Coupling of system resource margins through the use of electric propulsion: Implications in preparing for the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta

The Dawn project is progressing toward its 2007 launch on a mission to orbit main belt asteroids (1) Ceres and (4) Vesta. Designed to provide insights into important questions about the evolution of the solar system, Dawn will spend more than 0.5 years in orbit about each of these bodies. This challenging mission is enabled by an ion propulsion system. In contrast to missions that use conventional chemical propulsion, the use of this system creates a strong coupling of allowable flight system mass and available power, thereby requiring different methods of managing these and other technical resources. Now that the project is nearing launch, the refinement of resource estimates allows the identification of excess margin, which is being applied in novel ways to benefit the project both in development and in operations.     

论“环境教育”在高校成才教育体系中的重要作用

环境,是人们生存和发展的外部条件,人在社会中不能孤立存在,而要受到环境潜移默化的影响。大学生处于性格成长的重要阶段,对外界环境充满兴趣又极为敏感。高校教育者可以利用环境对大学生的作用激发他们在思维方式、行为方式方面的良好意识,培养出大学生积极的情感取向、性格特点、价值观念和生活态度,引导他们成长成才。     

Flexible piloted Mars missions using the TIHTUS engine

The present investigation points out the potential of continuously propelled spacecraft for piloted Mars missions and compares them to impulsive propulsion (chemical and nuclear thermal) and ballistic trajectories. Although the results are related to piloted Mars missions, the stated issues raised hold true for a broad range of space missions. It is demonstrated that the use of impulsive propulsion leads to inflexible missions and may result in long total mission durations. Meanwhile, the use of continuous electric propulsion not only guarantees short total mission durations of Mars missions with moderate masses but also results in highly flexible missions. These criteria can be met with a continuous electric propulsion system that provides a thrust level of 100 N and 3000 s of specific impulse. Great potential lies in electric hybrid thrusters. The high-power, two-stage hybrid plasma thruster TIHTUS is currently being developed at the Institute of Space Systems (IRS). Its technology including preliminary laboratory testing results are presented.     

Response: Against manned space flight programs

Richard Rovetto has done a good job of assembling various arguments that are commonly advanced for a program of manned space flight. I will take them up one by one, and explain why I find them all unconvincing.     

Recent advance on design and manufacturing of composite anisogrid structures for space launchers

Anisogrid composite shells have been developed and applied since the eighties by the Russian technology aiming at critical weight structures for space launchers, as interstages and cone adapters. The manufacturing process commonly applied is based on the wet filament winding. The paper concerns with some developments of design and manufacturing recently performed at the Italian Aerospace Research Center on a cylindrical structural model representative of this kind of structures. The framework of preliminary design is improved by introducing the concept of suboptimal configuration in order to match the stiffness requirement of the shell and minimise the mass, in conjunction with the typical strength constraints. The undertaken manufacturing process is based on dry robotic winding for the lattice structure and for the outer skin, with the aid of usual rubber tooling and new devices for the automated deposition strategy. Resin infusion under vacuum bag and co-cure of the system of ribs and skin is finally applied out-of-autoclave, with the aid of a heated mandrel. With such approach an interstage structural model (scale factor 1:1.5) has been designed, manufactured and tested. Design requirements and loads refer to a typical space launcher whose baseline configuration is made in aluminium. The global mechanical test of the manufactured structure has confirmed the expected high structural performance. The possibility to reach substantial weight savings in comparison with the aluminium benchmark has been fully demonstrated.     

SETI implications of gravitational assist via chaotic trajectories of binary objects

Extrapolating from the technique of gravitational assist via chaotic trajectories of binary objects, this paper considers how such techniques might be used in other systems. We examine which types of systems are the best candidates for harvesting gravitational energy for payload ejection. We also consider what signatures might be present in either the asteroid orbits or radiation of the central body if extraterrestrial intelligences were to use such techniques about these candidate systems.The simulation studies show that current technology cannot approach the sensitivity needed to detect either of these signals. Instead, we provide these results as guidance to studies in coming decades on patterns that may indicate the use of an asteroid ejection system.     

