纤维和树脂固化成型两个基本工艺的树脂体系的黏温性能、浸渍压力、CCF300纤维预制体的压缩特性以及固化动力学和固化工艺参数等因素的研究表明:改性后的RFI专用5228A环氧树脂体系能够完全满足RFI工艺的要求。RFI专用CCF300/5228A碳纤维复合材料的最佳浸渍工艺为(125±3)℃,(0.1±0.02)MPa下,保温90min;树脂固化成型的最佳工艺参数为:加压至(0.5±0.02)MPa,然后升温至(190±3)℃,恒温90min。整个工艺过程中的升温速率保持在1~1.5℃/min之间。