Urban growth assessment around Winam Gulf of Kenya based on satellite imagery

Urban growth and population dynamics are among the most critical information needed for future economic development planning, natural resources allocation and environmental management. In the present work, two methods, the first based on night-time images produced by NOAA and population maps provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) LandScan, and the second one on SAR imagery, were used in order to assess the expansion of urban areas surrounding the Winam Gulf (Lake Victoria, Kenya) at different scales. In the time covered by night-time lights imagery, the study highlighted a period of constant growth rate between 2002 and 2006 and a negative trend after 2006 and 2008. This decrease may be related to two main events occurring in the study area between 2006 and 2007: the decline of the Lake Victoria level and the abnormal proliferation of the floating weeds within the Winam Gulf. Meanwhile, the urban feature extraction obtained at a different scale within a particular district from 1997 up to 2008 results in a constant growth rate. Population movements around this zone explain different dynamics that should be studied in detail in order to understand their particular roots.     

Low light intensity effects on the growth,photosynthetic characteristics,antioxidant capacity,yield and quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at different growth stages in BLSS

Minimizing energy consumption and maximizing crop productivity are major challenges to growing plants in Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) for future long-term space mission. As a primary source of energy, light is one of the most important environmental factors for plant growth. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of low light intensity at different stages on growth, pigment composition, photosynthetic efficiency, biological production and antioxidant defence systems of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars during ontogenesis. Experiments were divided into 3 intensity-controlled stages according to growth period (a total of 65 days): seedling stage (first 20 days), heading and flowering stage (middle 30 days) and grain filling stage (last 15 days). Initial light condition of the control was 420 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ and the light intensity increased with the growth of wheat plants. The light intensities of group I and II at the first stage and the last stage were adjusted to the half level of the control respectively. For group III, the first and the last stage were both adjusted to half level of the control. During the middle 30 days, all treatments were kept the same intensity. The results indicated that low-light treatment at seedling stage, biomass, nutritional contents, components of inedible biomass and healthy index (including peroxidase (POD) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline content) of wheat plants have no significant difference to the control. Furthermore, unit kilojoule yield of group I reached 0.591 × 10⁻³ g/kJ and induced the highest energy efficiency. However, low-light treatment at grain filling stage affected the final production significantly.     

Aero-thermo-elastic Numerical Calculation and Analysis of Spinning Rocket

The application of computational fluid dynamics/computational solid method （CFD/CSM） on solving the aero-thermo-elastic problem of spinning rocket is introduced. Firstly, the aerodynamic coefficients of a rocket are calculated, and the results are compared with the available experimental data, which verified the accuracy of the CFD output. Then, analysis is carried using ANSYS Workbench multi-physics coupling platform, which includes fluid, thermal, and structural solvers. The results show that spinning causes a significant effect on the de formations and stresses. Furthermore, thermal stresses due to high temperature at the rocket warhead and tail edges have a dominated effect, even more than those produced by aerodynamic forces. Consequently, this important outcome should be taken into consideration during the rocket design stages.     

Design for aircraft engine multi-objective controllers with switching characteristics

The aircraft engine multi-loop control system is described and the switching control theory is introduced to solve the regulating and protecting control problems in this paper. The aircraft engine multi-loop control system is firstly described and the control problems are formulated. Secondly, the theory of the smooth switching control is devoted and a new extended scheme for the smooth switching of a switched control system is introduced. Then, for the key technologies of aero-engines switching control, a design algorithm is presented which can determine which candidate controller should be put in feedback with the plant to achieve a desired performance and the procedure to design the aircraft engine multi-loop control system is detailed. The switching performance objectives and the switching scheme are given and a family of PID controllers and compensators is designed. The simulation shows that using the switching control design method can not only improve the dynamic performance of the aircraft engine control system and reduce the switching times, but also guarantee the stability in some peculiar occasions.